Matthew Through OT Eyes

by David B. Capes

A New Testament commentary steeped in the Old Testament
Through Old Testament Eyes is a new kind of commentary series that illuminates the Old Testament backgrounds, allusions, patterns, and references that saturate the New Testament. These links were second nature to the New Testament authors and their audiences, but today's readers often cannot see them. Bible teachers, preachers, and students committed to understanding Scripture will gain insight through these rich Old Testament connections, which clarify puzzling passages and explain others in fresh ways.
The Gospel of Matthew contains both overt and subtle connections to the Old Testament, capitalizing on the scriptural literacy of the work's original, first-century Jewish audience. These complex and multifaceted connections are not always recognized by today's readers, meaning significant ideas can be easily missed or misappropriated. David B. Capes elucidates these extensive backgrounds, echoes, quotations, ways of thinking, and patterns of living, showing how God's plan--introduced in the Hebrew Scriptures--is revealed through the very person, work, life, and ministry of Jesus.
Avoiding overly technical discussions and interpretive debates to concentrate on Old Testament influences, this book combines rigorous, focused New Testament scholarship with deep respect for the entire biblical text.

392 pages, Paperback

Published March 26, 2024

About the author

David B. Capes (born December 16, 1955) (PhD, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is associate dean of biblical and theological studies and professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. He has authored, coauthored, or coedited books such as Rediscovering Paul, Rediscovering Jesus, Old Testament Yahweh Texts in Paul's Christology, The Footsteps of Jesus in the Holy Land, The Last Eyewitness, Rebecca's Children, The Voice of Hebrews, and The Voice of Romans.

In addition to contributing to a number of dictionaries, encyclopedias, and professional journals, he served as the lead scholar on a new Bible translation, The Voice Bible. Since the early 1990s, Capes has been active in interfaith dialogue in Houston and cohosts a radio show called A Show of Faith on TALK RADIO 950 KPRC Houston. He was previously academic dean and professor of New Testament at Houston Graduate School of Theology, and he has served as pastor of several churches and has participated in a variety of professional organizations, including the Society of Biblical Literature, the Institute for Biblical Research, and the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion.

Reviews

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: A commentary on the Gospel of Matthew showing both obvious and subtle references to the Old Testament of how the life and ministry of Jesus fulfilled the plan of God articulated in these passages.

The Gospel of Matthew would seem the ideal book to look at “through Old Testament eyes.” Matthew wrote for a primarily Jewish audience and cites numerous OT passages and alludes to others. This commentary draws all that out, including a very helpful chart on the twelve fulfillment quotations (yes, the number is significant) (pp. 136-137). Through inline verse by verse commentary, sections on the structure, passage overviews “through Old Testament Eyes” and “Going Deeper” discussions on particular passages, David Capes helps the reader of Matthew understand how Jesus, in his life and ministry, fulfilled the redemptive purposes of God, glimpsed by the writers of the former Testament.

In my review, I want to highlight some of the fresh insights I gained from this study:

Capes notes the chiastic structure of the genealogy that highlights Jesus as Messiah, son of David and Son of Abraham.
He ties Herod into the bad shepherds of Micah.
He notes the connection of the servant song (Isaiah 42) to the Father’s “with him I am well pleased” at the baptism of Jesus.
The beatitude form is one found throughout the Old Testament.
The idea of the Two Ways restates themes found in Deuteronomy and elsewhere.
The three clusters of three miracles in Mt. 8-9 each end with teaching on some aspect of discipleship
The promise of rest in Matthew 11:28-30 sounds much like that in Jeremiah 6:16.
Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is intentional, even premeditated, and not accidental.
Capes sees parallels between King Ahasuerus and his oaths to Esther and Herod’s oath to his daughter at the banquet. A fascinating comparison!
Only Matthew uses the term “church” in the “on this rock” promise to Peter.
The elevation of children as models of discipleship is highlighted.
Jesus arrival in Jerusalem on a donkey harks to Zechariah 9:9 and signifies the kind of king he is.
Jesus is clear about his identity as the cornerstone, his rejection, and its consequences.
Capes offers a helpful outline of the apocalyptic discourse of Matthew 24-25.
It was not blasphemy for Jesus to claim he was Messiah, but rather to sit at God’s right hand and come on the clouds.
Psalm 22 underlies the account of the torture, humiliation, and crucifixion, and Jesus cry of dereliction.
Jesus Great Commission recapitulates his whole ministry–he exemplified what he commands.

This is only a selection. Capes helps us see the large structure of the five sermons and the bookends of Matthew as well as smaller details, such as parable or miracle groupings and their significance. Most of all, he helps us recognize in the story of Jesus the realization of the story of God’s history with Israel. Capes also helps us see how this gospel is a manual of discipleship, both for the first followers of Jesus and those of us coming along centuries later.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

[Conrade Yap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recently, there has been a spate of literature and biblical resources to interpret the Old Testament from New Testament eyes. A key contribution was G.K. Beale's and D.A. Carson's edited collection of articles in "Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament." This has helped to spur modern readers to read the Old Testament with greater fervour. Whether it was the prophets or kings, scribes or teachers, disciples or record-keepers, Old Testament or New Testament authors, all were "Old Testament" people. In fact, the Old Testament Scriptures were the only ones they had. Yet, even today, many think of the Old Testament as outdated and irrelevant, preferring the New Testament texts over the Old Testament. This is partly the fault of the nomenclature where the words "Old" and "New" erroneously shape our perception. That is why some scholars prefer to rename the Bible into "First Testament" and "Second Testament" respectively. At that time, the Scriptures were written in a particular context relevant to the hearers. Modern readers will need to bridge the ancient and modern contexts. Thankfully with this resource, the work of researchers, scholars, and teachers are made available for us. This book is one example of such work. Based on the "Background and Commentary" series by Kregel Academic, there are four common features:

1) Running Commentary with background explanation
2) Through OT Eyes that gives periodic summaries
3) Structure
4) Implications for the Church

There are many parts of the gospel of Matthew that elucidates deeper understanding when seen from OT eyes. For instance, Jesus' five sermons in Matthew parallel the first five books of the Old Testament, or the Torah. Like the OT records, the genealogies in Matthew are pretty much Old Testament style. Plus, the constant reference to how the OT prophecies were fulfilled is a significant theme in Matthew. While Capes recognizes that it is "not possible" to identify the exact dates of the authorship of Matthew, he believes that Matthew was written later than Mark. This is essentially the Majority view based on Marcan priority. Conflict is also a key theme in the gospel of Matthew, something that the OT is not afraid of showing. Embedded throughout the book are implications for us and the Church today.

My Thoughts
==========
How similar is this commentary to others? There are several similarities. Going chapter by chapter, passage by passage, and verse by verse, this book follows the popular running commentary format, which makes it a common reference book to use when studying the gospel of Matthew. The author has also allocated a chapter in this book for each of Matthew's 28 chapters, which makes it easy to follow. Within each chapter, the modern formatting makes it a delight to follow. The referenced verses are italicized; OT quotes formed a distinct block to improve readability; illuminating tables; and explanatory contexts of "Through Old Testament Eyes" are written within greyed out boxes. In terms of editing, I must commend the publisher for making this book a pleasure to navigate. Like many modern commentaries, Capes gives us illustrative list of tables, explanatory boxes, and various ways to go deeper into the texts.

However, there are a couple of things that I find unique. First, there is the focus on seeing perspective from Old Testament eyes. Some people are tempted to jump to application when reading the gospels. This commentary prevents such premature attempts by constantly showing us what it meant according to Old Testament contexts. I find the various boxes of Old Testament perspectives highlighting this unique contribution to keep us anchored on the whole Bible, instead of impatient modern applications. Like having a wise guide beside us, this commentary gives us a lot of background information to learn of, that helps us with the application process. Second, Capes does a good job in summarizing the themes for us periodically, such as the arrangements of the parables of Jesus; the comparison of Elijah, Elisha, and Jesus; clarifying how we should understand Jesus' prophecies; etc. Such summaries remind us that we should learn to read the gospel with the whole Bible in mind. Third, Capes helps us pay attention to the structure of the gospel through OT eyes, which is something rather interesting. He helps us by explaining what the structure means to help bridge the two testaments together. This is perhaps one of the key strengths of this commentary. It is not often we can see commentaries bridging the two testaments so succinctly. From genealogies to the prophecies, the parables to Jesus' Passion, we learn to read the gospel of Matthew in the context of the OT. By training our minds to do that, we learn to read Matthew in a more holistic manner.

Even today, it is common to hear Christians who say that they prefer the New Testament to the Old Testament. They also claim that the Old Testament is simply not as relevant as the New Testament. Some only read the New Testament! The fact is that the whole Bible is the Word of God. Anyone who tries to diminish the OT in favour of the NT might have forgotten that the Old Testament was the Bible that Jesus read! With this commentary, we get more insights into how Jesus would have read Matthew. By doing so, we can develop a framework to study the other gospels and New Testament texts with the lessons we learn from this Matthew commentary. Capes has given us a powerful resource that we should keep coming back over and over again. We need more of such contextual bridging commentaries to bring us closer to how Jesus would have read the Bible.

David B. Capes (PhD, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the executive director of the Lanier Theological Library (Houston, Texas). He taught for more than thirty years in various colleges and graduate schools around the country. He earned his PhD in New Testament. He is the author, coauthor, editor, or coeditor of a number of books including The Divine Christ: Paul, the Lord Jesus, and the Scriptures of Israel and Rediscovering Paul: An Introduction to His World, Letters, and Theology

Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Kregel Academic without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

[Spencer R · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my full review at Spoiledmilks (6/18/24).

David Capes has contributed a very insightful commentary on the Gospel of Matthew in Kregel Academic’s Through Old Testament Eyes series. His emphasis here is on how the OT informs Matthew’s Gospel so that we can understand Matthew’s meaning more clearly. Capes has written a book on Christ’s divinity (my review) and and introduction that helps us get to know Paul.

Capes takes Matthew one chapter at a time according to the divisions we have in our Bibles today (so 28 chapters). He interprets each chapter usually verse-by-verse or by groups of two or three verses. He looks at how certain sections or verses are structured (with a list of all of these sections in the back of the book).

A Few Fascinating Mentions
3:16, “and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove…”
In Psalm 74, the community of Israel begs God not to forget them. The enemy had defeated them and brought their temple down to the ground. In 74:19, they plead with God not to “hand over the life of your dove to the wild beasts.” Israel, God’s conquered people, are called “your dove” and “your afflicted people.” This image of a mourning, suffering people likened to a dove is seen in other prophetic texts (Isa 38:14; 59:11; Ezek 7:16). When the Holy Spirit descends like a dove upon Jesus, it “signals to Jesus his Spirit-directed role as a sufferer representing all of the Father’s people” (68).

3:17, “This is my Son, whom I love.”
I was anticipating there to be a reference to Isaac in Gen 22:2, but Capes went in a different direction. First, “my son” picks up language from Psalm 2, particularly vv.6–7 (cf. 2 Sam 7:12–16). The one “whom I love” picks up language from Hosea 11:1, which has already come up in Matthew 2.

Recommended?
Capes has written a readable commentary for teachers and preachers that brings them back to the OT for understanding. Jesus, whose only Bible was the OT, was steeped in it. His language reflects the two-ways of Proverbs and Deuteronomy, the values of God on marriage beginning in Genesis 2, and reflects his knowledge of his divinity as he often associates himself with Yahweh. Capes’ commentary is full of OT insights that ought to teach you both more about the OT and more about Matthew. There are no major sections focused on application here, but Capes’ volume is an important one that will point you back to your Bible over and over again.

I received this book free from Kregel Academic in exchange for an honest review.

[Jimmy Reagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What volume could be more important than the one on Matthew in an NT series that aims at considering the book from an OT perspective? Matthew, as Capes explained, has been loved since its earliest days specifically for its OT connections. Additionally, Matthew particularly shines in this series’ unique design. Matthew has so many special features that pulling those out for observation is especially rich for us.

This series is not an exegetical commentary offering. Without apology, it’s a second level asset. We must, then, grade it on its aims. In that vein, it is clearly a winner. Beyond the obvious OT allusions, it is structure that best shines here. Whether macro or micro, Capes stays alert for important structure and offers real understanding to us.

Though its scholarly underpinnings are first rate, this book is engagingly written in a way that any Bible student could be enriched by it. It’s not written for scholars, but they will appreciate it. It’s more about what brings Matthew to life.

The Introduction is engagingly written. It doesn’t really answer any questions, but it tells you what they are. Probably most readers aren’t really after those questions anyway, and there are other major commentaries than can better address them.

Every chapter of Matthew gets a chapter here. Not every word or phrase is covered, but the big picture is beautifully told. I especially enjoy the type of things that get a shaded box to discuss. That’s where the treasure is in this book, so don’t miss them.

This is special series filling a real niche and this one on Matthew gets its due here. If you understand what you’re getting, you’ll love it.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.