Of the four Gospel authors, who appears to be the most concerned with Jewish history and Jesus’ links to the Old Testament / Hebrew Scripture? Who makes a point of including numerous references to the OT prophecies fulfilled by Jesus, a birth narrative that remarkably resembles Moses’ birth, and phenomenal events – signs from the stars, angels delivering messages from above, unexplainable natural disasters, the resurrection of the dead – to show that Jesus is the promised Messiah, in the line of David (Brown 205, 206)?
The answer, of course, is Matthew!
In fact, Matthew incorporates about 14 different Scriptural references, and over half of those refer to the Book of Isaiah. This makes Matthew stand out from Mark and Luke, as although their Gospels are also classified as Synoptic, Matthew takes a more structured approach to connecting specific OT prophecies to Jesus fulfilling them (Brown 207).
Matthew also shows that even the devil himself is familiar with OT Scripture, and that Jesus is quick to use Scripture in return to rebut the devil’s temptations (Senior et al. 1341). What’s just as striking is the narrative built around the Scriptural reference: Continuing with the same example of Jesus spending 40 days in the desert and facing the devil’s various temptations, 40 days and 40 years are key periods of time used throughout Scripture, and mostly in the OT.
For instance, Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai, where he would establish the Covenant central to Judaism. And while this matches the amount of time Jesus spent in the desert, the Catholic Study Bible suggests that because Israel faced temptations as part of 40 years also spent in the desert, this parallel is closer to the narrative that Matthew 4:1-11 details. In addition, when Satan finally goes for broke by trying to bribe Jesus into worshipping him, this may parallel Israel’s proclivity to worship pagan gods instead of Yahweh, as Deuteronomy 6:13-14 reveals, and to which Jesus quotes as part of telling Satan to get out of his sight (1341).
Brown describes all OT references in Matthew’s Gospel as clearly intentional, including that it may have been geared toward Christian readers, or at least as a way to help the early Christian audience understand that Jesus’ entire life and teachings were all part of God’s ultimate plan (207).
Works Cited
Brown, Raymond. An Introduction to the New Testament. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.
Senior, Donald, et al. The Catholic Study Bible. Oxford University Press, 2016.