Matthew 27:43 to Wisdom 2:18
Matthew 27:43 to Wisdom 2:18
Those are five examples specifically paralleling the list from Don Stewart on the Blue Letter Bible’s website; let us now consider a sixth example that is of a similar character but is not specifically set out on Stewart’s list. The example is a reference to Prophecy from Matthew, a quote of the crowd that was surrounding Jesus as he hung on the cross:
KJV Matthew 27:43: He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.
The KJV cross-references this to both Psalm 22:8 (more on that later) and Wisdom 2:18, which is part of a scene which started with “the ungodly said” (Wisdom 2:1), “Let us oppress the poor righteous man” (Wisdom 2:10), “He professeth to have the knowledge of God: and he calleth himself the child of the Lord” (Wisdom 2:13), “[He] maketh his boast that God is his father. Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him” (Wisdom 2:16-2:17) and then:
KJV Wisdom 2:18: For if the just man be the son of God, He will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.
Let’s consult some Bible commentaries[1] for what they say about Matthew 27:43:
Albert Barnes Notes on the New Testament (1800s, Presbyterian): … their prophets had foretold this very scene, and when they were fulfilling the predictions of their own Scriptures. So wonderful is the way by which God causes his word to be fulfilled.
It is the fulfillment of a Prophecy.
Ulrich Luz (Nondenominational, I believe), The Theology of the Gospel of Matthew: … he ‘fulfilled all righteousness’ 3:15. Upon hearing these words, the Matthean community senses the double-edged meaning of this scene: Jesus is, of course, the Son of God, and he will save others – but not by descending from the cross. The double-edged meaning becomes even more evident in the events surrounding Jesus’ death.
According to Luz, the crucial aspect is that Jesus is the Son of God, but he does not say what Prophecy is fulfilled.
John F MacArthur, Jr. (Evangelical), MacArthur New Testament commentary: … Nor does it seem likely that they intentionally quoted Psalm 22:8, derisively applying it to Jesus. Even to their perverse minds that would have been an irreverent treatment of Scripture. It was rather that they unwittingly fulfilled Scripture as they mocked Jesus, just as Judas, Caiaphas, Pilate, and many others had unwittingly fulfilled it.
MacArthur says it is a quote of Psalm 22:8 that was fulfilled. We will discuss Psalm 22:8 shortly.
Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament, Robert H. Smith (Lutheran): He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, before death, if he desires him (Ps. 22:8); for he said, I am the Son of God (26:64; cf. Wisdom of Sol. 2:12-20). Jesus will be delivered but not short of death, not before the cross.
Smith cites Psalm 22:8 directly and tells us to merely compare with Wisdom of Sol. 2:12-20. However, note that Smith’s citation to Psalm 22:8 falls short—it does not cover the entire quote in Matthew, so to make it fit the full sentence in Matthew, there is a further need to compare the rest of the sentence with the Book of Wisdom.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible (from the year 1710, Presbyterian): Nay, these very words David, in that famous prophecy of Christ, mentions, as spoken by his enemies (Ps. 22:8); He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Surely these priests and scribes had forgotten their psalter, or they would not have used the same words, so exactly to answer the type and prophecy: but the scriptures must be fulfilled.
Henry rules this a fulfillment of Scriptural Prophecy, by which he means Psalm 22:8, and he says it is the “same words… exactly to answer the type and prophecy” as that Psalm. We will discuss that analysis below.
The New Interpreter’s Bible (NIB; Methodist): A Commentary in Twelve Volumes: “If you are the Son of God” is added by Matthew, reflecting Wis 2:13, 18-20, itself an interpretation of Ps 22:9. Matthew adds “Son of God” because it is important to his christology (cf. his similar addition in 10:10; 20:03), and to make the challenge of the passersby correspond to 4:3, 6, where the devil issued a similar challenge using the identical words. There, too, Jesus placed himself in the category of humanity, as he does here by the most human act of all, dying a human death. The jeer of the passersby is thus more than a cruel taunt; it represents an opposing theology rejected by the canonical Gospels.
The NIB says Matthew’s “Son of God” phrasing is “important to his Christology.” Meanwhile, “The jeer of the passersby … represents an opposing theology rejected by the canonical Gospels.” It is a crucial point that Matthew is noting. In fact, it is a crucial point that the chief priests, scribes, and elders inadvertently make in their jeer, just as the Devil made it, too.
Just as it was also a crucial point to the Book of Wisdom, which builds the concept on top of Psalm 22:8. Psalm 22 never calls God “Father.” Instead, it says “But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly”—my God, not my Father. Psalm 22 involves no conception of the “Son of God” at all.
For comparison, here are the full quotes to compare:
Matthew 27:43: He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.
That sentence fulfills either or both of the following:
- He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him; or
- For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies
Wisdom 2:18 differs in a vital way from Psalm 22:8, and that difference is precisely the key to Matthew’s Christology, message, and intent. Psalm 22:8 is actually a general statement that could relate to any believer in peril (“He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him”—see Acts 12:5-17 and 16:16-40, where we see such deliverances when Peter, Paul, and Silas are all rescued from prisons by God).
In fact, Jewish Rabbis consider other “Messiahs” (not Sons of God in the Christian sense) to have fulfilled Psalm 22:8. Michael L. Brown (the “foremost messianic apologist in the world,” according to Dr. Barry R. Leventhal, academic dean of Southern Evangelical Seminary) notes in his argument that Psalm 22 is, indeed, a prophecy and that “…it is very interesting to see how Pesikta Rabbati, the famous eighth-century midrash [a Rabbinic homily], put some of the words of this psalm on the lips of the suffering Messiah (called Ephraim, but associated with the son of David), citing Psalm 22:8…”[2]
Wisdom 2:18, by its terms, could also apply to any believer who considers God his Father, which, of course, all believers should. E.g., Moses says God is our Father in Deuteronomy 32:6 (“is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?”), God Himself says He is our Father in Malachi 1:6 (“A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour?”), and God Himself commands us to call Him Father in Jeremiah 3:19 (“Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me”).
But after Christ, when we look back to the Old Testament through typology and a Christological lens, then the son of God means the Son of God, and its true fulfillment can only be through Christ. It is God the Father who fulfills it and delivers Jesus the Son.
As such, it would be prophecy from the Book of Wisdom cited to and fulfilled by the Gospel to the Jews. And who shouts out this quote at the Crucifixion? “Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said…” Matthew goes out of his way to tell his Jewish audience that the Jewish leaders were fulfilling the words from the Book of Wisdom.
But the Lutheran Smith cites the Psalm and merely says “Cf. Wisdom” because, to him, the Psalm is Scripture, and the Book of Wisdom only Apocrypha. But when we look into why the Book of Wisdom is Apocrypha, we are told that the answer is (in part) because it is not seen as authentic Prophecy fulfilled by the New Testament. It is circular reasoning, of course.
If we break the circle, then not only is the Book of Wisdom referenced in the New Testament, but it is a Prophecy that is fulfilled in the New Testament—a key part in determining whether the book is Divinely-inspired.
The early Church Fathers did not have a circle to break. So, did they view this as Prophecy? They most certainly did. From Augustine, 400 AD:
For among all their anointed ones the Jews looked for one who was to save them. But in the mysterious justice of God they were blinded; and thinking only of the power of the Messiah, they did not understand His weakness, in which He died for us. In the book of Wisdom it is prophesied of the Jews: “Let us condemn him to an ignominious death; for he will be proved in his words. If he is truly the Son of God, He will aid him; and deliver him from the hand of his enemies. Thus they thought, and erred; for their wickedness blinded them.” Wisdom 2:18-21 These words apply also to those who, in spite of all these evidences, in spite of such a series of prophecies, and of their fulfillment, still deny that Christ is foretold in the Scriptures. As often as they repeat this denial, we can produce fresh proofs, with the help of Him who has made such provision against human perversity, that proofs already given need not be repeated. Contra Faustum, 12, 44.[3]
And Augustine was not alone. Centuries earlier, Cyprian had quoted all of Wisdom 2:12-2:20 as “the sacrament of Christ, that He has come who was announced according to the Scriptures, and has done and perfected all those things whereby He was foretold as being able to be perceived and known.”[4] In addition to Cyprian, Hippolytus and Origen also cite to it as Prophecy and do so before 250 AD.
That Christ was foretold in Prophecy is a key component of the case for Christianity. To the early Church (and moderns who accept Wisdom as Scripture) the fulfillment of Wisdom 2:18 is a key part of that case.
(This example is also subject to experiment: give friends of any and every faith, or no faith whatsoever, the verse from Matthew, along with the verses from Psalms and Wisdom. But do not identify where the verses come from and ask them which they think Matthew is alluding to.)
It is not that the Psalm does not fit, but the verse from Wisdom fits the words Matthew wrote better and addresses the key point: Matthew’s Christology. Jesus is the Son of God, not just any random man who “trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him.”
Not to be lost, of course, is that this possible fulfillment of Prophecy from the Book of Wisdom occurs in the Gospel to the Jews. The words alluding to the Book of Wisdom do not occur in Mark (15:31 “Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. 32Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him”) or Luke (23:35 “And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God”) or John (nothing is said).
It is in the Gospel to the Jews (among whom were many converted Priests) that possible reference is made to the fulfillment (via the taunts of the chief priests, scribes, and elders) of this prophecy from the Book of Wisdom (which declares itself to be Divinely-inspired Scripture).
[1] I am limiting myself to line-by-line Bible commentaries solely for the sake of “brevity.” I could cite a thousand other non-commentary books, but to pick one: David Limbaugh, The Emmaus Code, lists Psalm 22:7-8 as one of the “Messianic Prophecies of the Old Testament” with its New Testament Fulfillment listed as Matthew 27:39-43, 45-49.
[2] Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, Volume 3, Baker Books 2005, p. 121.
[3] www.newadvent.org/fathers/140612.htm
[4] In his preface to Book 1, Cyprian declares that “The second book likewise contains the sacrament of Christ, that He has come who was announced according to the Scriptures …” Book 2 is, then, a series of prophecies that Jesus fulfills, with the quote from Wisdom included in Section 14. See www.newadvent.org/fathers/050712a.htm and www.newadvent.org/fathers/050712b.htm.
