Saturday, August 27, 2011

More on Matthew 16:27

(Note: This is a continuation of my "thinking out loud" in the last post. Read that one first if you don't understand this one!)

In the Greek Testament, the end of Matthew 16:27 ("he will repay each person according to what he has done") is shown to be a quotation from Psalm 62:13 (that's verse 12 in your English Bible.) That Psalm is a psalm of trusting in the Lord, who is our refuge and strength - not a psalm about "works" at all. Sadly, the Lutheran Study Bible does not show these words from Matthew to be a quotation, nor do they include Ps 62 as a cross reference for this verse in the footnote. Hmmm. But I think this helps support my thought that the "his work" here could be a reference to Christ and His work for us, and not what we do.

1 comment:

Bruce said...

The bible (New American Standard) that was given to my wife and I by her parents when we were married has MATT 16:27b in SMALL CAPS indicating a direct OT quote or obvious allusion to OT text - and it references PS 62:12.
Also, the King James bible that my grandparents gave me when I turned 9 makes reference to PS 62:12. Interestingly, when I opened this bible at its bookmark it was at MATT 16 - 17! hmmmm indeed! -Bruce