Charlene McAfee Moss Zechariah Tradition and the Gospel of Matthew

Annotation

The Zechariah Tradition and the Gospel of Matthew is a comprehensive study of the ways Matthew utilizes Zechariah texts and traditions. Against the background of materials from Qumran, and apocryphal and deuterocanonical writings Matthews explicit citations of Zechariah are examined; the influence of Zechariah elsewhere in the First Gospel is identified; and the extent to which Matthew alludes to characteristic Zechariah themes, alone or in combination with other prophetic traditions, is explored. Zechariah traditions appear in Matthews distinctive materials, as well as in texts Matthew has transmitted, or altered, from Mark and Q.The impact of Zech 9-14 is not limited to the Passion Narrative but extends through Matthews Infancy and Galilean healing narratives, as well; important concepts from Zech 1-8 are also discerned in the Infancy and Passion Narratives. Moss works through the canonical order of Matthew; this enables readers to appreciate the cumulative effect of Zechariahs influence at each stage of the Gospel story.Two appendices, one arranged according to Zechariah and the other to Matthew, list possible references to Zechariah in Matthew. This monograph is useful for Matthean studies and it is an insightful investigation of how one set of Old Testamental traditions are appropriated in one canonical Gospel and in the New Testament.