Matthew further defines the content of this treasure, labeling it as both “new and old” (καινὰ καὶ παλαιά; see also 9:17). Many church fathers understood the new and old with reference to the NT and the OT.93 However, this view, while not entirely wrong, is anachronistic, since the NT as a canonical collection did not exist when Matthew wrote. It is better simply to assert that Jesus himself and his teaching is the new, while the old is the Jewish tradition more generally. The First Gospel often
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