Parousia

As Stanton describes the social situation of the Matthean communities, Matthew, in the face of strong Jewish criticism to the effect that Jesus' life did not correspond with prophecy concerning the coming of the Messiah, countered with perhaps the earliest form of the ~two parousias' schema found in the writings of Origen and Justin.

If, however, one takes account of the plot of Matthew, Stanton's argument raises three questions: is it indeed the persistent function of ~Son of David', more than any other christological strand, to serve as a lightning rod for the Jewish leaders to exhibit ~hostility' toward Jesus?; is it in fact the ~humility' of Jesus specifically as the Son of David that Matthew contrasts with the splendour that will be Jesus' at his second coming?; and does Matthew, in truth, mediate the earliest example of the ~two parousias' schema found later in Justin and Origen?

The third question posed above asks whether one does indeed find in Matthew the earliest example of the ~two parousias' schema found in later Christian writings.