6
including some who will claim to be Christ returned to earth.
15
But unless such a person
has just descended from heaven in a worldwide, publicly visible event, gathering his elect
from throughout the cosmos, his claim must be rejected (vv. 24-27).
Distinctive Matthean Contributions
It is often assumed that the harsh polemic between Jesus and the Jewish leaders in
Matthew also reflects conditions in his allegedly late-first-century church, as Christianity
and rabbinic Judaism break from each other, each competing for recognition as the true
legacy of pre-70 Judaism. Matthew is then also assumed to be combating "Christian"
antinomians as false teachers within his community.
16
Be that as it may, there clearly are
passages unique to Matthew that warn against false teachers quite different from anyone
mentioned in Mark. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus cautions against those who say
to him, "Lord, Lord," but do not do his heavenly Father's will (Matt. 7:21). Some of
those will even have prophesied in his name, performed exorcisms and worked other
miracles (v. 22). But Jesus on Judgment Day will say to them, "I never knew you. Away
from me, you evildoers" (v. 23). Neither church leadership nor miraculous powers
guarantee that a person is a true follower of Jesus. The same kind of false teacher
appears to lie behind the parable of the ten bridesmaids (25:1-13; note esp. the language
of v. 12--"I don't know you," addressed to those who had called Jesus kurios--v. 11).
Antinomian threats seem to account as well for Jesus' harsh warnings to those who would
cause a fellow Christian to sin (18:6-9) and for the so-called parable of the sheep and the
14
Cf. Craig S. Keener, A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 535-59.
15
Cf. Craig A. Evans, Mark 8:27-16:20 (Nashville: Word, 2001), 305-6, 323-34.
16
On the circumstances of Matthew's community, see esp. Graham N. Stanton, A Gospel for a New People
(Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1992).