O'Donoghue MTh_Thesis-FinalCopy.pdf - South African Theological ...

instruction for the believing community. Drane believes that they are provided in aneasy to use manner to assist new believers. However it doesn’t necessarily followthat easy-to-use material is meant for new believers.Matthew teaches that discipleship is to be lived out in community. Jesus taught thathumans are meant to live their lives individually responsibly before God, but withconcern for the social community of which they are a part (Guthrie 1985:153-154).The SOM can at places only make sense if it is acknowledged that humans have aresponsibility to each other. In the SOM, “it is assumed without being specificallystated that a person’s attitude and actions must take into account his responsibilitiesin the community.”2.5.3 Matthew as a BiographyMatthew provides details about the person and work of Jesus (Nolland 2005:19). Assuch Matthew can be viewed as a biography. The organisation of Matthew’s materialgets the reader to focus primarily on the person Jesus (Green 2000:39). Jesus isalways used as a personal name, with the exception of Matthew 1:21.Biographies written in antiquity by the founders of a school of a philosophy (or bytheir disciples) have some similarity to the Gospels (Nolland 2005:19). Nolland pointsout the similarity: “In both cases it is something like a charter document which canprovide definition for the movement involved and provide a point of entry for thosewho might wish to align themselves with the movement.” However, while Matthewcontains biography, it is not only biography (Green 2000:19). Matthew as a Gospel isessentially a proclamation of the saving work promised in the OT and fulfilled inJesus. The significance of the saving work of Jesus will be explored further in point2.2.5.Nolland (2005:19) argues that the difference between biographies in antiquity and aGospel is that while both were concerned with the kind of ideal taught, a Gospel isconcerned with “who he was.” i.e. in Matthew Christology is important . As a result oflearning about the person the reader learns about appropriate action in their ownworld (Humphries-Brooks 1996:4). Matthew’s purpose in discipleship was previously20