Abstract
The passion narrative of Jesus as told by Matthew is a verbal enunciation which finds its place next to other passion narratives in which the narrator lets the protagonist use the words of the '1' person of Psalm 22 and in which the narrator describes internal and external conflicts with the words of the Psalm. Against the background of the Greek Septuagint and the Aramaic text in the Targum, parallel to what the hymnist of Qumran tries to do and the narrator of the story about Aseneth, based on the narrative as we find it in Mark, Matthew took Psalm 22 as anchor for his story. What is described in the Psalm, happens in the life and death of Jesus. To approach Jesus' passion more closely, Matthew used poetic language: words on words on words. The passion and death of Jesus has thus become literature, an ambiguous attempt to express the impossible. The question, 'how can one maintain today compassion against the forces of violence?', is the concern of the article.
Highlights
The passion narrative of Jesus as told by Matthew is a verbal enunciation which finds its place next to other passion narratives in which the narrator lets the protagonist use the words of the '1' person of Psalm 22 and in which the narrator describes internal and external conflicts with the words of the Psalm
Against the background of the Greek Septuagint and the Aramaic text in the Targum, parallel to what the hymnist of Qumran tries to do and the narrator of the story about Aseneth, based on the narrative as we find it in Mark, Matthew took Psalm 22 as anchor for his story
I cannot see all the aspects of the South African context but I have prepared myself by studying the Kairos Document, the document edited by the Centre of Hermeneutics in Stellenbosch, The option for inclusive democracy; by reading W Mande la's Ein stïik meiner S eek ging mit ihm, and the Festschrift presented by South African New Testament scholars to Professor Bruce Metzger
Summary
The time has come to discuss the story itself: the passion narrative as told to us by Matthew. From the .point of view of the narrative there does not seem to be a problem: scene follows scene and one knows exactly, as a listener, what is what; a scene of mockery by soldiers, there is the story of the crucifixion with the comments of the by-standers and the death scene with cosmic happening and at the end the testimony of the centurion and his troops. I know how tempting it is to use this parallel text in order to pinpoint Matthew's own point of view by comparing the similarities and differences It is a possible way of reading the text following the results of Form- and Redaktionsgeschichte (Senior 1975). Matthew's narrative does not quote from other texts This is true even for the words which Jesus cries aloud ' . For later listeners and readers, he uses words from Psalm 22 and Matthew tells his narrative using words from Psalm 22, but in itself this is not true for the story itself
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