In comparison to Mark and Luke the First Gospel contains a striking preponderance of economic
language in passages dealing with sin righteousness and divine recompense. For instance sin
is described as a debt and righteous deeds are said to earn wages with God or treasure in
heaven. This study analyzes Matthew's economic language against the backdrop of other early
Jewish and Christian literature and examines its import for the narrative as a whole. Careful
attention to this neglected aspect of Matthew's theology demonstrates that some of the Gospel's
central claims about atonement Jesus' death and resurrection and divine recompense emerge
from this conceptual matrix. By tracing the narrative development of the economic motif the
author explains how Jesus saves his people from their sins and comes to be enthroned as Son of
Man sheds new light on numerous exegetical puzzles and clarifies the relationship of ethical
rigorism and divine generosity.
