Jew Against Jew : The Reception of Paul in Matthew's Christian Jewish Community

Internal Jewish disagreements and conflicts are as old as Judaism itself. In this study I wish to examine a Jewish dispute from the first century, the conflict between the apostle Paul and the evangelist Matthew. Whether we view this as an internal
Jewish disagreement or as an internal Christian dispute is a matter of definition and perspective, and involves complex issues pertaining to both Jewish and Christian self-identification in the first century. A case can be made for both propositions, since Paul and Matthew were both ethnically or racially Jewish and self-professed believers in the messiahship of Jesus. The question that will concern us in this study is whether and how Paul and his distinctive version of the gospel were received in the community represented by the Gospel of Matthew. My own view, as I have argued for two decades, was that Matthew was inherently anti-Pauline; Paul was thus not well received in Matthew’s community. My critics have marshaled many arguments against this view, but a common thread is the proposition that Matthew either had no knowledge of Paul or little awareness of him, or was perhaps indifferent to him. In the opinion of these scholars, we cannot really even talk about the reception of Paul in Matthew’s Christian-Jewish community. This response is as surprising as it is unconvincing, and will be dealt with later in this study.

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