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The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library
Matthew within Sectarian Judaism
A renowned scholar of the Dead Sea Scrolls argues for reading the Gospel of Matthew as the product of a Jewish sect
In this masterful study of what has long been considered the “most Jewish” gospel, John Kampen deftly argues that the gospel of Matthew advocates for a distinctive Jewish sectarianism, rooted in the Jesus movement. He maintains that the writer of Matthew produced the work within an early Jewish sect, and its narrative contains a biography of Jesus which can be used as a model for the development of a sectarian Judaism in Lower Syria, perhaps Galilee, toward the conclusion of the first century CE.
Rather than viewing the gospel of Matthew as a Jewish-Christian hybrid, Kampen considers it a Jewish composition that originated among the later followers of Jesus a generation or so after the disciples. This method of viewing the work allows readers to understand what it might have meant for members of a Jesus movement to promote their understanding of Jewish history and law that would sustain Jewish life at the end of the first century.
In this masterful study of what has long been considered the “most Jewish” gospel, John Kampen deftly argues that the gospel of Matthew advocates for a distinctive Jewish sectarianism, rooted in the Jesus movement. He maintains that the writer of Matthew produced the work within an early Jewish sect, and its narrative contains a biography of Jesus which can be used as a model for the development of a sectarian Judaism in Lower Syria, perhaps Galilee, toward the conclusion of the first century CE.
Rather than viewing the gospel of Matthew as a Jewish-Christian hybrid, Kampen considers it a Jewish composition that originated among the later followers of Jesus a generation or so after the disciples. This method of viewing the work allows readers to understand what it might have meant for members of a Jesus movement to promote their understanding of Jewish history and law that would sustain Jewish life at the end of the first century.
- GenresBiblical Studies
344 pages, Hardcover
Published June 25, 2019
24 people want to read
About the author
John Kampen
9 booksJohn Kampen is an eminent scholar of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the New Testament, and Jewish history of the Greco-Roman period. He is the Van Bogard Dunn Professor of Biblical Interpretation at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio.
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October 23, 2020
Kampen's new book deals with what has been the most interesting Matthean debate of the past 30 years or so: the Jewishness of Matthew's Gospel, and its Jewish/Gentile dynamics. This book fits within a line of studies which argue that Matthew's Gospel was written by and for members of a sectarian group. Scholars such as Stanton argued that Matthew was sectarian, but that it broke from its Jewish roots. Conversely, Kampen's new study agrees with scholars such as Saldarini, Overman, and Sim, that Matthew is sectarian within Judaism. In other words, it's a sectarian composition, but the writer and his community still sees themselves as distinctly Jewish.
Kampen's book is, on the one hand, an excellent addition to these other studies. His book is learned, well researched, and full of interesting connections with Second Temple sources. It's a book to be consulted in the future.
However, it is not without a number of glaring faults. For example:
1. The book appears more to assume sectarianism, than to argue in its favor. Whereas Sim argued that Matthew was sectarian, Kapmen argues more for how we might read Matthew if one already approaches it with that view in mind. He does argue for a number of parallels with other sectarian texts, such as the Community Rule and the Damascus Document, but many of the parallels are strained and few of them actually establish a sectarian worldview for Matthew in particular. If one assumes that Matthew is sectarian, then Kampen's parallels are interesting, but his book works as a sequel to other books on sectarianism in Matthew that do more to establish that point. One can then use those parallels to read Matthew fruitfully in that vein. If one contests that Matthew is sectarian then the parallels are mostly curious and interesting but largely unconvincing.
2. Kampen draws many parallels with sectarian texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls, but makes too little of two important problems: first, many of the DSS he references are likely less sectarian that he lets on, and second, the DSS he references are sectarian in a self-aware sort of way. In other words, they refer to their group by name and lay out specific instructions for their group in contrast to other groups. Matthew does not do this. The supposed "Matthean community," if it ever existed, is never mentioned in the text. It has to be surmised. This limits the parallels between the texts.
3. Kampen's book makes no attempt to prove that such a thing as a "Matthean community" ever existed. Other scholars have made this attempt, to varying results, but Kampen assumes this and moves from this assumption. For Matthew to be sectarian one must be able to establish that Matthew's text directly refers to Jesus' followers in his own lifetime, but that the text also actually is intended, in some veiled fashion, for a different group of people some 50-60 years later, without mentioning them explicitly. This is possible, but not given.
4. Kampen makes virtually no use of the recent work of Matthias Konradt or Jonathan Pennington, both of whom address many of these questions in ways that Kampen would need to reckon with if he wanted to establish his arguments with more force. At multiple points in this book I found myself thinking "Konradt deals with this, so I wonder how Kampen might answer his arguments." No scholar can address every other book on every subject, but Konradt's work is among the most important on these subjects. It seems engagement was in order.
These are a few of the many issues I had, but I'll stop here in the name of brevity. I found the book fascinating, and helpful, but largely unconvincing. Although Matthew's writer had an agenda that distinguishes his work from the other Gospels, I still think he had a general reader/disciple in mind, and I'm not convinced a "Matthean community" ever existed.
Kampen's book is, on the one hand, an excellent addition to these other studies. His book is learned, well researched, and full of interesting connections with Second Temple sources. It's a book to be consulted in the future.
However, it is not without a number of glaring faults. For example:
1. The book appears more to assume sectarianism, than to argue in its favor. Whereas Sim argued that Matthew was sectarian, Kapmen argues more for how we might read Matthew if one already approaches it with that view in mind. He does argue for a number of parallels with other sectarian texts, such as the Community Rule and the Damascus Document, but many of the parallels are strained and few of them actually establish a sectarian worldview for Matthew in particular. If one assumes that Matthew is sectarian, then Kampen's parallels are interesting, but his book works as a sequel to other books on sectarianism in Matthew that do more to establish that point. One can then use those parallels to read Matthew fruitfully in that vein. If one contests that Matthew is sectarian then the parallels are mostly curious and interesting but largely unconvincing.
2. Kampen draws many parallels with sectarian texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls, but makes too little of two important problems: first, many of the DSS he references are likely less sectarian that he lets on, and second, the DSS he references are sectarian in a self-aware sort of way. In other words, they refer to their group by name and lay out specific instructions for their group in contrast to other groups. Matthew does not do this. The supposed "Matthean community," if it ever existed, is never mentioned in the text. It has to be surmised. This limits the parallels between the texts.
3. Kampen's book makes no attempt to prove that such a thing as a "Matthean community" ever existed. Other scholars have made this attempt, to varying results, but Kampen assumes this and moves from this assumption. For Matthew to be sectarian one must be able to establish that Matthew's text directly refers to Jesus' followers in his own lifetime, but that the text also actually is intended, in some veiled fashion, for a different group of people some 50-60 years later, without mentioning them explicitly. This is possible, but not given.
4. Kampen makes virtually no use of the recent work of Matthias Konradt or Jonathan Pennington, both of whom address many of these questions in ways that Kampen would need to reckon with if he wanted to establish his arguments with more force. At multiple points in this book I found myself thinking "Konradt deals with this, so I wonder how Kampen might answer his arguments." No scholar can address every other book on every subject, but Konradt's work is among the most important on these subjects. It seems engagement was in order.
These are a few of the many issues I had, but I'll stop here in the name of brevity. I found the book fascinating, and helpful, but largely unconvincing. Although Matthew's writer had an agenda that distinguishes his work from the other Gospels, I still think he had a general reader/disciple in mind, and I'm not convinced a "Matthean community" ever existed.
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