"Who Is This?" Narration of the Divine Identity of Jesus in Matthew 21:10—17

Abstract

Abstract This essay attends to the Christological significance of Jesus' use of Scripture by focusing on the intertextual dynamics of Matt 21:10–17. When Jesus speaks the words of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Psalms, he does not merely cite these texts to justify his prophetic actions. Rather, Jesus' use of these texts pressures readers of Matthew to understand that Jesus speaks about himself as God's Son. Furthermore, Matthew's narration of the divine identity of Jesus as the Son of God in Matt 21:10–17 coheres with the Son of God Christology throughout the first Gospel. As an entryway into this argument, this essay considers what the quest for the historical Jesus has obscured or overlooked by focusing on whether or how Jesus "cleansed" the temple (Matt 21:12–13). For example, questions about the historicity of Matt 21:12–13 and its parallels in the other Gospels have obscured the literary and theological significance of Matt 21:14–17. Furthermore, recent commentators, as heirs of the quest for the historical Jesus, have too often followed these historians by wrongly construing Matt 21:12–17 as a distinct literary unit. By appreciating the literary unity of Matt 21:1–17, this essay identifies the question, "Who is this?" in Matt 21:10 as the driving point that holds Matt 21:1–17 together and urges the interpreter to ask questions about Jesus' divine identity.