In this book, Erik Waaler discusses how Matthew uses the Old Testament in the first four chapters of the gospel to describe Jesus as the Christ. He shows how the author of Matthew played with the Old Testament text to get this message through, for example by using the genealogy to defend the chastity of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
In this book, Erik Waaler discusses how Matthew uses the Old Testament in Matthew 1-4 to describe Jesus as the Christ. He debates the intricate system of changes that occur when a text is moved from one literary context to another and criticizes the current terminology of quotation, allusion, and echo for being too simplistic. Issues like worldview, metalepsis, different sociological, historic and linguistic contexts and development all have to be taken into consideration, he argues, as do the influence of both traditional interpretations known to Matthew and his primary audience as well as the intentional and unintentional changes this interaction causes. These different methodological approaches are then applied to the study of recontextualization of the Old Testament in Matthew 1-4.
Table of contents:
1. Intertextuality
2. Deconstruction of Quotation, Allusion and Echo
3. Exegetical Change as a Multidimensional Activity
4. Explicit Reference in the Gospel of Matthew
5. Paratext: Book Opening Based on Genesis (Matt 1:1)
6. Matthew's Genealogy Read as Exegetical Change
7. Recontextualisation in the Infancy Story
8. The Nazorean: Matt 2:23
9. The Baptist as the Forerunner of Jesus
10. The Temptation Narrative
11. General Conclusion
