Double–Triple Witness Framework: A Matthean Rhetorical Device

Abstract

Abstract:Repetition in the Gospel of Matthew—to the extent that it is described as seeing double or having double vision—is well recognised; and theories have arisen to explain this phenomenon. Contributing to this discussion, the present article theorises that Matthew’s double and triple accounts as well as dual characters and sayings is part of a Matthean rhetorical device based on the law of two to three witnesses (Deut 17:6; 19:15). Cited twice in Matthew (Matt 18:16, 19–20), the Deuteronomic law of the number of witnesses needed to establish and legitimise fact is how the Gospel writer/redactor brings veracity to his own account. For there to consistently be two or three persons, vignettes, sayings, and so on, whereas the other Synoptic Gospels typically have only one, indirectly substantiates the thesis. Furthermore, that Matthew’s is (traditionally held as) the Gospel for a Jewish audience, the literary framework of multiple witnesses would have been discerned and understood as such and function as a persuasive literary technique.