Righteous Bloodshed, Matthew's Passion Narrative, and the Temple's Destruction: Lamentations as a Matthean Intertext.

The author argues that Matthew 27:39 does allude to Lamentations 2:15. The extensive presence of Psalm 22 throughout Matthew's depiction of crucifixion often leads scholars to conclude that Matthew's use of the phrase wagging the head in 27:39 also derives from Psalm 22. Matthew draws on Lamentations in his account of the events leading up to the crucifixion in order to portray Jesus' death as the primary act of righteous bloodshed by the hands of the religious authorities in Jerusalem.