jewish-christian gospels and syriac gospel traditions Jewish law that were a watershed between Jewish and Christian commu-
nities: circumcision, the Sabbath, purity laws. The ten commandments
and the love commandment should be regarded as part of the common
stock of Jewish-Christian tradition and therefore the fact that they are
discussed (or ignored) does not make the passage more Christian or Jew-
ish. Only the rhetoric of the discussion, which seems to take the teach-
ings of the Torah for granted, may tell us something about the degree of
Jewishness of the community.Jesus’ Role and the Borders of the Community
Another “deletion” in theGospel of the Hebrewsis also revealing. The
Christological/Monotheistic implications of the synoptic version are
plain: Jesus singles out the address “Good teacher” in order to make a
short, monotheistic point that only God is good. Notably, the monothe-
istic note (“only One is good”) is still present in Matthew, although at
the beginning of the discussion Matthew did not want to contrast God’s
goodness with that of Jesus as clearly as Mark and Luke. As we have seen,
Matthew changed Mark’s “Good teacher, what.. .?” into “Teacher, what
good.. .?” and the passage in Origen’s commentary follows Matthew.
However, in contrast to Matthew, Origen’s passage totally bypasses the
opportunity for a short lesson on monotheism. Together with other Jew-
ish features of the text, this suggests that the writer of the passage and his
audience took monotheism for granted.^51
In the story, Jesus is addressed as a teacher. The same address is always
used by outsiders who fail to understand Jesus’ true identity as Kyrios in
Matthew’s gospel.^52 For Matthew, the address is one means of showing
that the man comes to Jesus with the wrong expectations. He pays a visit
to a teacher in order to get some additional tips on how enter eternal life
but is suddenly challenged by an exhortation to sell everything and to
follow Jesus. Although the other synoptics do not use the terms “teacher”
(^51) As for Matthew, the fact that his Jesus does not explicitly deny his own “goodness”
may indicate that in his community, Jesus was gradually gaining divine status. It is should
be noted that, in contrast to Mark, but in accordance with Luke, Matthew omits Israel’s
traditional creed in Matt : (cf. Mark :). A more detailed discussion in Luomanen
, –.
(^52) The occurrences of the address “teacher” in Mark :; :; :, and :, that
are on the lips of Jesus’ followers or supplicants, are either omitted by Matthew or replaced
with another word. The correct address for the disciples and supplicants in Matthew is
Kyrios.