Matthew And John Rhetorical Devices

Throughout the Gospels of Matthew and John, each of them expressed rhetorical devices and rhetorical appeals in their stories but illustrated them in varying ways. According to the article by Matera, he expressed “symbolism that was applied to the evangelists by relating Matthews Gospel to the face of a human and Johns Gospel to the face of an eagle. This symbolism, which was specially developed by Irenaeus, enabled the church to see each of the Gospels as distinctive and yet gazing upon the same reality with a different face” (Matera, 2017). Also, in the book of John, he wrote his stories to provide readers to have a clear understanding of imagery. For instance, the cross that Jesus got nailed to played a major role when it came to imagery in the Bible. …show more content…
For example, Matthew chapter twenty-seven verse twenty-eight through twenty-nine noted, “Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying Hail, King of the Jews!” (Coogan, 1788). Even though the Gospel of Matthew knew that the cross was a major symbol of imagery in the Bible, the cross still does not take away from the point of his story. Unlike the Gospel of Matthew, John represented the symbolism of the cross on a more positive note. For instance, John signified the cross as God’s arrangement of salvation for Jesus Christ. This is shown in John chapter nineteen verse twenty-eight through thirty when Jesus stated, “…when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), I am thirsty…, so they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his