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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
Introduction
The objective of this chapter is to assimilate data from previous chapters to arrive at a conclusion about the significance of the rending of the veil in Matthew's gospel. I will argue that the Matthean velum scissum depicts two striking ‘comments’ on the significance of Jesus' death. First is that it occasions an apocalyptic opening of heaven whereby the following material is conveyed as a heavenly vision depicting the sovereignty of God despite the tragic event of Jesus' death. The second is that the rending of the veil depicts the cessation of its function, which I have argued is generally to separate God from people. Its rending then permits accessibility to God in a manner not seen since Genesis 3. These readings of the Matthean velum scissum text uniquely applied to the Matthean pericope. As I showed in the introduction, the most common views associate the velum scissum with the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 c.e. and with statements about accessibility to God found in Hebrews. The former is not without its problems and warrants careful scrutiny and discussion, which I will attempt to undertake below. The latter, accessibility to God, is quite valid but in itself is incomplete and likewise warrants further review. An important starting place, however, is to define the Matthean pericope in question and examine Matthean redaction of his Markan source.
Text and Redaction
Text
The primary text under consideration is Matt. 27:51a, the velum scissum account taken from Mark (15:38).
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