The Disciplined and the Damned: Problematic Insiders and Countermeasures to Them in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gospel of Matthew

This study compares discipline in the Gospel of Matthew with the Essene rules. Scholarly comparison often focuses on individual disciplinary aspects, like rebuke. However, a holistic approach—the study of what behaviors are considered problematic together with the various countermeasures employed against them—illuminates the ideology undergirding the particular disciplinary apparatus of each. Matthew and the sectarian rules from Qumran differ in three significant ways. First, the Essene rules center on the protection of the community, while Matthew prioritizes on individual reform. Second, one’s eschatological fate is fixed and discernible in Essene literature, while it remains fluid and ambivalent in Matthew. Third, there is greater overlap between human disciplinary measures and divine prerogatives in the sectarian Scrolls than in Matthew. This project’s holistic approach also has particular benefit for Matthean studies. Building upon the view that this gospel was intended for a wide audience, I contend that Matthew outlines a disciplinary process that does not depend on a particular communal structure. Instead, eschatological threat is the main countermeasure to infractions. Ambiguity in regard to who will be saved—a phenomenon that sometimes puzzles Matthean scholars—is an intentional feature that ensures Matthew’s eschatological threat can be leveraged continuously.