The Jewish Background to Interperonal Forgiveness in Matthew

Isaac Mbabazi makes a major contribution to the field of New Testament by arguing that the relevant Matthean theme of interpersonal forgiveness is quite central to the first Gospel. In The Significance of Interpersonal Forgiveness in the Gospel of Matthew, he delineates five sets of evidence in support of his argument. Beginning with a survey of all Matthean forgiveness and forgiveness-related texts, he then carries out an in-depth exegesis of two key Matthean texts in which the idea of interpersonal forgiveness is explicit. Discourse analysis informs his discussion, offering valuable insight into Matthew's point of view. Mbabazi notes that the forgiveness pattern that emerges from contemporary Greco-Roman literature differs remarkably from the pattern found in Matthew, where granting forgiveness appears not only as a reasonable act, but reluctance or failure to grant it makes the unforgiving person accountable to God.