Your, ours, and mine: Jesus' use of the prophetic possessive in the Gospel of Matthew

Abstract

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus overwhelmingly prefers to use the term Father in addressing the disciples, which often appears to affirm the special relationship the disciples have with God. In several instances, however, Jesus uses the phrase "my Father," making a distinction between himself and the disciples. The use of this phrase extends over a significant portion of the gospel narrative and has the rhetorical force of pressing the disciples, and the implied readers who come to identify with the disciples, to adopt certain actions and avoid others, lest they lose their honored status in the Jesus-community.

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In 1988 Robert L. Mowery produced an important study of the various terminology used for God in the book of Matthew. Nearly a decade later Mowery followed his initial study with an article in Catholic Biblical Quarterly noting the transition of language in the early part of the Gospel from an emphasis on God as Lord (kyrios) to a vision of God as Father (pater), beginning in the Sermon on the Mount. Mowery makes several enlightening points on the use of the language of God in Matthew, several of which are foundational for this study. First, Jesus does not use the term Father in discussion with either the Pharisees or the devil, but only in discourse with the disciples or disciples/crowds. In fact, Jesus prefers the term Father in addressing the disciples overwhelmingly more so than Lord or God (Father 37x, God 8/9x, Lord 2x; Mowery 1988: 27-28). Second, Jesus is the only character in the Gospel of Matthew to use the term Father, with one exception in 21:9 (Mowery 1988: 33). Third, Jesus identifies God as his own Father through the use of the phrases my Father, my heavenly Father, or my Father in heaven on sixteen occasions (Mowery 1988: 28). Finally, the first occasion of Jesus' use of my Father occurs near the end of the Sermon on the Mount (7:21), though thereafter he usually identifies God as his father (Mowery 1997: 655).

Mowery correctly notes that "These references to the Father repeatedly remind the reader of the unique relationship between the Father and the Son" (1997: 655). Yet it is important to recognize nuances within Jesus' use of possessive paternal language in the Gospel after the Sermon on the Mount. For example, on two occasions Jesus uses possessive language in direct address to God, i.e., in prayer (26: 39, 42). That means the remaining fourteen instances occur in direct discourse with the disciples. Of significance for this study is the way that Jesus uses the possessive my Father in addressing the disciples on a number of occasions.

Several scholars of the First Testament note that the prophets occasionally use special phrasing to distinguish their relationship to YHWH from their perception of the people's relationship to YHWH. Consequently, on occasion, when a prophet says, "Thus says YHWH my God," the prophet intends to distinguish his relationship to YHWH from the people's relationship to YHWH. The subtle insult here is that the prophets claim a relationship with YHWH that they simultaneously deny to the people. Thus, when Isaiah confronts Ahaz when he refuses to ask for a sign, Isaiah says, "Hear then, O house of David. Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also" (Isa 7:13). Isaiah's use of my God makes the implication that Ahaz has proven that YHWH is not his god by his unwillingness to listen to the message of YHWH through Isaiah. In Zechariah 11:4, the prophet begins his message to the poor shepherds, "Thus said YHWH my God." The text following (Zech 11:5-17) makes clear that, in fact, YHWH does not want to assert any claim to the shepherds, but instead seeks their destruction. YHWH is not their god. I have chosen to use the phrase "the prophetic possessive" for such usage (I believe that I borrow this phrase from another scholar, but have not found it in the resources I drew upon in this particular study: e.g. Eissfeldt: 9-11; Mason: 139; Meier, Meyers/Meyers: 249).

In my analysis of the fourteen remaining instances of Jesus' use of the possessives my Father, my heavenly Father, or my Father in heaven, I believe that nine of these function as prophetic possessives. That is, though Jesus uses the Father-language in discourse with the disciples, this language is nuanced and in many cases Jesus particularly uses this prophetic possessive. Furthermore, the use of the prophetic possessive extends across a significant length of the narrative of the Gospel of Matthew so that it appears to achieve a rhetorical effect through repeated use. The fact that the parallel material in Mark and Luke lacks this possessive form lends some credence to the idea that this language produces a rhetorical effect in the Gospel of Matthew. In this article I aim to investigate the rhetorical effect of the prophetic possessive, how it is achieved, and how this affects our understanding of the Gospel of Matthew and its theology.