Abstract
This thesis argues that the Matthean Jesus’s temple action was the fulfilment of Mal 3:24, where YHWH says that if Elijah is unsuccessful in his eschatological task, then when YHWH comes, he will strike the land with a curse of destruction. The literature review (1.6) surveys recent works on Jesus’s temple action which, when taken together, give the impression that the temple actions meaning is still under–determined. Each proposal surveyed suffers from strong counter arguments and unanswered questions resulting in the meaning of the temple action remaining an enigma. This thesis opts for a fresh approach by reading Matthew as a narrative in which Elijah’s return determines the meaning of Jesus’s temple action. It proposes that Matthew has Jesus and John the Baptist act out the parts of Malachi that refer to Elijah’s return before the day of YHWH.
In Matthew’s telling, John the Baptist plays the part of Elijah, and Jesus, the one coming after him, is the divine agent. As Malachi’s Elijah, John the Baptist leads a renewal movement in preparation for the Coming One. However, according to Matthew, the eschatological Elijah is largely rejected by his “wicked generation,” arrested, and eventually executed by one of their rulers. This has consequences for Jesus’s vocation as the Coming One. According to Mal 3:1, 23–4 he must now come suddenly to the temple and strike the land with a curse of destruction. Matthew’s narrativization indicates that this is what the Matthean Jesus does in his temple action.
When one reads Matthew’s Gospel through the lens of Elijah’s return, the temple action appears as the fulfilment of Mal 3:24 (MT). Matthew tells how the eschatological Elijah was unsuccessful and how Jesus enters into conflict with the temple hierarchy as a climactic part of his vocation. Matthew brackets the conflict in the temple with two citations about the Coming One, which in Matthew refers to the one who shares the divine identity and comes after Elijah – Jesus. Following his temple action the Matthean Jesus explains his authority to enact a sign of judgment as being related to John’s baptism and he accuses his enemies of rejecting John the Baptist and of murder. It is the Malachian drama of Elijah’s return that permeates the context of Matthew’s temple action and provides it with meaning. Jesus’s temple action in Matthew is an enacted curse that embodies the fate of those who rejected and murdered the eschatological Elijah.