Wim J.C. Weren, «The Macrostructure of Matthew’s Gospel: A New Proposal», Vol. 87 (2006) 171-200
The weakness of the proposals concerning the macrostructure of Matthew’s
Gospel made by Bacon and Kingsbury is that they depart from rigid caesuras,
whilst a typical characteristic of the composition of this Gospel is the relatively
smooth flow of the story. On the basis of the discovery that the various
topographical data are clustered together by means of three refrains we can
distinguish three patterns in the travels undertaken by Jesus. This rather coarse
structure is further refined with the use of Matera’s and Carter’s distinction
between kernels and satellites. Kernels are better labelled as “hinge texts”. The
following pericopes belong to this category: 4,12-17; 11,2-30; 16,13-28; 21,1-17;
26,1-16. Each of them marks a turning point in the plot and has a double function:
a hinge text is not only fleshed out in the subsequent pericopes but also refers to
the preceding block. It is especially these “hinge texts” that underline the
continuity of Matthew’s narrative and should prevent us from focussing too much
on alleged caesuras.
172 Wim J.C. Weren
present a complete description of the status quaestionis here but will
restrict myself to a number of representative examples (sections 1 and
2). In section 3, I will present a new proposal for the structure of
Matthew.
1. Narrative blocs and discourses alternate
According to B.W. Bacon, Matthew has divided his gospel, by
analogy to the books of Moses, into five blocs, which are so
independent of each other that they can be considered as five books (4).
He bases this idea on two phenomena. The first is that a discourse by
Jesus is concluded five times with a stereotypical formula (kai; ejgevneto
ote ejtevlesen ktl. in 7,28; 11,1; 13,53; 19,1; 26,1); according to Bacon,
{
this formula introduces a deep caesura in the text. The second
phenomenon is that each discourse (D) is preceded by an introductory
narrative section (N) that always forms a whole with the relevant
discourse. In total, this pattern (N + D) occurs five times, so that
Matthew consists of five books, of which the first begins in 3,1 and the
last ends in 25,46. The five books are framed by a preamble (Matt 1–2)
and an epilogue (Matt 26–28). In a scheme:
Preamble 1,1–2,23
Book 1 3,1–4,25 (N) and 5,1–7,27 (D); formula: 7,28-29
Book 2 8,1–9,35 (N) and 9,36–10,42 (D); formula: 11,1
Book 3 11,2–12,50 (N) and 13,1-52 (D); formula: 13,53
Book 4 13,54–17,20 (N) and 17,22–18,35 (D); formula: 19,1a
Book 5 19,1b–22,46 (N) and 23,1–25,46 (D); formula: 26,1
Epilogue 26,3–28,20
The view of Matthew’s Gospel consisting of five books has been
supported by literary analyses of C.R. Smith (5). His two main
arguments are: 1. the Gospel of Matthew alternates between narrative
and discourse, and 2. each narrative introduces a theme on which the
following discourse subsequently expounds. The Gospel’s underlying
principle is constituted by five consecutive narrative-discourse pairs,
in each of which a specific theme relating to the Kingdom is being
elaborated.
(4) B.W. BACON, “The Five Books of Matthew Against the Jewsâ€, The
Expositor VIII, 85 (1918) 56-66; ID, Studies in Matthew (New York 1930).
Largely followed by R.E. BROWN, An Introduction to the New Testament (The
Anchor Bible Reference Library; New York 1997) 172.
(5) C.R. SMITH, “Literary Evidence of a Fivefold Structure in the Gospel of
Matthewâ€, NTS 43 (1997) 540-551.
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