Help Needed: Gospel of St. Matthew Bible Study

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Dear Friends,

I have been asked by the Campus Minister of the Catholic Student Union at my school to lead a Bible Study group for the upcoming Fall Semester. We will be reading the Gospel of St. Matthew, and I’m very humbled and greatful for this opportunity. However, I also find myself understanding the great responsibility that comes with this task. Of course I will be having weekly sessions with the Campus Minister (who is a priest) that will give some pointers as to what to cover and emphasis with the group I lead as we study. I’m in the process, however, of doing a bit of preliminary work to get some ideas as to what might be good to focus on from this Gospel. I’ve read the Catholic Encyclopedia entry on the Gospel and found there are 3 main themes: Jesus as Messiah, the exclusion of the Jews from the Messianic Kingdom (not quite sure I understand that one fully), and the Universal Proclamation of the Gospel.

Aside from these things, if anyone has any ideas or suggestions as to what may be helpful to cover and emphasis as I lead this Bible Study, it would be greatly appreciated. I want it to go well and am really hoping for some feedback. I thank you all in advance for your help.

Sincerely,
Paul

P.S. As an aside, if anyone could maybe elaborate on the “Exclusion of Jews from the Messianic Kingdom” theme, thatd be wonderful. And as a quick second aside, I was looking for anything The Holy Father may have written about the Gospel of St. Matthew to possibly be an aid as well, if any of you know of anything, please let me know.

Thanks again, and God Bless!
 
mm . . get a commentary book that deals specifically with the gospel of Matthew? . .
 
I don’t know how you’re going to approach this study, in the sense of what the study guide will be and how much time you have to accomplish your task. One school term?

Your best bet might be to get the Ignatius Study Bible and study the entry for Matthew’s gospel.

The ISB cross references the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You might want to look at the CCC and see where and when it directly cross-references Matthew’s gospel.

marcus grodi of EWTN fame gave a meditation on the beatitudes, a couple years ago. It is on a DVD of the “Family” celebration at northern Illinois university. His was the best explanation of the beatitudes that I ever heard.

You might want to review whatever Scott Hahn has on his website for the St. Paul Center for biblical theology. He used to express his philosoply for “life changing” Bible study. you might want to check out his ideas on that subject. I hope you would want to have a “life changing” and “soul saving” Bible study, if you had a choice.

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary is a “deep” and comprehensive albeit technical biblical commentary.

On the EWTN website, in the document library, you might want to do some selective word searches to see what might be there about this gospel.
 
In addition to what the previous posters have recommended, read two more books, both available online: John Chrysostom’s homilies on Matthew, and Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on Matthew.

Then get a cheap used copy of any “Serendipity Bible” off of amazon so that you have a guide for how to run the study and for what sorts of questions to ask so that the discussion is fun for everyone and not just a Q&A session with the leader.
 
PJD1987 said:
Dear Friends,

I have been asked by the Campus Minister of the Catholic Student Union at my school to lead a Bible Study group for the upcoming Fall Semester. We will be reading the Gospel of St. Matthew, and I’m very humbled and greatful for this opportunity. However, I also find myself understanding the great responsibility that comes with this task. Of course I will be having weekly sessions with the Campus Minister (who is a priest) that will give some pointers as to what to cover and emphasis with the group I lead as we study. I’m in the process, however, of doing a bit of preliminary work to get some ideas as to what might be good to focus on from this Gospel. I’ve read the Catholic Encyclopedia entry on the Gospel and found there are 3 main themes: Jesus as Messiah, the exclusion of the Jews from the Messianic Kingdom (not quite sure I understand that one fully), and the Universal Proclamation of the Gospel.

Aside from these things, if anyone has any ideas or suggestions as to what may be helpful to cover and emphasis as I lead this Bible Study, it would be greatly appreciated. I want it to go well and am really hoping for some feedback. I thank you all in advance for your help.

Sincerely,
Paul

P.S. As an aside, if anyone could maybe elaborate on the “Exclusion of Jews from the Messianic Kingdom” theme, thatd be wonderful. And as a quick second aside, I was looking for anything The Holy Father may have written about the Gospel of St. Matthew to possibly be an aid as well, if any of you know of anything, please let me know.

Thanks again, and God Bless!
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Hello Paul,

The Jews are not excluded from the Messianic kingdom, the very first Christians were Jews, Jesus was a Jew, Mary was a Jew, the apostles were Jews,

Paul says in Romans 2

6 For he will render to every man according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for every one who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality.

The leadership of the Kingdom was however taken from the corrupt Jewish leadership and given to the twelve who represent the 12 tribes of Israel.

The main theme in the Gospel of Matthew is the restoration of the Kingdom, at the time of David and Solomon in 1000 B.C. all 12 tribes of Israel were united but in 930 B.C. the kingdom divided into 10 northern tribes and 2 southern tribes, in 722 B.C. the 10 northern tribes were scattered to the nations by the Assyrians, then in 586 B.C. the the 2 southern tribes were taken into Babylonian captivity. At this point, the prophets all foretold that there would be a time when God would restore all 12 tribes and restore the kingdom. The problem when Jesus arrives on the scene is that only the 2 southern tribes had returned and even they were under Roman rule.

Every action Jesus does revolves around this theme of the restoration of Israel, when he chooses fishermen to ‘‘catch men’’ (Jeremiah 16:14-16 says fishermen would lead a new exodus out of the nations and into the kingdom), when he chooses 12 representing all Israel, when he says ‘‘the Kingdom of heaven is at hand’’ 32 times in Matthew.

The parables are about the Kingdom, the Beatitudes are about the kingdom, Jesus gives Peter the keys to the Kingdom.

This is the main theme of Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus as the Davidic King, the Restoration of all 12 tribes of Israel through the Church with the inclusion of the Gentiles.

The best commentaries are:
Scott Hahn - The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible.
Ed Sri/Curtis mitch - The Gospel of Matthew. Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture Series. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic

The audio set is free and is really good

Tim Gray - The Gospel of Matthew EWTN series

If you have any spare cash this one is amazing

Scott Hahn - Matthew cd set

Hope that helps you out a little 🙂
 
Paul - I reviewed the Catholic Encyclopedia entry you mentioned and I think the phrasing is unfortunate in that it implies that God prevented individual Jews or the Jews as a people from recognizing Jesus. (This probably reflects to some degree the era in which it was written). Matthew is, of course, the most Jewish of the gospels, the one with the most OT references, the one that goes to the most length to show how Jesus fulfills the prophecies of the Messiah. Which then raises the question, why did His people not recognize and receive Him? (John 1) Matthew shows that this is also a fulfillment of prophecy, that just as the Kingdom was judged at the time of the Exile they are judged for their choices in response to the Messiah. But it is by no means an overriding theme of the gospel (even in the encyclopedia entry, it goes on to point out that the gospel was clearly written to Jews to persuade them to become Christians - the new Chosen People, being made up of those who accept baptism (cf Hebrews), heirs to the promises made to those who accepted circumcision.

I would second the suggestion that you pick up either the Ignatius Bible NT or the Navarre Matthew (or both) and use them to prepare your lessons - very solid material.

Probably the over-riding decision for you to make as you plan this is whether it is your intention for your participants to be doing some kind of prep at home. If yes, then you want some kind of questions for them to reflect on during the week, and maybe a commentary for them to read before they gather with you to discuss their insights. If they’re not doing “homework” then it will be your responsibility to prepare each lesson and you can use a wide range of materials to guide your own insights. In that case each session would probably follow a structure in which you (not you personally, get people to take turns) read the passage aloud, you then share what you have learned regarding the background of the material and other connections (such as those Old Testament references) with the “class,” and then plan time for discussion/questions.

A couple of places you can look for ideas/insights:

http://www.rc.net/wcc/readings/matthew.htm Good stuff here, easily accessed, and express permission to use his material with study groups.

scborromeo.org/biblestudies.htm These are great study guides for group use, based on the Sunday readings for each week. You’ll have to figure out where on the calendar the particular passage you are reading is. Fortunately since we’re in Matthew this year you can begin knowing that it’s Cycle A you want. This page bombaxo.com/rclcompg.html has a helpful list (the Catholic Lectionary is the green column).

St. Charles Borromeo’s website also has a ton of other resources on their webpage.

Hope this helps!
 
Thank you everyone for your answers so far, they’ve been very helpful. It is much appeciated! Anything else, feel free to keep’em coming 🙂
 
Jerome81 said:
The best commentaries are:
Scott Hahn - The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible.
Ed Sri/Curtis mitch - The Gospel of Matthew. Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture Series. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic
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I second this recommendation! Both are rich sources for studying Matthew. Don’t forget, you won’t get everything in 1 study. We could spend years unwrapping Matthew and still miss points. Congrats on taking on this awesome task.👍
 
Newsy said:
I second this recommendation! Both are rich sources for studying Matthew. Don’t forget, you won’t get everything in 1 study. We could spend years unwrapping Matthew and still miss points. Congrats on taking on this awesome task.👍
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Thank you, and yes I agree you cannot get everything done in one semester’s worth of a Bible Study, what I do want to refrain from however is the general type of fluff that I experienced during the Bible Study I took part in last year. For example, we’d read a passage and then someone would say something to the effect of, “Yeah I read this passage and it reminded me of the other day when I was walking down the street with my friend and she said something that made me think of this passage.” And then everyone would share a similar story.

While being able to relate in that way has its uses and may be beneficial to people, I felt that it was lacking substance and I want to avoid that type of study at all costs. I’d like to be able to run the Bible Study where we grow in a way oriented to the truths in the Bible, rather than how it makes one “feel”. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but that’s what I’m aiming for.
 
You could look at a a commercially available study to get ideas or just use their curriculum outright.

I am not affiliated with The Great Adventure series by Jeff Cavins but have been a faciltator for in home studies using their products. They are entertaining, organically Catholic, true to the magesterium, not a Protestant retread. I can tell you that it is not “feely” like you mentioned. Jeff is a real theologian and he teaches from a Biblical Catholic perspective.

biblestudyforcatholics.com/catholic-bible/study-information/112/matthew-adventure-king-kingdom

They have a program open to priests, religious, DRE’s and such where you can review their products to see if it is what you want. Might be worth a call.

-Tim-
 
Although he is not a Catholic scholar, I would highly recommend going through the commentary of William Barclay on the Gospel of Matthew (2 vols.). Very insightful in discussing word usage and meaning and in explaining passages in the context of the times and culture.

The original series of Barclay’s commentaries was published in the 1950’s, with revisions in the 1970’s. You can likely find these in any good public library, and I have seen them in the libraries of Catholic colleges and seminaries. Check them out.
 
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