Matthews Christology is one that emphasises to a Jewish audience the Jewishness of Jesus. It will be the purpose of this paper to argue that the raison detre of Matthews Christology is to portray Jesus as entirely compatible if not with the Judaism of his day then with ancient Judaic tradition, namely the Old Testament. Whilst there are numerous titles given to Jesus that are exclusive/predominant within the Matthean account, such as that of Son of God, it is the writers assertion that these merely complement Matthews central theses; this being the portrayal of Jesus as Messiah and so, as such, will not be investigated except where they promote this conclusion. This fulfilment of Judaic tradition will be investigated in three separate yet interrelated areas: Jesus as the fulfilment of Hebraic messianic expectation, Jesus role as a Jewish teacher and Jesus as inaugurator of Gods Kingdom. Matthew is a Semitic gospel written as an encouragement to Jewish Christians and as an apologetic to unbelieving Jews. From the outset Matthew identifies Jesus as one of royal Davidic lineage and Abrahamic descent. Matthew immediately identifies with Judaic tradition portraying Jesus with the Immanuel figure of Isaiah 7:14 (1:23). This motif of the Jewishness of the gospel is especially prevalent in its depiction of Jesus role as the fulfilment of the Old Testaments messianic hope (2:4, 26:63) as well as running throughout the text on varying levels. Perhaps one of the most interesting theories offered in detailing this continuation between testaments is Leskes proposal that Jesus role and ministry is antecedent to the Isaianic literature, and, in particular, the Servant nation of Israel. Whilst a comprehensive critique of Leskes argument is outside the scope of this study, it would seem fair to concur that Matthew does indeed identify Jesus with the Servant (cf. 3:17; Isaiah 42:1). Consequently, we see in Matthews depiction of Jesus a fundamental te...
