Abstract:
Matthew is to be read as a narration with an ongoing plot and an open
end. There is a correlation between the (post-paschal) Jesus' commission
and the risen Jesus' presence in his disciples' (post-paschal) commission
until the parousia. This insight amounts to the fact that the plot
of Matthew is continuing after its apparent conclusion, only to be
resolved in its implied continuation. The intention of the paper is to describe,
against the background of the debate among Matthean scholars,
the function of the use of the First Testament in the light of the abovementioned
two sequences. The term 'First Testament' in this instance is
not restricted to the Hebrew canon but also includes some pseudepigrapha
which were not considered as 'outside a canon' either by the
synagogue or the church, for example 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, The lives of
the prophets and Pseudo-Philo.
