1 Matthew The popularity of the Gospel of Matthew enhanced its impact on the theology of the early church and made it an important object of early Christian theologizing. Its Jewish slant combined with its interest in the discipling of “all the nations” to give it universal appeal (28:19). Its systematic organization lent it to heavy liturgical use. (To this day, its version of the Lord’s Prayer is regularly used instead of Luke’s.) And its featuring the ethical teaching of Jesus made it especially suitable for catechetical instruction. Historical Examples of Interplay Between Matthew and Theology. Without evaluation, here are some of the more important instances of interplay between Matthew and theology. The doctrine of the immaculate conception grew out of the story of Jesus’ virgin birth (1:18–25; also in Luke). The doctrine of Mary’s perpetual virginity marked a further development. John the Baptist’s saying he needs Jesus to baptize him has played into the doctrine of Jesus’ sinlessness, and Jesus’ insisting on baptism by John “to fulfill all righteousness” despite his (Jesus’) sinlessness played into the doctrine of Christ’s imputed righteousness (3:14–17). The designation of Jesus as God’s Son at the baptism contributed to adoptionism, and the temptation of Jesus (4:1–11) raised the theological question whether he was able not to sin or was not able to sin. His affirmation of every jot and tittle of the Law and the Prophets (5:18) has been used to undergird belief in the verbal, plenary inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture. The nonabolishment of the Law and demand that it be taught and kept (5:17, 19–20) has posed a theological confrontation with Paul’s rejection of law- righteousness. Jesus’ escalation of the law’s demands (5:21–48) led to perfectionism (as in the monastic and anabaptist traditions), ethical idealism (as in the two-kingdoms doctrine of Lutheranism), the social gospel (as in Protestant liberalism), and limitation to a future millennium (as in dispensationalism). Matthew’s pervasive stress on the kingdom of heaven has gone in the theological directions of consistent eschatology (Jesus thought the end was about to come), ecclesiology (the church represents the kingdom), and millenarianism (Jesus offered the kingdom to the Jewish nation—“the gospel of the kingdom” differing from the Christian gospel—and by and large the Jews refused it, so that the kingdom will arrive in a future millennium only after the interim of the church age). Consistent eschatology produced