The sword motif in Matthew 10:34
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Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria
Abstract
In Matthew 10:34 Jesus utters a very difficult saying. He claims that he has not
come to bring peace, but a sword. The form of this saying does not trace back to the
historical Jesus; it is the product of Matthew's redaction of a Q passage which is
found in a more original form in Luke 12:51. What did the evangelist mean when he
wrote that Jesus brought a sword? In the Hebrew scriptures the sword was a
common symbol for the judgement and punishment of God, and in later times it
represented a number of themes associated with the eschaton. It is argued in this
study that Matthew, who was fully immersed in the apocalyptic-eschatological
traditions of his day, probably used the sword motif in Matthew 10:34 to symbolise a
number of important eschatological events.
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Keywords
Matthew 10:34, Sword motif, Apocalyptic-eschatological traditions, Historical Jesus
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
Sim, DC 2000, 'The sword motif in Matthew 10:34', HTS Teologiese Studies/ Theological Studies, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 84-104.