On Following Jesus: the ‘Eager’ Scribe and the ‘Reluctant’ Disciple (Matthew 8.18–22)

New Testament interpreters have long puzzled over the meaning of the saying, “Let the dead bury their own dead” (Matt 8:22; Luke 9:60), and although many ingenious solutions have been proposed, none has been generally convincing. It is surprising that Jewish burial practices have not been brought into this discussion. For the burial practices of first-century Jews in Palestine are well known: many tombs have been carefully excavated, and several rabbinic texts explicitly discuss the care of the dead. Yet this information has never (to my knowledge) been brought to bear on Matt 8:21–22. In this paper, I propose that secondary burial, a widespread burial custom among Jews in first-century Palestine, can solve the riddle of these verses. Against the background of secondary burial, both the meaning of the disciple's question and the force of Jesus' response become clear. In particular, it is not necessary to suppose, as many interpreters do, that Jesus was talking about the “spiritually” dead. On the contrary, if the references to the dead are taken literally, the saying sounds both ironic and eschatological.

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On True and False Disciples in Matthew 8.18–22

Gundry

1994

New Testam. Stud.

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In a recent issue of this journal, J. Kiilunen successfully refuted several key arguments in J. D. Kingsbury's discussion, also in this journal, of Matt 8.18-22. 1 In particular, Kiilunen showed that the use of EKEXEUOEV instead of EK&X.eaev (v. 18) does not rule out a following reference to discipleship in (XTIEXBEVV Eiq to jcEpocv, that the use of 8i8aaicaXE instead of KupiE (v. 19; contrast v. 21) does not rule out discipleship on the part of the speaker, that the expressed eagerness to follow Jesus wherever he goes (v. 19) does not betray an unacceptable arrogation of authority belonging only to Jesus, and that 'the Son of man' (v. 20) does not imply Jesus' rejection of the would-be follower. On the other hand, Kiilunen's opinion that ETEpoq 8E tcov ua9r|T6}v outou (v. 21) most probably does not imply discipleship on the part of fitq ypa\i\La%eo$ (v. 19) agrees with Kingsbury's opinion and needs refutation. The present article aims to supply both that refutation and the refinement that Matt 8.18-22 presents not one scribe but two, both of them professing disciples, the first one true, the second false. Both Kingsbury and Kiilunen set great store by Matthean usage and context; so it is surprising that they neglect Matthean usage and context when coming to the central question, Does EtEpoq. .. TCOV n.a9r| Tcov amox> imply that Eiq Ypa|inai£-6<; was a disciple? If so, the scribe was expressing a determination to follow Jesus because of an already existing discipleship, not a determination to follow Jesus by way of becoming a disciple. But Kingsbury will not have it so. 2 He correctly points out that often in Matthew 'scribes' stands for non-disciples without the modifier 'their', so that other things being equal the absence of 'their' (contrast its insertion at Matt 7.29 into material borrowed from Mark 1.22) need not imply discipleship on the part of the present scribe. 3 Kingsbury's further contention that EII; may be taken as indefinite is very doubtful for Matthew (more on this question later) but somewhat irrelevant, since 'another of his disciples' might imply the discipleship of 'a scribe' just as easily as it might imply the discipleship of 'one scribe'.

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On Following Jesus: the ‘Eager’ Scribe and the ‘Reluctant’ Disciple (Matthew 8.18–22)

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“Let the Dead Bury Their Own Dead”; Secondary Burial and Matt 8:21–22

On True and False Disciples in Matthew 8.18–22

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