finitum non capax infiniti

An interesting quote I heard this week was from a guy called Rabbi Tovia Singer who started Outreach Judaism which is a ministry to Jewish people to either prevent their conversion to Christianity or to convince them to return from Christianity to Judaism. Rabbi Singer started this ministry because he was shocked at how many young people went to university and were converted to Christianity. In a lecture series entitled “Judaism’s Response to Christian Missionaries” (you can download it for free on iTunes by clicking here) Rabbi Singer says, “If it was just Paul’s use of the Old Testament that we were dealing with, then perhaps Jews could be persuaded to believe in Christianity. But that is not the case with Matthew, who simple does not read the Old Testament correctly and, when need be, simply makes up verses to prove his point. If I ever had the chance to talk to Matthew I would ask him one question: What are you doing to our Bible?”

I thought that was an interesting statement considering the series we have been doing on Matthew, especially since the last installment was centered around Matthew’s strange quotation, “He will be called a Nazorean.”

In Matthew 3 we are introduced to John the Baptist. From the Lukan account, we glean that this is not the first time that Jesus and John “met” each other. Matthew, again, follows his narratival formula of placing someone in a geographic location and then explaining that location with an OT quotation. In this instance he places John in the wilderness and then quotes Isaiah 40.3. What text Matthew is quoting from is not clear.

Matthew’s quotation in the NRSV is: “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

The LXX version (literally translated) is: “The voice of one crying out, “In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the way of our God.”

The Hebrew MT (literally translated) is: “A voice of one crying, “In the wilderness prepare the way of YHWH, make straight in the desert a highway for/to our God.”

English translations make use of the vagueness of Matthew’s quotation by moving “in the wilderness” to modify “the voice of one crying out” instead of where to prepare the way of YHWH (as is found in the LXX and the MT). But the Greek of Matthew and the Greek of the LXX follow each other word for word until we reach the final phrase. Matthew changes “of our God” to “of him” (which is rendered “his paths” in translation because “paths of him” seems awkward).

In reality, the change is not drastic. “Him” and “our God” are referring to the same person. But that makes me all the more curious as to why Matthew made this change. If they were referring to the same person, then why change it? Perhaps Matthew had a different text than we have in front of us today and that is the explanation. But perhaps he had the same text and decided to change it. If the latter is the case, then why not leave it as it was in the LXX?

It is interesting that Matthew chooses this particular part of Isaiah because it is the beginning of Deutero-Isaiah (or Second Isaiah) in which the prophet is speaking to those in exile. Jerusalem has fallen and the exiles are in Babylon. This is why the Hebrew MT makes it explicit that the voice is not in the wilderness, but crying out to prepare the way of the Lord, which will be in the wilderness. The author of Deutero-Isaiah is bringing up themes and motifs that were present in the exodus story. Just as YHWH prepared a way in the wilderness for the Israelites to be removed from bondage in Egypt and brought into the promised land in the exodus narrative, this voice is crying out for YHWH to do the same now: prepare a way in the wilderness for the Israelites to be removed from bondage in Babylon and brought into the promised land.

This is interesting because it corresponds very well with the “final exodus” or “final return from exile” theme that Wright has brought out in the life of Christ. The return of the exiles from Babylon is presented in Deutero-Isaiah as a new and better exodus (especially as it culminates in Trito-Isaiah (56-66)). The life of Christ, as presented by Matthew, is a new, better, and final exodus and return from exile that ushers in what was spoken about in Trito-Isaiah. In other words, Matthew’s use of Isaiah 40.3 is not a random proof-text to show that the Baptist could be found in the OT. Rather, it is a profound statement regarding the final return from exile that Israel would experience through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.