Endnote 19 – Reinterpreting John

K. Stendahl rightly demonstrated that there is a School of Matthew and that the means of interpreting scripture is strikingly like that found in the Qumran commentaries (the Pesharim), see Stendahl, The School of St. Matthew and Its Use of the Old Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968). Also see K. Schubert, “The Sermon on the Mount and the Qumran Texts,” in The Scrolls and the New Testament, pp. 118–128; and W. D. Davies, The Setting of the Sermon on the Mount (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966) esp. pp. 208–256. Davies argues—and 1 fully concur—that the Sermon on the Mount “reveals an awareness of the [Dead Sea Scroll] Sect and perhaps a polemic against it.” (p. 235)