6
especially the Pharisees.
19
The striking phrase "
Eujloghmevno~ oJ ejrcovmeno~ ejn ojnovmati
kurivou
"
figures prominently in 21:1-11 and concludes chapter 23 (v39) thus framing this
narrative in tidy inclusio. Therefore, it makes little rhetorical sense to assign chapter 23
with the Olivet Discourse.
20
The Temple Confrontations
The final challenge begins: Hosanna to the Son of David 21:1-11
Bock put it succinctly, "Jesus enters Jerusalem and cleanses the temple, a final
assault on the leadership's claims to have authority over Israel."
21
The first eleven verses
of chapter 21 reveal Jesus making the most forthright, public messianic claim to date
through highly symbolic actions. His passion predictions
22
behind him, Jesus aims to
judge the Nation, its leaders, the Temple, Israel's central symbol, and to be judged,
knowing full well that his assertion of his prophetic and messianic ministry will ironically
lead to his crucifixion. Thus, by his riding into Jerusalem on a colt of a donkey Jesus
parabolically announced the secret of his identity, which is inextricably linked to his
pronouncement of the kingdom of heaven.
In verse 4 Matthew quotes a smooth conflation of Isaiah 62:11 and Zechariah 9:9
in accordance with his well-developed fulfillment formulae.
23
Matthew claims that
tou`to
fulfills prophecy; that is, the procurement and use of the colt. At the time, the disciples
and certainly the crowd missed the specific allusion to Zechariah's prophecy. Yet, just as it
was no accident that Jesus sent for the colt, Jesus' mounting of the colt, led by its mother,
19
Kennedy, 84.
20
The following commentators do in fact view chapter 23 independently of the Olivet Discourse:
Raymond Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, in the Anchor Bible Reference Library (Doubleday,
1997), 173; Carson, 56, 488; Hill 47, 316; Hagner, 591; Morris, viii, 593; William Hendriksen, Exposition of the
Gospel according to Matthew, (Baker, 1973), 846; and others.
21
Darrell L. Bock, Jesus according to Scripture: Restoring the Portraits from the Gospels , (Baker,
2002), 47
.
22
Matthew 16:21; 17:22-23; and 20:18-19
23
Carson, 437; Morris, 520.