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.
way God’s activity in the world was seen but to a ‘compositional alternative of treatment, in the interests of plotting and variety’27. Take Genesis for example. In Genesis one starts out with: God said, and it was so. This has a long-range effect on one’s perceptual set.
It develops a first impression of a world controlled by a prime mover and coherent to the exclusion of accident. Reinforced at strategic junctures by later paradigms and variants, it also enables the narrative to dispense with the continual enactment of divine intervention that would hamper suspense and overschematize the whole plot28.
This way of dealing with the divine activity (indicative) he calls ‘omnipotence behind the scenes’. It is seen at work, for example, in the stories about Joseph and about David’s accession to the throne. In the NT, other scholars have seen the same technique at work in the activities of Paul in Acts 23–28, for example29. I would suggest, then, that what is to be looked for are techniques that are appropriate to a narrative style that often deals in ‘omnipotence behind the scenes’. It is this type of narrative that one encounters in Matt 5–25, insofar as disciples are concerned. It is, therefore, for techniques that allow the evangelist to speak in terms of ‘omnipotence behind the scenes’ that one is to search.
There are at least four techniques, about which I know, that fit such a method of narration and that are found in Matthew. They may be summarized as: (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. Each of these devices will need to be examined in order.
(1) Let us begin with the formula ‘with you’ or ‘in your midst’, a technique of speaking about divine enablement that has already been the subject of some discussion in New Testament circles. The definitive work on the formula itself was done by van Unnik in 195930. He