Gospel of Matthew Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Relationship with the Jews === Matthew's prime concern was that the Jewish tradition should not be lost in a church that was increasingly becoming gentile.{{sfn|Davies|Allison|1997|p=722}} This concern lies behind the frequent citations of Jewish scripture, the evocation of Jesus as the new Moses along with other events from Jewish history, and the concern to present Jesus as fulfilling, not destroying, the Law.{{sfn|Senior|2001|pp=17–18}} Matthew must have been aware of the tendency to distort Paul's teaching of the law no longer having power over the New Testament Christian into [[antinomianism]], and addressed Christ's fulfilling of what the Israelites expected from the "Law and the Prophets" in an eschatological sense, in that he was all that the Old Testament had predicted in the Messiah.{{sfn|France|2007|pp=179–81, 185–86}} The gospel has been interpreted as reflecting the struggles and conflicts between the evangelist's community and the other Jews, particularly with its sharp criticism of the scribes and Pharisees.{{sfn|Burkett|2002|p=182}} It tells how Israel's [[Messiah]], rejected and executed in Israel, pronounces judgment on Israel and its leaders and becomes the salvation of the [[gentile]]s.{{sfn|Luz|2005b|pp=17}} Prior to the crucifixion of Jesus, the Jews are referred to as [[Israelites]]—the honorific title of God's chosen people. After it, they are called {{transliteration|grc|[[Ioudaios]]}} (Jews), a sign that—due to their rejection of the Christ—the "[[Kingdom of heaven (Gospel of Matthew)|Kingdom of Heaven]]" has been taken away from them and given instead to the church.{{sfn|Strecker|2000|pp=369–70}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page