The Sheep and the Goats: A Matthean Teaching in Historical Context

Chad Venters argues that Psalm 80 (Psalm 79 LXX) is an important source for the composition of Matthew 25:31—46. Psalm 80 provides a religio—political background for understanding the devastation facing Israel at the hands of the Romans. Viewing Psalm 80 as a source for Matthew 25:31—46 accounts for the diversity of images found in the Sheep and the Goats and provides further insight into the meaning of the passage. Venters’s reading of the Sheep and the Goats contends that the story is not focused on world—ending judgment, but a cataclysmic shift in which Yahweh’s vineyard has been taken from Israel and given to the church and the nations. This book augments the larger corpus of Matthean studies, contributing to the less prominent research of Psalm 80 as an influential text for multiple passages in the New Testament and other first century literature. Various studies have proposed the prevalence of Psalm 80, through scriptural “echoes” and “allusions” in the New Testament. Venters seeks to solidify these hypotheses in favor of Psalm 80 as an important background text for the New Testament Gospels.