A strong case has recently been made out by Mark Powell for seeing an overall plot for Matthew’s gospel in terms of the programmatic statement in 1:21, where the angel tells Joseph: ‘You are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ The gospel can be understood as the story of how this is accomplished, through the paradoxical sub-plots whereby Jesus is successfully opposed by the Jewish leaders on the one hand, and unsuccessfully supported by the disciples on the other.49
