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The statements in Matthew's gospel concerning God's judgement are often regarded merely as admonitory threats to a Christian community at risk of losing the magic of its beginnings. By contrast, the author of this volume puts them in a new light by interpreting them against the contemporary background of the first Jewish-Roman War. A decisive precondition here is that Matthew's community does not view the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the Temple as a judgement against the Jewish people that does not affect them. Instead, they see it as triggering a deep-seated crisis of meaning that urgently poses the question of God's righteousness in their own (Jewish) history. The judgement statements in the Gospel according to Matthew places its readers, now followers of Jesus Christ, at a critical time "between the judgements" of God on his people - the judgement occurring in the destruction of the temple and the Last Judgement they thought to be imminent. This age is one of eschatological trial, concerned with reinstituting Jewish religious culture after the loss of the soteriologically significant cultic centre.
About the author
Dr. Olaf Rölver ist seit 2004 am Lehrstuhl für alttestamentliche Wissenschaften der Universität Bamberg tätig, derzeit ist er Akademischer Rat auf Zeit.
