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.
discernment is the result of prayer to the disciples’ Father in heaven. One should remember that such insight is considered empowering by Matthew, as is the invocation of the Father’s name! In sum: a third technique used by the First Evangelist to indicate his involvement of omnipotence behind the scenes in the enablement of Jesus’ disciples is associated with the concept of revelation — by Jesus and by the Father. There is yet another!
(4) The fourth technique employed by Matthew to point to the divine indicative in the lives of Jesus’ followers is linked to the notion of their being ‘with Jesus’. Writings of this period speak of four types of teachers with adult followers: (1) philosophers (e.g., Socrates); (2) sages (e.g., Sirach); (3) interpreters of Jewish law (e.g., scribes, Pharisees, Essenes); (4) prophets or seers (e.g., John the Baptist; the Egyptian Jew mentioned by Josephus, Bell. iud. 2.261-273; Ant. 20.169-172; Acts 21,38)52. When auditors of Matthew’s Gospel heard the story of Jesus and his followers, into which of these categories would they have unconsciously slotted Jesus and the disciples?
The overall picture of Jesus and his disciples in Matthew can be sketched with about four stokes of a brush. In the First Gospel Jesus gathers followers, either through a summons (4,18-22; 9,9) or attraction (4,23-25). They follow him (4,20.22; 4,25; 9,9). They are with him (the Twelve: ‘Jesus took with him Peter and James and John’ [17,1]; ‘one of those with Jesus’ [26,51]; ‘you were with Jesus’ [26,69]; ‘this man was with Jesus’ [26,71]; the crowds: they have been with Jesus three days [15,32]). They derive benefit from his company (crowds: healings [4,25]; healing [8,1-4]; tax collectors and sinners accepted [9,10]; feeding [14,13-20]; healing [19,2]; the Twelve: safety in a storm [8,23]; eschatological benefits promised [19,27-29]; vision of Jesus and message from heaven [17,1-8]).
For a Mediterranean auditor of this Gospel, the closest analogy to Jesus and his disciples would have been a philosopher and his disciples. The four strokes with which the Gospel paints Jesus and his followers would have seemed familiar from depictions of philosophers in antiquity53. (i) Philosophers gathered disciples either by summons (e.g., Aristophanes, Nu. 505, has Socrates tell Strepsiades to ‘follow me’; Diogenes Laertius, Vit. 2.48, tells of Socrates meeting Xenophon