Il Messia fa discepoli: luce che sorge per Israele e per le Nazioni. Analisi della composizione retorico-biblica di Mt 4

The sub-sequence of Mt 4:12-25 concludes the first literary section of the Gospel of Matthew and introduces the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5–7) and the narrative about the messianic works of Jesus (Mt 7–8). The exegetes recognize at least three episodes in this pericope (vv. 12-17; vv. 18-22; vv. 23-25), without considering, however, the possibility of reading them as a whole. The analysis by means of biblical and Semitic rhetoric (RBS) takes into consideration the composition of larger units of biblical text. As a result, it demonstrates that the literary unit in question and its three episodes serve as a mediator of a message for the entire dimension of Matthew’s Gospel.