Open AccessThe sword motif 'n Matthew 10:34
Author(s) -
David C. Sim
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
hts teologiese studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.282
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 2072-8050
pISSN - 0259-9422
DOI - 10.4102/hts.v56i1.1698
Subject(s) - sword , motif (music) , redaction , judgement , literature , hebrew , philosophy , theology , symbol (formal) , art , aesthetics , epistemology , linguistics , computer science , operating system
'n Mathew 10:34 Jesus uters a very dificult saying. He claims that he has not come to bring peace, but a sword. The form of this saying does not trace back to the historical Jesus; it is the product of Matthew's redaction of a Q passage which is found 'n a more original form 'n Luke 12:51. What did the evangelist mean when he wrote that Jesus brought a sword? 'n the Hebrew scriptures the sword was acommon symbol for the judgement and punishment of God, and 'n later times it represented a number of themes associated with the eschaton. It is argued 'n this study that Mathew, who was fully immersed 'n the apocalyptic-eschatological traditions of his day, probably used the sword motif 'n Matthew 10:34 to symbolise anumber of important eschatological events