Relating Matthew to the Triennial Lectionary (Overall Layout)
Return to Index or Matthew and the Torah Sedarim
This is work in progress. The procedure followed has been:
(1) Take as a base the first year of the Nisan cycle as used in the Markan
community according to Ruddick's demonstration (i.e. Gen 1-150 & Exod 1-10,
spread over 46 readings).
(2) Examine the Markan sections in their Matthaean locations to see if the
Markan links have been retained (indicating the maintenance of the Markan
lectionary location) or removed (indicating a new lectionary location).
(3) Using certain clearly 'fixed' Matthaean points (e.g. Matt 1.1 = Gen
5.1; Matt 11.25-12.50 = Gen 1-11; Matt 19.4-5, with its reference to 'reading'
Gen 1.27, followed by a citing of Gen 2.24), and
(4) Using the Codex Vaticanus divisions as a (far from infallible)
guide,
(5) Locate the remaining material in sequence by checking for echoes of
the Torah Sedarim of any of the three years of the Nisan and Tishri cycles,
(6) Remembering that Matthew is his own 'targumist', that is, OT material
peculiar to Matthew is very eclectic and departs from both the MT and the LXX at
times (see R. H. Gundry, The Use of the OT in St Matthew's Gospel [Nov.Test.Suppl.
18, Brill, Leiden, 1967]).
(7) It would appear that Matthew has overlapped Exod 1-10 over Genesis.
Very often Matthew appears to have
shifted Markan sections to a new location in the following fashion: Mark:
Nisan lections A, Tishri lections B, with Matthew taking B lections
as Nisan lections, which would make the new Tishri lections C, but the
echoes of the C lections are already found in Mark. This
suggests that a story in its pre-Markan development has already been told
against two locations, viz, against lections A & B, and six months
later against lections B & C. This appears to have caused
Matthew to commit 'lectionary haplography', since Matt 11.25-30 appears to be
against Gen 1.1 (Nisan cycle), a point he has only reached on the basis of the Tishri
cycle echoes in his material!
What is initially presented below is
the stage reached in the 1970's. I hope to modify it substantially as I
re-work my way through Matthew starting as of 2005 and later.
| Nisan | Gen | 1.1 | 11.25 | 19.3 | 28.1 | ||
| Passover (15 Nisan) | 2.4 | 12.15 | 19.13 | 28.6 | |||
| 3.2 | 12.33 | 19.16 | 28.11 | ||||
| 5.1 Matt | 1.1 | 12.38 | |||||
| Iyyar | 6.9 | 1.24 | |||||
| 8.1 | 3.5 | ||||||
| 9.18 | 4.1 | 19.27 | |||||
| 11.1 | 12.43 | 20.17 | |||||
| Sivan | Pentecost (6 Sivan) | 12.1 | 4.12 | 13.1 | 20.20 | ||
| 18.1 | 6.1 | 13.10 | 21.1 | ||||
| 19.1 | 6.23 | 13.18 | 21.11 | ||||
| (T1: Gen 40 =) | 20.1 | 7.15 | 13.24 | ||||
| Tammuz | (Weeping for Tmmuz, Babylonian sun god, 2nd Tammuz; cf. Ezek 8.14; Amos 8.10; Jer 22.18; Dan 11.37) | 21.1 | 7.28 | 13.31 | 21.23 | ||
| 22.1 | 13.33 | 22.13 | |||||
| 24.1 | 13.36 | 23.15 | |||||
| 24.42 | 24.14 | _ | |||||
| Ab | 9th of Ab (Fast re Destruction of Temple) | 25.1 | 13.44 | | | |
|||
| 27.1 | 13.47 | 25.31 | | | ||||
| 27.28 | 13.53 | 26.26 | | | ||||
| 28.10 | 14.1 | 16.30 | | | ||||
| Elul | 29.31 | 14,13 | |23.35-26.46: | ||||
| 30.22 | 14.15 | |Motifs of Exod | |||||
| 31.3 | 14.22 | 26.48 | |11-12; sequence | ||||
| 32.4 | 14.34 | 26.58 | |of Exod 13-20 | ||||
| 33.18 | 15.1 | |continues up | |||||
| Tishri | 1 & 2 'Trumpets' & New Year | 35.9 | 25.21 | 26.64 | |to Matt 27.55 | ||
| 10: Day of Atonment | 37.1 | 15.29 | 26.65 | | | |||
| 25-21: Tabernacles | 38.2 | 25.39 | 26.69 | | | |||
| 39.2 | 7.28 | 16.13 | 27.2 | | | |||
| Cheshvan | 40.1 | 16.23 | 27.2 | | | |||
| 41,1 | 7.28 | 16.28 | | | ||||
| 41.38 | 17.14 | | | |||||
| 42.18 | 9.9 | 17.22 | 27.19 | | | |||
| Kislev | 43.14 | 9.14 | 18.1 | | | |||
| 44.18 | 9.35 | 18.7 | | | ||||
| 46.28 | 26.45 | | | |||||
| 25: Dedication (8-day feast) | 48.1 | 27.50 | | | ||||
| Tebeth | 49.1 | 10..2 | 18.18 | _ | | | ||
| 49.27 | 10.9-11.6 | 18.19 | 27.57 | ||||
| Exod | 1.1 | 10.2 | 17.26//19.3 | ||||
| 3.5 | 10.2 | 18.5//22.15 | |||||
| Shebat | 4.18 | 10.13 | 18.14//22.41 | ||||
| 6.2 | 10.22 | 18.20// | |||||
| 7.8 | 10.24 | //23.25- | |||||
| 8.16 | 11.20- | // | |||||
| 10.1 | -11.21 | 16.32//-23.29 | |||||
| Adar | 14-15 Purim and 3 or 4 special Sabbaths: Shekalim. Zachor, Parah & Hachodesh. | ||||||