The human face

The Teacher of Israel – Matthew’s Jesus
‘The human face Symbolism and meaning

Our detailed consideration of Mark has demonstrated the person-centred reading of the gospels as biographies. About 90 per cent of Mark (around 600 verses) is repeated in Matthew, slightly abbreviated into some 523 verses to comprise about roughly half of his gospel. Yet, despite this, Matthew’s overall picture of Jesus is rather different. He gives us a much fuller portrait, conforming his gospel closer to biography with his extra material in the birth and resurrection narratives, plus a lot more teaching…