People of the Land Conference at Georgetown University

Last updated on: April 30, 2015 at 8:34 pm by Joel Willitts

People of the Land Conference at Georgetown University 2015-04-30T20:34:58-04:00 Joel Willitts

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A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of participating in an important discussion on the question of Israel and the Land. The conference was sponsored by the Institute for Religion and Democracy in D.C. and the conference was held at Georgetown University. Here is a segment of the day long conference which included presentations in addition to me, by Mark Kinzer and David Rudolph. Our focus was on the New Testament and the place of the land of Israel in Matthew, Luke-Acts and Paul. The title of my contribution was “Do the People of Israel and the Land of Israel Persist as Abiding Concerns in the Gospel of Matthew?”

The papers will be published in a forthcoming IVP book called People of the Land.

The outline of my essay:

Do the People of Israel and the Land of Israel Persist as Abiding Concerns in the Gospel of Matthew?

וּבָא לְאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל
ûḇāʾ lᵉʾereṣ yiśrāʾēl
Matt 2:21 (MHNT)

“Does this return signal the beginning of the redemption . . . These are difficult questions to answer . . . But that some time Israel will return to the land which it has been promised by God cannot be in question
because God has so promised.”
Michael Wyschogrod

I. Matthew’s Early Jewish Context
“The land of Israel” (Matt 2:20, 21)

II. Matthew’s Narrative-Geographical Orientation
“Land of Israel” (Matt 2:22)
“Land of Zebulon and Land of Naphtali” (Matt 4:13)

III. Matthew’s Davidic Messianism
“The Lost Sheep of the House of Israel” (Matt 10:6; 15:24)

IV. Matthew’s Turfed Kingdom
“Many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 8:12)
“The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom” (Matt 21:43)

V. Matthew’s Jerusalem and Temple
“The holy city” (Matt 4:5; 27:53)
“Jerusalem . . . you will not see me again until . . .” (Matt 23:37)

VI. Matthew’s Atonement
“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt 26:27)

VII. Matthew’s Eschatology
“For they will inherit the land” (Matt 5:5)
“You who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matt 19:28)

Conclusion: Matthew’s Early Wirkungsgeschichte
“The Ebionites, heirs of the Jewish error, share with the Jews a materialistic expectation of a coming kingdom” (Jerome, In Esaiam 66:20)
“Those who are called Ebionites . . . use the Gospel according to Matthew only” (Irenaeus, Haer. 1.26.2)

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