Cruciform Scripture: Interviews with Contributors—Rebekah Eklund on Gospel of Matthew

Cruciform Scripture: Interviews with Contributors—Rebekah Eklund on Gospel of Matthew January 7, 2021

This is a blog series featuring contributors to the new book, Cruciform Scripture. Today we have Dr. Rebekah Eklund. Cruciform Scripture is a book in the field of New Testament theology, the work is written in honor of the scholarship of Dr. Michael J. Gorman.


Rebekah Eklund: Chapter One: “Matthew, the Cross, and the Cruciform Life”/ Rebekah Eklund

 


Tell us about your connection to the honoree, Michael J. Gorman?

I met Mike’s son Mark first, when Mark and I were ThD classmates at Duke. When I moved to Baltimore, I had the pleasure of meeting Mike and getting to know him. As a junior scholar just starting in my first full-time academic job, Mike always treated me as a true colleague. He is both a brilliant scholar and a genuinely kind person.

Your topic is cruciformity in Matthew. Why did you choose this subject?

I was working on a book about the reception history of the beatitudes, and I had pages of interesting material about the beatitudes and the cross that I couldn’t fit into the book. Diving into that material and exploring it more felt like the perfect tribute to Mike’s work on cruciformity, and this led me to consider the role of the cross in Matthew more broadly.

Can you share more about your essay?

My essay focused on two “Gormanian” themes: the new covenant and taking up the cross. I suggested that Matthew is less interested in a new covenant but very intent on presenting Jesus as the fulfillment and perfection of the covenant, and I argued that the theme of “taking up the cross” pervades Matthew’s Gospel and resonates deeply with the Beatitudes. Finally, I proposed that Matthew’s ending focuses our attention on God both as cruciform and as resurrecting.

Check out Eklund’s new book, The Beatitudes through the Ages

Cruciform Scripture is now available at a very affordable price, check out Eklund’s essay and more:


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