Conclusions

Summary

This study of Matthew's gospel has attempted to reconstruct and to understand its important apocalyptic-eschatological component. It was stated in the Introduction that since no full-scale study of this theme had yet been undertaken, the present work was an attempt to fill this gap. The first Part of the study was devoted to the general concepts of apocalyptic eschatology and apocalypticism in the time of Matthew. It was argued that these phenomena are necessarily related, the one denoting a distinctive religious perspective and the other its underlying social movement, and that neither is confined to the apocalyptic literature. While it was conceded that this religious perspective or vision of reality was an unsystematic phenomenon and that one can hardly speak of an apocalyptic theology, it was argued that eight characteristics recur with great frequency in the apocalyptic-eschatological schemes of the evangelist's day. An apocalyptic-eschatological perspective or world view, therefore, consists of a substantial cluster of these motifs.

Two of these characteristics, dualism and determinism, are not in themselves eschatological, but they provide the context in which the eschatological themes function. The former relates in almost every case to a fundamental division between the righteous and the wicked in the human world. In some apocalyptic groups this dualistic perception of the human world is associated with a similar division in the cosmic realm where a struggle for supremacy rages between God and Satan and their respective angelic allies. The deterministic component of apocalyptic eschatology concerns the broad sweep of history.