MATTHEW: INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERARY STRUCTURE

Below is an abstract of the detailed analysis of the Book of Matthew found in my unpublished book The Structure of Scripture. The original chapter will be sent to those requesting it at elmerphd21@hotmail.com.

Any survey of the literature on this gospel account will reveal that scholars are united in praising Matthew’s organizational skills – “an author with an astonishingly orderly mind,” in Guthrie’s words.  On the other hand, there is a surprising diversity to the various structures that have been proposed for this work. Osborne notes, “I am in the process of doing a major commentary on Matthew and am quite discouraged by the unbelievable plethora of suggestions regarding the outline of the book. I am even more discouraged over how many of them sound plausible.” 

For convenience sake, the primary approaches may be categorized as follows: (a) the older geographical or chronological divisions – nearly abandoned in recent years with the exception of R. T. France's proposal; (b) topical, “conceptual” or linear structures, which are not structures in the sense employed in this structural study and will not be further discussed; (c) five-part organizations based on the similar statements that conclude the major discourses in the book; (d) three-part divisions based on two similar introductory statements in the text; (e) combinations of the last two approaches; and (f) chiastic structures. These last four types are discussed below.

Five-Part Divisions

This view is perhaps the most popular. It begins by recognition of five similar statements in the book, each of which directly follows a block of discourse material.

“And when Jesus finished these sayings...” (7:28)

            “And when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples...” (11:1)

            “And when Jesus had finished these parables...” (13:53)

            “Now when Jesus had finished these sayings...” (19:1)

            “When Jesus had finished all these sayings...” (26:1)

The discourses which precede these pronouncements are well recognized to be arranged topically and to cover subjects that are, respectively, ethical, missionary, kergymatic (preaching the gospel), ecclesiastical and eschatological. Those who hold that these passages constitute the main structural markers for Matthew’s composition generally emphasize Jesus’ teaching ministry over his identity as the Son of God as the major theme of the Gospel. According to this view, Jesus is portrayed as the new Moses throughout the book, especially in his giving the fulfilled law to the people in five discourses that parallel the books of the Pentateuch.

With the above markers to start with, one would expect formulation of an overall structure for the Gospel to be relatively simple. Unfortunately, there are still several issues to deal with:

1. The bounds of the Infancy Narratives must be determined.

            2. The indicators of where the five discourses begin are not as clear as where they conclude.

            3. The relationship between the teaching and narrative sections is sometimes muddy.

Because of these uncertainties, a number of different five-part proposals have been put forth. Gundry’s divisions are representative of those schemes pairing up each discourse section with a preceding narrative:

Part             Narrative                 Discourse

A                 3:1-4:25                  5:1-7:29

B                 8:1-9:34                  9:35-11:1

C                 11:2-12:50             13:1-52

D                 13:53-17:27           18:1-35

E                 19:1-22:46             23:1-25:46

On the other hand, Bauer feels that the five formulas clearly connect the preceding discourses with the narratives that directly follow as well as with what precedes.  Many objections to any five-part method of dividing the Gospel have been voiced in the literature.

Three-Part Divisions

At two points in the text, similar statements appear to signal the beginning of major literary units.

“From that time Jesus began to preach...” (Matthew 4:17)

“From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must...suffer.” (Matthew 16:21)

Thus, these marker passages could be said to herald, respectively, the preaching ministry and the Passion story. According to this view, a process of elimination defines Matthew 1:1-4:16 as the first major unit, dealing with the pre-ministry events in Jesus’ life. An interesting contrast results from this approach in that the second division (4:17-16:20) ends with Jesus instructing his disciples to tell no one that he is the Christ while the last major section of the book (16:21-28:20) ends as the risen Christ tells his followers to go and make disciples of all nations. Childs dismisses this three-part structure, attributed to Krantz, as having met with little reception elsewhere.  However, a major breakpoint in the text after 16:20 was recognized as early as E. W. Bullinger.  An increasing number of modern scholars appear to have adopted this basic view as the starting point for more detailed proposals even though many objections to this scheme have also been offered.

Combination of Three- and Five-fold Structures

Kingsbury and Blomberg have differing structural proposals for treating the three-fold divisions as primary to the Gospel while also taking into account the five-fold structural indicators. Neither structure has met with widespread acceptance.

Chiastic Structures

Many scholars have pointed out parallels between the Infancy and Passion Narratives. These similarities are obvious and numerous enough to warrant the supposition that they are purposeful. If so, it is attractive to look for further examples of parallel sections within the rest of the book that might reveal an overall chiastic structure. Several such schemes have been proposed in the past, but the present scheme was derived by first determining the bounds on the individual literary units by looking for signs of topical coherence, chiasm and inclusio. Only then was it possible to adequately define the overall chiastic structure pictured in Fig. 1. Numerous verbal and thematic parallels between the matched sections helped to confirm this organization.

Figure 1: The Structure of the Gospel of Matthew

I. Birth and Preparation for Ministry (1:1-4:17)

    II. Early Ministry [in Galilee] (4:18-8:34)

        III. Ministry and Conflict (9:1-12:45)

            IV. Teaching in Parables (12:46-13:58)

                V. Contrasting Responses to Jesus (14:1-16:4)

            VI. Jesus' Identity (16:5-17:23)

        VII. Late Ministry [in Jerusalem] (17:24-23:39)

    VIII. Eschatological Discourse (chs. 24-25)

IX. Death and Resurrection (chs. 26-28)

Additional confirmation of this view is seen in the common observation that Matthew’s Gospel is bracketed by the reference in the Prologue (1:23) to Jesus as Emmanuel (“God with us”) and his assurance that ends the book: “I am with you always.” These two passages point to a kergymatic message as the heart of Matthew’s presentation.