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Introduction
The focus of this paper will not be on the Temple but the events occurring in its
shadow Jesus' debates with the full array of his opponents in the most public of settings,
the Temple courts filled with Passover throngs days before his trial and crucifixion.
Although there are certainly implications about the role the Temple ought to have with the
people of God that follow from the free-running debates, my aim is to focus on what the
debates themselves centered, namely the authority of Jesus and his provocative actions
and speech.
This paper rhetorically analyzes Matthew 21 to 23 in order to appraise Jesus'
climactic public assertions of his authority as Messiah. In other words this rhetorical
exegesis aims at seeing how he instigated conflict, handled hostile questions, proved his
points, silenced and delegitimized his opponents, and won his arguments before listening
Israel after his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. This will be a two-tier analysis accounting
for both Jesus' rhetoric in debate and the framing of Matthew's narrative rhetoric.
Why a Rhetorical Analysis?
A word needs to be said as to why a rhetorical analysis is helpful with the Temple
debates in Matthew. Rhetoric is relevant to the interpretation of the New Testament.
George A. Kennedy rightly contended that:
The writers of the books of the New Testament had a message to convey and
sought to persuade an audience to believe it or to believe it more profoundly. As
such they are rhetorical, and their methods can be studied by the discipline of
rhetoric.
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New Testament Interpretation through Rhetorical Criticism (University of North Carolina Press,
1984), 3. He continued, that "My goal . . . [is to read] the Bible as it would be read by an early Christian, by an
inhabitant of the Greek-speaking world in which rhetoric was the core subject of formal education and in which
even those without formal education necessarily developed cultural preconceptions about appropriate
discourse. . . . In practicing rhetorical criticism we need to keep in mind that intent and that original impact,
and thus read the Bible as speech." (5-6).