Texts in Conversation
Psalms of Solomon and Matthew both describe an eschatological restoration where all of the tribes of Israel are gathered from exile and judged. Psalms of Solomon describes a Davidic ruler who leads this renewal, while Matthew portrays the Son of Man granting his disciples authority to judge the twelve tribes.
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Psalms of Solomon 17:26
Pseudepigrapha
26 He will gather a holy people whom he will lead in righteousness; and he will judge the tribes of the people who have been made holy by the Lord his God. 27 He will not tolerate unrighteousness to dwell among them again, and no person who knows evil will live with them. For he will know them, because they are all children of their God. 28 He will distribute them upon the land according to their tribes. The stranger and the foreigner will no longer live with them. 29 He will judge peoples and nations in the wisdom of his justice. 30 He will have Gentile peoples serving him under his yoke, and he will glorify the Lord publically in the whole world. He will pronounce Jerusalem clean, consecrating it as it was in the beginning. 31 He will have nations come from the ends of the earth to see his glory, giving back her scattered children and to see the glory of the Lord with which God has glorified her.
Date: 80-30 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Matthew 19:28
New Testament
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven! 24 Again I say, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God.” 25 The disciples were greatly astonished when they heard this and said, “Then who can be saved?” 26 Jesus looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, but for God all things are possible.” 27 Then Peter said to him, “Look, we have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” 28 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth: In the age when all things are renewed, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. 29 And whoever has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
Date: 70-90 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
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Notes and References
"... Matthew’s direct allusion to the trumpet of Isaiah 27 emphatically drives home the point that Jesus is prophesying a final regathering of the people of srael who have previously been in exile, and the final restoration of right worship in Jerusalem. In this restored Israel, also, “when the Son of Man is seated on the throne\ of his glory,” the twelve disciples who have followed Jesus “will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matt 19:28). This is an image not of condemnation but of restoration: the twelve are the symbolic heads of the restored Israel, and “restoration includes judgment.” For a clear Jewish analogue, we may compare the messianic vision set forth in the Psalms of Solomon ... According to Matthew 19:28, this function of messianic judgment is to be delegated to the twelve rather than exercised solely by the Messiah himself; but in both of these examples the gathering and restoration of Israel are in view. Indeed, the role of “judging” probably refers not to the final determination of individuals’ eschatological fate but to a role more closely related to governing, like the role of the ancient judges of Israel described in the book of Judges ..."
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