Matthew, Disciple and Scribe: The First Gospel and Its Portrait of Jesus, by Patrick Schreiner. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019. 304 pp. $29.99.
In recent years, the New Testament’s use of the Old has received considerable attention. Other than perhaps Hebrews and Revelation, the Gospel of Matthew takes the lead in instances of quotations and allusions to the OT. In Matthew, Disciple and Scribe, Patrick Schreiner examines the first Gospel and its use of the OT in its portrayal of Jesus. Schreiner, who serves as professor of New Testament at Western Seminary, is well equipped for this task, having written several books and articles on Matthew.
The central thesis of Matthew, Disciple and Scribe is that Matthew is the “discipled scribe” mentioned in Matthew 13:52. As Schreiner states, “My argument is that Matthew is the discipled scribe who narrates Jesus’s life through the alternation of the new and the old” (9). He argues that Jesus formed an “alternate scribal school” and taught his disciples to interpret the OT with him at the center (2). This book is divided into two parts: “The Scribe Described” (chaps. 1 and 2) and “The Scribe at Work” (chaps. three through seven). The first two chapters provide the background about Matthew’s interpretive methods. Chapters three through seven analyze central ways in which Jesus is portrayed by OT language and pictured in OT imagery.
A central part of Schreiner’s discussion revolves around Matthew’s formula quotations. He aptly notes, “‘Fulfillment’ means to bring something to fruition in the eschatological sense and is not always tied to predictive prophecy” (38–39). Schreiner’s insights offer clarity, as the formula quotations are occasionally assumed to refer only to OT prophetic passages. Perhaps most helpful is Schreiner’s “Fulfillment Spectrum” diagram (40), in which he argues that Matthew’s concept of fulfillment is broader than the English translation “to fulfill.” He comments, “Matthew’s use of ‘fulfillment’ does not simply mean the completion of a previous prediction, although that is what English readers normally assume” (40). This is a keen insight that leads one to wonder if “to fulfill” is the best translation for pleroō.
It would have been helpful if Schreiner had provided criteria as to what he considers a formula quotation. Depending upon how scholars qualify formula quotations, numbers range from ten to fourteen. Here, Schreiner seems to contradict himself. At one point in this discussion he asserts, “Matthew employs a formula quotation twelve times” (38 fn. 4), yet just a few pages later he writes, “Matthew’s Gospel contains ten fulfillment quotations” (41).
One particularly helpful aspect of Schreiner’s book is his discussion of what he calls “shadow stories.” He uses the term “shadow stories” in reference to how Matthew develops OT persons, places, events, and institutions in relation to Jesus (54–55). They connect “large swaths of narrative” from the OT to aspects of Jesus’s life and ministry (55). This is a rather helpful concept. Schreiner’s point is, for example, that Jesus’s life is painted in imagery from David’s life. Yet at the same time, Jesus’s portrait is also painted in imagery from Moses’s life. In this way, there are multiple “shadow stories” going on at once. Matthew simultaneously pictures Jesus as the true Davidic King and as the Prophet greater than Moses. As Schreiner articulates, “Matthew does not limit Jesus’s story to only one OT referent or prophecy: he weaves them all together into a beautiful whole” (137).
On the one hand, reading Matthew, Disciple and Scribe felt like reading a traditional academic book. Its thesis was unique and its scope was in-depth. However, at times it felt like more of an introductory or popular level book with its fairly minimal footnotes and its discussion of modern films such as Star Wars (54) and The Lion King (129–30). Schreiner admits, “The initial plan was to be more introductory, but it quickly took an academic turn, and therefore the book at times straddles both worlds” (ix). This is not bad, but it is something of which to be aware.
My primary critique is Schreiner’s insistence on a “retrospective” reading of the OT (57–62). Or, as Schreiner puts it, “Matthew is not…performing the typical grammatical-historical exegesis” (75). When dealing, for instance, with Walter Kaiser’s view that the NT does not “reload the OT text” (58), Schreiner’s rebuttal is surprisingly weak. He responds merely with the assumption, “Matthew…is the one reloading the text” (58). Furthermore, he makes the assertion that the OT authors’ “view was hazy because the fullness of time had not yet arrived” (58). Although in one sense, their view of the Messiah may have been “hazy,” their understanding of the texts they authored would have been quite clear. Schreiner does not seem to give the OT authors enough credit.
Overall, though, Schreiner is to be commended for offering a timely and well-written summary of Matthew’s use of the OT. Any who read this book will certainly be encouraged by Schreiner’s firm grasp of the interconnectedness of the Testaments. Best of all, they will better see Jesus as Matthew saw him. As the subtitle indicates, they will better grasp “The First Gospel and Its Portrait of Jesus.”
