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Matthew's Gospel contains material unique to it among the canonical Gospels. What is the background for this material? Why does the writer of Matthew's Gospel tell the story of Jesus in the way he does--including women in his genealogy, telling the story of the birth of Jesus in his particular way, and including the visit of the magi led by a star? Enoch and the Gospel of Matthew shows that the writer of Matthew was familiar with themes and traditions about the antediluvian patriarch Enoch, including the story of the fall of the angels called "watchers," who transgress their heavenly boundaries to engage in illicit relations with women and teach them forbidden arts. The Gospel writer shows that Jesus brings about the eschatological repair of the consequences of the watchers' fall as told in the Enochic legend. This study focuses on Matthew's genealogy and infancy narrative and also has implications for the study of women in Matthew, since it is often through the stories of women in Matthew that the repair of the watchers' transgression takes place.
About the author
Amy E. Richter is Rector of St. Anne's Episcopal Church and Visiting Instructor at the Ecumenical Institute at St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore, Maryland. She is author of Enoch and the Gospel of Matthew.
Joseph S. Pagano is Associate Rector of St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Annapolis, Maryland, and Affiliate Professor of Theology at Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland. He is author of The Origins and Development of the Triadic Structure of Faith in H. Richard Niebuhr, and co-author of A Man, A Woman, a Word of Love, with his wife and colleague Amy Richter.
