Blog (3) Madelaine Crabtree

What I like most about the Matthean Jesus is his very succinct one-sentence lessons. This Jesus, depicted as the Jewish Messiah, conveys important life lessons and instructions to his community in a simple and straightforward way. Matthew writes in this style so that his community can too understand easily what he is trying to say, and so that his lessons can be spread across large distances geographically, and passed down through time. As we have been learning, religious teachings and other information and stories were shared orally in antiquity, so it is extremely advantageous for Matthew to include such verses as “Pearls before Swine,” and “The Golden Rule” in his gospel. This way, his ideas can be remembered and repeated by everyone, even young children, and not only those who commit themselves to learning the bible.

According to Ehrman, the “Golden Rule” appeared in many religious texts before the Gospel of Matthew, but usually as a negative lesson, rather than a positive lesson. For example, Herodotus stated in the fourth century B.C.E. “I will not myself do that which I consider to be blameworthy in my neighbor.” Ehrman also points out that the Matthean Jesus was not the first to recite the golden rule as the positive statement that we know and love today, but I still find it significant that Matthew chose to phrase it this way.¹ This aligns with my belief that teaching by example and using positive reinforcement to communicate ideas and inspire action is far more effective than bullying the masses into doing or believing something using fear and intimidation. When an alarming amount of the Christian movement today is based in threats and fear of hellfire and brimstone, it certainly is refreshing to read the positive and understanding words of Jesus straight from the bible. I am not religious, and so I have a biased view of Christianity looking from the outside in, but part of the reason I rebelled from the church earlier in life was because of the prejudices and exclusiveness I witnessed. Ten year old me used to think, “why would God make it so that only certain people could get into heaven?” And slightly later I began to become disgusted with the way people were using Christianity in order to justify violence and inequality. It is enlightening to study the bible from an analytical standpoint, and I am more than pleased to read about a Jesus who is loving, understanding, and even human at times.

1. Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to Early Christian Writings (New York: Oxford, 2000), 103.

Ehrman, Bart D. The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to Early Christian Writings. New York: Oxford, 2000.