Jeffrey: thank you for pointing up the differences between the Matthean and
Lukan LP. ISTM that Matthew/Levi was an eyewitness and an earwitness of the
Lord Jesus Christ; whereas Luke on his own admission was retelling hearsay.
Papias assures us "Every man translated Matthew's vernacular as best he
could". Jesus called Levi/Matthew who was a tax collector, a /Mokhes/ or a
/douanier/ (Edersheim, /Life and Times.../, vol 1 pp 513ff) to "follow me".
As a trained Mokhes, Matthew made vernacular shorthand notes which he then
translated and wrote up in Greek to send up to Rome with his tax remittances.
As a disciple MAQHTHS TOU QEOU, he kept up his note-taking and recorded the
Sayings LOGIA of Jesus (Papias).
There is now a reaction against the theories of Tübingen, Form criticism,
Redaction criticism, Q, Midrash, Hermeneutic, Structuralism. CA Blomberg says
in R Keeley et al (eds), /Jesus 2,000/, 1989, that for the last 20 years,
scholars have been taking seriously what Papias wrote whilst John was still
alive. BC Butler /The Originality of St Matthew/, 1951, led the charge. Maybe
Butler was a little too subservient to the 1911 Papal Commission's dictat
"The Apostle Matthew was the first to write a Gospel. This Aramaic Gospel
is substantially identical with the canonical Greek Gospel". JAT Robinson,
/Redating the New Testament/, 1976, is on much firmer ground than Butler.
Butler was probably reacting against GD Kilpatrick, /The Origins of the
Gospel according to St Matthew/, 1946. Most recently, John Wenham /Redating
Matthew Mark & Luke/, 1991, reviews all the right evidence and draws all the
right conclusions (IMHO at least!).
Jesus gave the LP to his disciples early in his ministry in the Sermon on the
Mount as an example of prayer. Much later, in the third year of Christ's
ministry, they wanted a prayer to repeat in 'John the Baptist' style (Luke
11:2-4). They had forgotten the teaching of two years earlier! But Matthew
had it all faithfully recorded. Matthew's LP has two neat triplets of
petitions; Luke's is much shortened and simplified. If there is a later
liturgical element in Matthew's version, it is the added doxology "For thine
is the kingdom...".
The theology of the "Evil One" arises from the Temptation, PEIRASQHNAI hUPO
TOU DIABOLOU (Matthew 4:1), PEIRAZOMENO hUPO TOU DIABOLOU (Luke 4:2), right
at the beginning of Christ's ministry. We had a long (very interesting) recent
thread on PEIRAZW: let's not go into that again! We mustn't forget "Simon,
Simon, Satan hath desired to have you [hUMAS], that he may sift you as wheat"
(Luke 22:31).
We cannot exclude the eschatological dimension from the LP. We are praying
for nothing less than the return of Christ to reign upon earth.
-- Revd Ben Crick, BA Bristol, 1963 (hons in Theology) <ben.crick@argonet.co.uk> 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)