Telling Tales About Jesus by Warren Carter

Author:Warren Carter
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-5064-0811-8
Publisher: Fortress Press (NBN)
Published: 2016-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Significantly, Matthew’s Gospel removes positive references to synagogues from both Mark and Q sources. Mark presents a positive description of Jairus, who seeks Jesus’ help to heal his daughter and, when news of her death arrives, chooses to believe Jesus’ words rather than fear (Mark 5:21-43). Mark refers three times to Jairus as a “leader of the synagogue” (Mark 5:22, 36, 38). Matthew, though, omits these three references, leaving out any reference to a synagogue and describing Jairus as “a leader” but without stipulating what or who he leads (Matt. 9:18, 23). Strangely, the NRSV translation, probably under the influence of Mark, supplies the phrase “leader of the synagogue” in Matt. 9:18, with a note saying that the Greek lacks the phrase “of the synagogue”!

Matthew makes a similar omission from a Q story. The story of the healing of the believing centurion’s servant introduces the centurion as one who loves the Jewish people and “it is he who built our synagogue for us” (Luke 7:5). Matthew maintains the emphasis on the centurion’s faith in Jesus but completely removes from the Q source the description of his benefaction to the synagogue (Matt. 8:6-7).

A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.” And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house. . . . (Luke 7:2-6) When.he.entered.Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible distress.”

And he said to him, “I will come and cure him.” (Matt. 8:5-7)

Taken together, these consistent and often detailed changes throughout the Gospel emphasize a negative presentation of the alliance of Jewish leaders.

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