There is quite a jump in Matthew’s explicit quotation of the prophets. The last text we looked at was Matthew 4.15-16. The text we will look at today is Matthew 11.10 where Matthew presents Jesus as connecting John the Baptist with “the messenger of the Lord.” It is interesting that the last explicit quotation from the prophets in Matthew 4.15-16 was when Christ heard about John’s arrest and now this quotation is in the context of Christ explaining who John the Baptist actually is.
John sends a message to Jesus asking him if he is the one who is to come. Jesus sends a message back, telling John about all the miracles that he has done and that the gospel is being preached to the poor. It is a veiled way of Jesus answering, “Yes, I am he.” Jesus then uses this opportunity to explain to the crowd who John actually is. In the midst of telling the crowd that John is not simply a prophet, bur more than a prophet, Jesus quotes the OT:
Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way before you.
While the NRSV and ESV only cross-reference this quotation with Malachi 3.1, this quote seems to be a combination of Exodus 23.20 (the first line) and Malachi 3.1 (the second line). Here are those passages:
Behold, I send an angel [or messenger] before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. —Exodus 23.20
Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. —Malachi 3.1
It is well noted by commentators (both Jewish and Christian) that Malachi had Exodus in mind when he wrote. He was connecting the exodus narrative as being typological for the final exodus, or final re-creation, that would occur when the Messiah comes. It is possible, then, that Matthew had both of these texts in mind when writing.
However, you will see that Matthew does not quote either verse verbatim. In the first line of Matthew’s quotation, which seems to come from Exodus 23.20, Matthew adds the term “my” before messenger. It is possible that Matthew was combining sources, however, so that he used the first part of Malachi’s passage and then added the term “my” when reflecting on Exodus 23.20. In the second line of Matthew’s quotation there is even more of a difference. Instead of the “the way” (Malachi), Matthew writes “your way”; and instead of “before me,” Matthew writes “before you.”
Some commentators argue that Matthew is providing his own translation of the MT of Malachi 3.1, but it seems that Matthew is providing more than that. It seems, at least to me, that Matthew is combining Exodus 23.20 with Malachi 3.10 and providing us with a composite quotation.
The “end game” for Matthew in this passage is to present Jesus as connecting Elijah spoken about in Malachi with John the Baptist. By Matthew’s time Jewish interpreters had already made the connection between Malachi 3.10 and Malachi 4.5 (see Sirach 48.10) and later rabbinic literature follows this interpretation (Targum Ps-Jonathan Numbers 25.12, Exodus Rabbah 32.9). In fact current Orthodox Judaism still looks for the literal Elijah to return as a forebearer to the Messianic age. When I worked at the Jewish Community Center in Vestal, NY during my undergraduate days, we always had to leave the seat at the head of the table empty for Elijah and always had to leave a path of open doors from the entrance to the seat at the head of the table in case Elijah came back. It was cool, except for in the winter because then you have to wear your coat every time you eat.
Matthew makes this “end game” explicit when he presents Jesus as saying, “if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come” (Matthew 11.14).
In summary, it seems that we have a composite quotation by Matthew, who combines two connected passages from the OT in order to make his point. He uses them in a theological way to make a connection to who both John the Baptist and Jesus are (the former being Elijah who is to come and the latter being the Messiah for whom Israel waits).
What is interesting, and what raises some hermeneutical questions for me, is that Matthew does not simply quote Exodus 23.20 or Malachi 3.10, but quotes an interpretation of both. This makes me wonder what Matthew saw as authoritative: the text of the MT or LXX or the interpretive traditions that were floating around during his time? If he did see the authority of the MT or LXX, then why does he seem to quote an interpretation instead of the actual text? Perhaps Matthew followed the saying preserved for us in Kiddushin 49b (”What is Torah? It is the interpretation of Torah.”)?
