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Thus Christ, for Matthew, is a "second Moses," but only in something like the same sense in which Christ, for Paul, is a "second Adam." That is, Christ for Matthew, as much as for Paul, is not simply an authority, not even the authority, but, rather, the explicit primal ontic  source of authority. And yet, whereas Christ, for Paul the Christian, re-presents the gift and demand of unconditional love, together with the selfunderstanding/understanding of existence corresponding thereto, Christ, for Matthew, very much as the law for Paul the Pharisee, re-presents the gift and demand of conditional love only, together with the self-understanding/understanding of existence corresponding to it. 

15 September 1999; rev. 10 December 2008