| Commentators have observed numerous Old Testament quotations and allusions in Matthew’s account of Jesus’s baptism and his wilderness temptation (Matt. 3:13–4:11). However, no serious exegetical inquiry has yet been made to survey the Matthean texts (Matt. 3–4) in light of Leviticus 16. This article sets out to examine Matthew’s version of the two inaugural events of Jesus’s public ministry, Jesus’s baptism and his temptation (Matt. 3:13–4:11), with particular attention to Leviticus 16:20–22. The exegetical evaluation yields the conclusion that the scapegoat ritual of the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16) serves to elucidate Matthew’s witness of Jesus’s baptism, temptation and crucifixion coherently. After his baptism, Jesus emerges as God’s “beloved” Son and perfect atoning sacrifice, who takes “all” sins of Israel to “fulfill all righteousness,” and his beloved sonship challenged by the devil until the crucifixion (Matt. 3:15–17; 27:40, 43). The formal correspondences traceable in Matthew’s Gospel vis-à-vis Leviticus 16 include communal repentance, transference and atonement of aggregate sins, and banishment of the scapegoat into a demon-inhabited wilderness. This inner-biblical interpretation further sheds light on the literary artistry of Matthew’s Gospel (Matt. 3–4), in which allusions to Genesis 22 and Deuteronomy 6–8 are artistically juxtaposed with Leviticus 16 in a triptych layout. |
