Charles H. Talbert, «Indicative and Imperative in Matthean Soteriology», Vol. 82 (2001) 515-538
It is usually thought that Matthew emphasizes the imperative at the expense of the indicative, demand over gift. Identifying Matthew’s indicative is difficult because in chapters 5–25, insofar as disciples are concerned, the narrative is told in terms of ‘omnipotence behind the scenes’. In Matt 5–25 four techniques appropriate to such a method of narration speak of the divine indicative in relation to the imperative. They are (1) I am with you/in your midst, (2) invoking the divine name, (3) it has been revealed to you/you have been given to know, and (4) being with Jesus. They show Matthew’s soteriology is by grace from start to finish.
bodies of saints are raised and appear to many in Jerusalem (27,51-53). In connection with the stories of Jesus’ resurrection, there is a great earthquake and an angel descends from heaven, rolls back the stone from before the tomb (28,2), frightens the soldiers nearly to death (28,4), and tells the women that Jesus has been raised (28,6). The beginning and ending of the First Gospel are full of explicit divine interventions into human affairs. The main body of the Gospel that contains the five big teaching sections (Matt 5–25) is narrated in a very different way. Especially when the text concerns disciples’ obedience to the teachings of Jesus, divine intervention appears to be either absent or well hidden in the background. Hence the problem about the indicative and the imperative in the First Gospel. There are different ways to explain such shifts in the narrative.
Von Rad attempts to understand the different types of approach to God’s action in history in OT narrative by setting up a dichotomy between an early view and a later one. The older idea of God’s action in history involved YHWH’s immediate visible and audible intervention (e.g., Gen 28,17; similar to the beginning and ending of Matthew’s Gospel). A later idea dispenses with any outwardly perceptible influence of YHWH on history. God’s guidance comes in hidden ways (e.g., the narrative of the wooing of Rebecca, the Joseph stories, Ruth, the history of the succession to David; more like Matt 5–25). A new way of picturing YHWH’s action in history led to a new technique in narrative.
For an era which no longer experienced Yahweh’s working mainly in the sacral form of miracles ... could therefore no longer satisfactorily express its faith in a sacral narrative-form ... Nature and History ... became secularized, and was as it were, overnight released from the sacral orders sheltering it. In consequence, the figures in stories now move in a completely demythologized and secular world ... In order to show Yahweh at work, these story-tellers have no need of wonders or the appearance of charismatic leaders — events develop apparently in complete accord with their own inherent character24.
Psychological processes (e.g., Saul’s love-hate relation with David) dominate in a world that has gotten into the habit of looking on human affairs in such a secular way25.
Sternberg is surely right, however, when he notes that in the Hebrew Bible the books mix overt and implicit guidance by God26. The difference in style is due not to a historical development in the