If one can speak of a “New Perspective” on Paul that reassesses the apostle's relationship to Judaism, then the same could be said of this splendid study, which represents a newer perspective on Matthew's Gospel, providing a fresh reading of this Gospel's missiology and ecclesiology. First published in German in 2007 and ably translated by Kathleen Ess, this English version slightly abridges some details from the original edition but also updates its bibliography. Konradt, professor of New Testament at Ruprecht-Karls University in Heidelberg, sets out to address two key and interrelated issues in Matthean theology: what is the cause “for the transition from the Israel-centered, pre-Easter ministry of Jesus and his disciples to the universal mission post-Easter and the relationship between the formation of the Church and Israel's role as God's chosen nation” (xi)?
It is clear that Matthew's Gospel explicitly confines Jesus’ mission to Israel in the body of the Gospel, as stated in such texts as 10:6 and 15:24, while the disciples are sent by the risen Christ to “all nations” in the Gospel's concluding scene (28:19). It is also clear that the Gospel maintains a sharp polemic with the Jewish religious authorities, and the parable of the vineyard concludes with a prediction of the transfer of care of the vineyard from those failed leaders to a new people (21:43). Additionally, in the notorious acclamation of the “people as a whole” (27:25), the crowds seem to join their leaders in condemning Jesus.
Matthean texts such as these led traditional exegesis (some of which is still in force) to interpret Matthew's turn to the “nations” at the end of the Gospel as prompted by the failure of the mission to Israel and, for many interpreters, as a signal that the mission to Israel had now ended because of Jewish rejection of the gospel. Consequently, the (mainly Gentile) church takes the place of Israel as God's people, making Matthew's Gospel a warrant for supersessionism, emanating from a Gentile-oriented church that had severed its ties to its Jewish roots.
Konradt's careful reading of the Gospel from a very different vantage point—along with a growing number of studies in this direction—demonstrates that such a reading grossly misinterprets Matthew's theology. The tensions evident within Matthew's narrative are not between Gentiles and Jews but rather represent an intra-Jewish debate between Jews who had faith in Jesus as the Davidic Messiah and Son of God and those Jews, particularly the religious authorities, who rejected such a claim. The emphasis on Jesus’ earthly mission to Israel springs not only from historical probability but from a theological conviction of the evangelist and his community about the identity of Israel as God's chosen people. The mission discourse of chapter 10 confirms that the mission of the disciples to proclaim Jesus and his message to Israel remains valid and enduring (10:23). The post-Easter mission to the nations is not “plan B,” taking place because the mission to Israel failed; rather, the mission to the nations is the flowering of the mission to Israel and expresses God's original plan of salvation extended to the world through Israel. Likewise, the church or ekklesia formed of the disciples of Jesus—both Jew and Gentile—does not substitute for Israel as God's chosen people but is a new entity altogether, “the community of salvation that comes into existence in the framework of the eschatological gathering or restitution of the people of God, as well as in the framework of the mission to the Gentiles” (379).
Konradt's erudite and cogent study of Matthew addresses all those texts that were problematic for interpreters of Matthew. Thus, the contrast between failed leaders and the “people that produces the fruit of the kingdom” in 21:43 is not between Jews and Gentiles but between the Jewish authorities and disciples of Jesus (Jew and Gentile). The crowds who, in contrast to their leaders, respond favorably to Jesus in Matthew's text do not represent Israel suddenly turning against him at the trial before Pilate. Rather, the crowd here is the people of Jerusalem, the city that “kills the prophets” (23:37), who under the influence of the leaders reject Jesus and will suffer for this sin in the coming destruction of the city. But, Konradt notes, Jerusalem is not the whole of Israel, and in Galilee the people turn to Jesus for healing and forgiveness throughout his ministry.
This exemplary study of Matthew's theology has significance not only for an accurate interpretation of this Gospel but also for opening new horizons for the contemporary Christian-Jewish dialogue.
