2011-01-072011-01-072000Sim, DC 2000, 'The sword motif in Matthew 10:34', HTS Teologiese Studies/ Theological Studies, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 84-104.0259-9422 (print)http://hdl.handle.net/2263/15500Spine cut of Journal binding and pages scanned on flatbed EPSON Expression 10000 XL; 400dpi; text/lineart - black and white - stored to Tiff Derivation: Abbyy Fine Reader v.9 work with PNG-format (black and white); Photoshop CS3; Adobe Acrobat v.9 Web display format PDFIn 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.enFaculty of Theology, University of PretoriaMatthew 10:34Sword motifApocalyptic-eschatological traditionsHistorical JesusBible -- N.T. -- Matthew X, 34 -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.Jesus Christ -- WordsArticle