Matthew , livre ebook

This highly insightful and useful commentary comes from skillful and multicompetent scholars. Samson Uytanlet and Kiem-Kiok Kwa attend to literary dimensions of this Gospel as well as displaying sensitivity to, and competence in, both the ancient setting of Matthew’s Gospel and modern Asian contexts. They seamlessly and brilliantly weave these elements together (along with some insights from the history of Christianity). Uytanlet and Kwa properly highlight relevant issues of honor, shame, kinship, colonial contexts, and so forth and provides insights on Matthew’s Gospel from which readers in many cultures, including Western ones, will learn much. All this in a work that is well-laid out and very understandably written!
Craig S. Keener, PhD
F. M. and Ada Thompson Professor of Biblical Studies,
Asbury Theological Seminary, USA
Matthew the Evangelist was spiritually sensitive and multiculturally fluent, so he was able to use Hebrew Scripture and Greco-Roman tradition to introduce and explain Jesus’ extraordinary identity and world-changing mission to his Jewish and Gentile readers in the first century with great adeptness and profound impact. In his commentary on Matthew, Dr. Uytanlet and Dr. Kwa have demonstrated the same spiritual sensitivity and multicultural fluency in clarifying the significance of Jesus Christ, underscoring the messages of Matthew, and even more impressively, highlighting the relevance of the Gospel to Asian people, both in the embedded essays and in the running comments.
Dr. Uytanlet’s expert knowledge of current Matthean scholarship produces many exegetic insights on Matthew’s text and his immersed experience in Asian life and culture, Chinese language, and Filipino customs in particular, brings Asian readers into exciting and creative conversations with this Christian Scripture, yielding much wisdom and faith challenges. This commentary is engagingly written, easy to read, and hard to put down. Lay readers, seminarians, preachers, and scholars will all find it informative and valuable. I highly recommend it.
Rev. John Y. H. Yieh, PhD
The Molly Laird Downs Chair, Professor of New Testament,
Virginia Theological Seminary, USA
Samson Uytanlet and Kiem-Kiok Kwa admirably assist readers of the Gospel of Matthew with their faithful attention to the Gospel narrative and keen awareness of similarities between the first-century New Testament world and twenty-first century Asia. This splendid study serves well the aims of the Asia Bible Commentary.
Joel B. Green, PhD
Provost, Dean of the School of Theology,
Professor of New Testament Interpretation,
Fuller Theological Seminary, USA
Samson Uytanlet and Kiem-Kiok Kwa have gifted us with a different kind of commentary on Matthew. Emphasizing a cyclical relation among the commentator’s tasks of “observation, interpretation, and application,” their commentary not only acknowledges that readers come to Matthew with their present contexts but also addresses how Matthew may speak to the particularities of today’s Asia. This contextual-specific commentary will be a great resource to those who are interested in Matthew and committed to Asia.
Tat-siong Benny Liew, PhD
Professor, Religious Studies Department, College of the Holy Cross, USA

MATTHEW
A Pastoral and Contextual Commentary
Samson L. Uytanlet
with
Kiem-Kiok Kwa
Asia Bible Commentary Series
General Editor
Federico G. Villanueva
Old Testament Consulting Editors
Yohanna Katanacho, Tim Meadowcroft, Joseph Shao
New Testament Consulting Editors
Steve Chang, Andrew Spurgeon, Brian Wintle

© 2017 by Samson L. Uytanlet
The following topics © 2017 by Kiem-Kiok Kwa: (1) Family Matters; (2) Following Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount; (3) Living Out the Kingdom; (4) Welcoming People in the Church; (5) Confrontation in Hierarchical and Shame-Based Culture; (6) Church and Caesar; (7) The Suffering of Jesus; (8) Resurrection, Authority, and Mission.
Published 2017 by Langham Global Library
An imprint of Langham Creative Projects
Langham Partnership
PO Box 296, Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 9WZ, UK
www.langham.org
Published in partnership with Asia Theological Association
ATA
QCC PO Box 1454 – 1154, Manila, Philippines
www.atasia.com
ISBNs:
978-1-78368-171-6 Print
978-1-78368-275-1 Mobi
978-1-78368-274-4 ePub
978-1-78368-276-8 PDF
Samson L. Uytanlet and Kiem-Kiok Kwa have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the Authors of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher or the Copyright Licensing Agency.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-78368-171-6
Cover & Book Design: projectluz.com
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In memory of my parents Juanito Uy (1928–2010) and Felisa Liao Uy (1932-2016) and my two eldest siblings Aurora Uytanlet Yang (1950–1999) Wilson Uytanlet (1952–2009)
Contents

Cover


Series Preface


Acknowledgements


List of Abbreviations


Introduction


Are There Not Enough Commentaries on Matthew?


Reading Matthew through Modern Asian Lenses


Message of the Gospel of Matthew


Matthew 1:1–2:23 The Human Origin of Jesus


1:1–17 The Genealogy of Jesus


FAMILY MATTERS


1:18–25 Jesus, the Savior


2:1–15 Jesus, the Son


2:16–23 Jesus, the Nazarene


Matthew 3:1–4:16 Preparation for Jesus’ Public Ministry


3:1–12 John the Baptist: The Man, His Ministry, and His Message


3:13–17 Jesus’ Baptism


4:1–11 Jesus’ Temptation


4:12–16 John Exits, Jesus Enters


Matthew 4:17–7:29 Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount


4:17–25 The First Four Disciples


5:1–16 Blessings for Persecuted Disciples and Their Role in the World


5:17–48 Righteousness from the Inside Out


6:1–18 Righteousness and the Perception of Others


6:19–7:6 List of Don’ts


7:7–23 List of Dos


WHOSE GOLDEN RULE HAS MORE KARATS? CONFUCIUS’ oR JESUS’?


FOLLOWING JESUS IN THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT


7:24–27 The Parable of the Wise Builder: Conclusion to the Sermon


7:28–29 The Authority of Jesus and the Presence of God


Matthew 8:1–9:34 The Healing Ministry of Jesus as Evidence of God’s Presence


8:1–17 Miracles: Part 1


8:18–23 Discipleship: Part 1


FILIAL PIETY aND SOME ASIAN BURIAL PRACTICES


8:24–9:8 Miracles: Part 2


9:9–17 Discipleship: Part 2


9:18–34 Miracles: Part 3


Matthew 9:35–10:42 The Disciples Sent Out to “Harvest”


9:35–10:4 The Twelve Identified: Their Prayer and Participation


10:5–15 The Twelve Instructed: Prescriptions, Prohibitions, and Provisions


10:16–42 The Twelve Informed: Precautions and Persecutions


Matthew 11:1–12:50 Stories Illustrating the Jews’ Rejection of Jesus


11:1–19 Story of Unbelief (1): John the Baptist


11:20–30 Story of Unbelief (2): Unbelieving Cities and the Offer of Sabbath


12:1–8 Story of Unbelief (3): The Pharisees on Harvesting on Sabbath


12:9–21 Story of Unbelief (4): The Pharisees on Healing on the Sabbath


12:22–37 Story of Unbelief (5): The Pharisees on Jesus’ Exorcism


The “Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” and Cessationism


12:38–48 Story of Unbelief (6): The Pharisees on Signs


12:46–50 Story of Unbelief (7): Jesus’ Family


Matthew 13:1–58 Jesus Uses Parables to Teach about God’s Kingdom


Use of Parables and Confrontations in a Shame-Based Culture


13:1–23 The Sower: The Parable and Its Interpretation


13:24–43 The Parables of the Kingdom: Part 1


The “Expansion” of God’s Kingdom: Does God’s Kingdom Really Need to Expand?


13:44–52 The Parables of the Kingdom: Part 2


Living Out the Kingdom


13:53–58 Rejection at Nazareth


Matthew 14:1–16:20 Discovering Who Jesus Is and His Lessons on Discipleship


14:1–12 The Death of John the Baptist


14:13–21 A Story of Jesus Feeding the Multitude: The Five Thousand


14:22–36 Jesus Walked on Water


15:1–20 The Tradition of the Elders: Washing of Hands and the Qorban


Filial Respect and the Qorban


15:21–28 The Faith of the Canaanite Woman


15:29–39 Another Story of Jesus Feeding the Multitude: The Four Thousand


16:1–12 Requesting Signs from Heaven


Welcoming People in the Church


16:13–20 Jesus’ Identity Revealed; Peter’s Confession


Matthew 16:21–22:14 Jesus’ Prediction of His Death: Lessons on Discipleship


16:21–17:20 Jesus’ First Prediction: Lessons on Faith and Faithfulness


17:22–20:16 Jesus’ Second Prediction: Lessons on Humility and Forgiveness


Selling One’s Possession to Receive Eternal Life: A Theological Reflection on Evangelism


20:17–22:14 Jesus’ Third Prediction: Lessons on Authority and Submission


Confrontation in Hierarchical and Shame-Based Cultures


Matthew 22:15–46 The Attempts of the Pharisees and Sadducees to Discredit Jesus


22:15–22 Question #1: Taxes


Church and Caesar


22:23–33 Question #2: Resurrection a