The purpose of this thesis is to explore the significance of conflict stories in the Gospel of Matthew from a literary critical perspective. The key research question the thesis has attempted to answer is, how do conflict stories function in Matthew’s narrative? Because their interest is often limited to the Sitz im Leben behind the Matthean text, previous studies attempting the similar pursuit view conflict stories as transparent accounts of Matthew’s polemical program against the Jews or Judaism. Thus they have neglected a vital purpose of the author, that is, besides his interest to record or preserve what happened in history, the Gospel author is also interested to arouse or affirm the readers’ faith in Jesus through his preservation and redaction of his sources, which is an inseparable part of the author’s theological program. How exactly then has his literary work achieved this purpose? Assuming the literary unity of the Matthean text, this study has treated the Matthean text as a mirror and explored literary nuances reflected by the textual ‘surface.’ Under such a premise, the narrative analysis of this thesis has highlighted three foci: 1. The connection which each conflict makes with its narrative context; 2. How the Hebrew Scripture interacts with the author’s composition or redaction of the stories; and 3. The literary impact these stories have on the implied reader. This study selects a total of seventeen conflict stories in Matthew based on three criteria, Matt 9.1-8, 9-13, 14-17; 12.1-8, 9-14, 22-37, 38-45; 13.53-58; 15.1-9; 16.1-4; 19.1-9; 21.14-17, 23-27; 22.15-22, 23-33, 34-40, 41-46: 1. The presence of an attitude of hostility or challenge in the setting of the narrative (either explicit or implied); 2. The presence of a question of an accusation or a challenge; and 3. The question or the accusation is usually followed by a reply of Jesus. In conclusion, the literary analysis of this study suggests two most important functions of Matthean conflict stories: 1. Conflict stories function, either individually or in clusters, as kernels of the Matthean plot to advance the narrative forward in order to reach its climax in the passion narrative. 2. The Christological focus in conflict stories is consistently concerned not only with the superiority of Jesus over the opponents, but more importantly with the nexus between the divine status of Jesus and him being the messianic figure.

This study fills a gap in previous research concerning the portrayal of Peter in Matthew, especially the research of narrative-critical studies. Although narrative-critical studies generally recognize that Matthew has portrayed Peter and the disciples as recipients of revelation at points, they almost entirely neglect the apocalypses or apocalyptic literature more broadly as a potentially helpful background for this motif, nor does the motif itself figure significantly into their conclusions. Therefore, Part 1 of this study examines fourteen different Jewish and Christian apocalypses in order to determine generic aspects of how the apocalypses portray their seers, and to identify specific textual features that support these generic aspects of a seer’s portrayal. These specific textual features then provide the guiding coordinates for Part 2, which assesses the influence of the generic portrayal of apocalyptic seers on the portrayal of Peter and the disciples in Matthew’s Gospel and main source, Mark’s Gospel. Like the apocalypses, both Evangelists deploy the features of exclusionary statements, narrative isolation, dissemination details, and emphasis of cognitive humanity and emotional-physical humanity to portray Peter and the disciples as the exclusive recipients of revealed mysteries, and as humans who encounter the mysteries of the divine realm. This leads to the conclusion that both Evangelists envisaged Peter and the disciples as apocalyptic seers in some sense. However, Matthew’s redaction of Markan source material, incorporation of Q source material, and his own special material yield a more fully developed, or more explicit, portrayal of Peter and the disciples as apocalyptic seers than his Markan predecessor. The study concludes by focusing directly on Peter’s significance for Matthew and his earliest audience. The research suggests that Peter’s significance was, in part, as principal apocalyptic seer, which requires revision to the predominant scholarly conclusions about Peter in Matthew.

A presente dissertação tem por objetivo estudar um comentário bíblico do franciscano Pedro de João Olivi (ca.1248-1298), intitulado Lectura super Matthaeum (leitura ou comentário sobre Mateus), capítulo 16, visando compreender os métodos interpretativos de análise adotados por esse franciscano, bem como os assuntos tratados, tais como a visão que nutria a respeito da Igreja de Roma, as críticas que fez sobre os rumos da Ordem Franciscana e a doutrina do pleno poder papal. Nesse sentido, buscamos identificar se essa doutrina aparece, e como aparece, em nossa fonte principal de estudo, discorrendo de que forma suas ideias contribuíram para abalar as estruturas eclesiásticas, além de verificar em que medida as teses por ele desenvolvidas levaram a uma real necessidade de se reformular a plenitudo potestatis papalis. / The goal masters dissertation is the analysis of Franciscan Peter John Olivis biblical comment named Lectura super Matthaeum (comment under Matthew), chapter 16. We propose to understand the method of interpretation and analysis adopted by Olivi, as well as his themes, like his perspectives about the Church of Rome, his criticism about the Franciscan Order, and the absolute papal governments doctrine. For, we search to identify if that doctrine appears and how it happens in our main source of study, and to show by which means his ideas contributed to put in check the ecclesiastical structure. We propose, also, to verify by which manner the thesis developed by Olivi conducted to a real need of reformulation of the plenitudo potestatis papalis.

A presente dissertação tem por objetivo estudar um comentário bíblico do franciscano Pedro de João Olivi (ca.1248-1298), intitulado Lectura super Matthaeum (leitura ou comentário sobre Mateus), capítulo 16, visando compreender os métodos interpretativos de análise adotados por esse franciscano, bem como os assuntos tratados, tais como a visão que nutria a respeito da Igreja de Roma, as críticas que fez sobre os rumos da Ordem Franciscana e a doutrina do pleno poder papal. Nesse sentido, buscamos identificar se essa doutrina aparece, e como aparece, em nossa fonte principal de estudo, discorrendo de que forma suas ideias contribuíram para abalar as estruturas eclesiásticas, além de verificar em que medida as teses por ele desenvolvidas levaram a uma real necessidade de se reformular a plenitudo potestatis papalis. / The goal masters dissertation is the analysis of Franciscan Peter John Olivis biblical comment named Lectura super Matthaeum (comment under Matthew), chapter 16. We propose to understand the method of interpretation and analysis adopted by Olivi, as well as his themes, like his perspectives about the Church of Rome, his criticism about the Franciscan Order, and the absolute papal governments doctrine. For, we search to identify if that doctrine appears and how it happens in our main source of study, and to show by which means his ideas contributed to put in check the ecclesiastical structure. We propose, also, to verify by which manner the thesis developed by Olivi conducted to a real need of reformulation of the plenitudo potestatis papalis.