I. Damiel
Pls view textual comparison:
Peter’s Confession (Mark 8: 27-30, Matthew 16: 13-17)
What did Peter actually say?
Mark: “You are the Christ”.
Matthew: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”.
Many Bible notes and commentaries acknowledge that here Matthew has added the additional phrase into the mouth of Jesus. (New Jerusalem Bible, pg 34)
Pls view textual comparison: Jesus’ Rejection at Nazareth (Mark 6: 1-6, Matthew 13: 53-58)
As you can see, Mark’s version depicts Jesus as being powerless in the face of unbelief and was unable to do any miracles. Matthew changes the Mark’s version to eliminate this problem.
Mark: “He could not do any mighty work there…”
Matthew: “He did not do many miracles there…”
Scholars have also suggested that Matthew wanted to avoid the description of Jesus as a carpenter and therefore changed it, due to the general negative attitudes towards manual labor, which were characteristic among the elite of the Greco-Roman world.
Pls view textual comparison: Jesus Heals Many (Mark 1: 32-34, Matthew 8: 16-17)
In Mark Jesus heals many, but in Matthew he heals all!
Pls view textual comparison: Jesus’ Mother and Brothers (Mark 3: 31-35, Matthew 12:46-50)
Here, Matthew changes “God” to “Father” in Jesus’ speech in order to support later developing ideas about Jesus and God.
Pls view textual comparison: Walking on Water (Mark 6: 45-52, Matthew 14: 22-33)
Note the following changes and additions made by Matthew from Mark: Firstly, he omitted Bethsaida due to its geographical difficulty. Secondly, Peter in Matthew’s gospel addresses Jesus by the honorific title “Lord”. Thirdly, the disciples worship Jesus and finally they all confess that Jesus is the “Son of God”.
Through time, like a snowball, the more the message of Jesus was passed around, the more it got bigger and better. The above passage illustrates how Matthew modified the speech of individuals to produce the result, that Jesus is called “Lord”. Now it is true that Lord does not necessarily mean God. But in the later Christian thinking it will mean exactly that. Matthew was inadvertently setting the stage of Jesus’ promotion to Godhead.
