Solo

Was Matthew misreading Zechariah 9:9 when his Jesus orders two donkeys for his ride to Jerusalem ? There are those who think so and this view seems to have the upper hand over those who believe that Zechariah himself spoke of two donkeys. The better class of the Hebraic text readers however more or less agree that Zechariah 9:9's formula riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey (KJV) represents parallelismus membrorum, a well known and widely practiced rhetorical technique. That Matthew, who used parallelisms to great effect (the example above cites the ones from the sermon) and shows great skill in decoding even the most difficult Markan allusions would have fallen for a relatively simple turn of phrase, seems not an attractive option to me.

I am ready to believe instead that Matthew was throwing back some of the veiled insults of Mark back at him. Perhaps, he wanted the naive Markan gospel reader to believe he was dumb enough to read Zech 9:9, as meaning 'two donkeys'. There are two other stories of Mark where Matthew mysteriously doubles up on the characters, the Gadarene demoniac and the blind man outside of Jericho. Perhaps there is a pattern here. But what does the doubling mean ? What could Matthew be driving at ? What do you think ?

Best,
Jiri

JoeWallack

JW:
http://www.errancywiki.com/index.php?title=Matthew_21:4

JW:
The short answer is that for "Matthew" the Jewish Bible was Greek and not Hebrew. I suspect that his Greek translations looked to him to refer to 2 asses and that's what he went with. He may have known that the Hebrew only referred to 1. More evidence that the evidence for the trinity evolved from...



Joseph

ErrancyWiki

Solo

The problem with that idea is that Mark, who originated the midrashic story, and after him Luke and John, used LXX as well and they had no trouble reading out the parallel construct in Zech 9:9, all concluding that the prophet intended the king to be seated on a single colt.

So the idea that Matt misread the text does not seem at all attractive. Especially when we have the strange character doubles also in the Jericho blind man tale and the Gerasene/Gadarene demoniac. Now I take it you have noted - since you have investigated the demoniac geography - that Sinaiticus and Vaticanus both show Matthew overwriting the locale of the demoniac story of Mark, in addition to doubling the character. What do you make of that ?

Best,
Jiri

Chili

The doubling of character is like the thief in the night story where 2 men on the roof or 2 men were in the kitchen when good things happen to them but of which only one goes 'poof' and raptures away to set free the man who remains, and here then Matthew's Josep is trying to drag the old ass into heaven because he liked it soo much and just could not let go of it when the going got tough. :huh:

Thinking here now of "the child that is to become the father of man" wherein '2 identities become one' but the child is the young one that carries in the old, gaciously, of course, as for him is the Alpha that comes full circle in the Omega wherein completion is found.

A good cf here is 2 Catholic icons wherein the sombre journey to Bethlehem is compared with the Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem on High wherein the same ass is rode down to Bethlehem to 'get first bread from heaven' placed in a manger but was missing in Matthew who so never got the taste of heaven himself and fled into Egypt to get some [second hand] oats there again. It is this same donkey here that once was ridden to Bethlehem is now triumphantly rode by the young one thru the gate of Heaven and into Jerusalem he went . . . so there is only one. It is a beautiful sequence worth halloweens with halleluia's cum laude but surely not fucking branches under a horse.

Please note also that Jesus failed to go to Bethany first (cf Mt. 1 and 17 with Luke 19:28) and so left the alpha behind to which he returned later that night and find refuse again in Egypt of old. IOW, he did not have his ducks in a row and I am reminded here of good old Joseph getting a failed bronc ride on Rodeo day and they had to drag his bucking horse out of the ring but had an applaus for the good effort he made.

Edit to add my bronc rider bit that was Nietzsche's camel-become-lion ride in the end.

JonA

It's difficult to believe that anyone would consider it true that Jesus rode around anywhere on two animals at once.

The more likely scenario is that Matthew intentionally ignored the artistic literary form in order to make a point that Jesus' 'fulfillment' of Scripture was as literal, precise, and complete as possible.

Jon

Chili

So then why did he leave Bethany behind if not to call home upon his return? Moreover, by now day and night should be one and the same for him (Rev.22:5) and this distinction should be like a red flag to us all. Could it be maybe that Matthew is crammed with hell and we do not see it for looking so hard to find anything good?

And please note the two in one again when day and night fade into the celestial light what Jesrusalem is all about as the city of God (Rev.21) and 22 in a land of his own (could that be the real Is-ra-el maybe?).

Solo

Unfortunately, your two sentences seem to contradict themselves. You admit that reading the text literally does not make sense, but then you argue that it was written that way (Jesus asking for two donkeys and being seated on them, επανω αυτων 21:7) to make the story available for a peshat interpretation. I don't think that works.

Best,
Jiri

Chili

And here than is a short elaboration of the broncr ride he had.

The rodeo image here is similarr to Nietzsche's Camel ride into the desert towards the oasis wherein the camel must be converted into a tiger to get to the end where the oasis is at . . . for which the camel must be unloaded so he could pass 'thru the eye of a needle' as if it were, and this is where Bethany was too much to carry and hence the bucking horse Rodeo ride and the applause for the good effort he made.

. . .or was it a lion maybe? but I think the tiger image will do.

Solo

If you want to muddy waters, how about Voodoo Chile, something along Dylan Thomas' curious boy in The Tree ?

Best,
Jiri

Warning: the shocking ending of the short story is missing from the Google Books excerpt !

Chili

No Jiri, just walk on top of it, swampy as it is and thanks for the poem. I know just on poem by Daylan Thomas and like it alot (Do not go gentle into that good night" I think it is called).