Israel, Torah and Christ in Matthew and Romans : a conversation 'within Judaism'

This thesis is a comparative study of select theological themes in Matthew's Gospel and Paul's letter to the Romans. Written in the light of current trends to read both texts 'within Judaism', as well as in response to suggestions of a fundamental theological incompatibility between the Matthean and Pauline perspectives in the work of David Sim, Benjamin White and Anders Runesson (among others), the thesis seeks to put Matthew and Romans 'into conversation' with one another on three questions that have a particular bearing on the texts' relation to Judaism. The three substantive chapters focus on 1) the role of Israel as a distinct theological character; 2) the texts' attitude to Torah observance; and 3) the texts' soteriological perspectives in relation to first-century Judaism. The methodological approach is primarily theological and, for Matthew, composition- and narrative-critical, meaning that the Gospel is treated as a theologically coherent composition in its final form. Particular attention is paid to the question of intended audience in the exegesis of both texts. The thesis argues that far from representing antithetical or incompatible trends in the first-century Jesus movement, Matthew and Romans exhibit considerable compatibility with one another, and also with first-century Judaism in their perspectives on the theological significance of Israel and on the role of Torah observance in Jewish and mixed Jew-Gentile communities, especially when the question of intended audiences is taken into account. The thesis concludes, however, that despite this continuity with Judaism in some important respects, both Matthew and Romans exhibit significant discontinuity with non-Christian forms of Judaism in their fundamentally Christocentric soteriological perspectives, though here, too, they exhibit broad theological compatibility with one another.