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Home Features Evangelisation. Who wrote the Gospel of Matthew? Share on Facebook Share on Twitter. Related Stories. Ministry to married couples must change to save marriage, author urges. Share Tweet. Staff writers. Search Results in Other Versions.
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Purpose and Audience It is quite obvious and widely accepted that Matthew was written to the Jews. Themes The overriding theme shows Jesus as the messiah, but there are also several minor themes, some of which directly relate to the major theme. Donate Contact. Blue Letter Bible is a c 3 nonprofit organization. APA Format. Chicago Format. SBL Format. Share This Page. Follow Blue Letter Bible. Blue Letter Bible. Login To Your Account. Check your email for password retrieval Enter Your Email or Username.
Login [? Did you forget your password? Register a new BLB account. Complete the form below to register [? First Name. Password Must be at least 6 characters. Re-type Password. Thank you for registering. A verification email has been sent to the address you provided. Please enter your account email below. Continue Cancel. Remind Me. Old Testament. Back Psalms 1. Bible Search. Retrieve Adv. Newsletter Partnerships Permissions Contact. The organization of these sayings into a single sermon thus appears to be the result of Matthew's arrangement.
Another rather striking characteristic of the Gospel of Matthew is its high regard for the teachings of the Old Testament. There are approximately fifteen instances in which Matthew interprets some event in the life of Jesus as a fulfillment of a prophecy in the Old Testament.
Evidently the author of Matthew did not think of Christianity as something that involved a definite break with the Jewish religion. Instead, he considered Christianity as a continuation and fulfillment of that which had been set forth in the literature of the Old Testament. Not for a moment did he think that Jesus changed or set aside the requirements of the Mosaic Law.
Rather, Matthew supplements and interprets the requirements in a manner that accords with their original purpose. In his zeal to show a close relationship between Jesus and the Old Testament, Matthew appears at times to make references to incidents in the life of Jesus for no other reason than to document them as fulfilling Old Testament prophecy.
A third characteristic of the Gospel of Matthew is its interest in ecclesiastical affairs. As the only gospel that makes a direct mention of the church, much of the instruction recorded in Matthew is especially appropriate for particular situations that arose in the Christian churches of the first century.
Matthew begins with a genealogy of Jesus that traces his ancestry as far back as Abraham. The ancestry is traced on the side of Joseph, although the author later definitively states that Joseph was not Jesus' father. Following the genealogy is an account of the wise men's visit to Jesus' birth site, Herod's attempt to destroy the newborn child, and the flight into Egypt for the child's protection. After the death of Herod, the family returned and settled in the Galilee town of Nazareth, which, according to Matthew, fulfilled another Old Testament prophecy.
Following these introductory stories, Matthew continues his gospel by narrating the events in Jesus' public career in the same sequence as they are found in Mark.
As mentioned before, this sequence is interrupted at appropriate intervals for the insertion of discourses that Jesus delivered on various occasions. This scheme enables Matthew to combine Jesus' teachings and events in one continuous narrative. While the author of the Gospel of Mark seems to have been impressed most of all with the wonderful deeds that Jesus performed , Matthew places the major emphasis on the marvelous things that Jesus taught. Some of the teachings were spoken directly to the inner group of disciples, but at different times and places Jesus addressed the multitudes, among whom were many who gladly heard him.
Often Jesus spoke in parables, for in this way he could communicate his ideas concerning the kingdom of heaven in language that the people could understand because the parables were drawn from people's own experiences.
One of the important issues in the early history of the church was the attitude that Christians should have concerning the laws that are recorded in the Old Testament.
Paul insisted that salvation is obtained by faith and not by obedience to laws. This insistence led some Christians to believe that whether or not these laws should be obeyed was a matter to be decided by an individual's own conscience. Many Jewish Christians did not agree with this individualistic attitude. The author of the Gospel of Matthew appears to have been one of them. According to his version of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, Jesus stated, "I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
Of this we cannot be sure, but evidently Matthew was far more sympathetic toward the religion of Judaism than was true of other writers. In the story of the Canaanite woman who comes to Jesus imploring help for her daughter, who is possessed by a demon, Jesus says to the woman, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. This narrative of the woman and her daughter represents only one aspect of the Gospel of Matthew. Many other passages indicate that the gospel was intended for all people and not merely for Jews.
In the parable of the householder who plants a vineyard, rents it to tenants, and leaves his servants in charge of the rent collection while he travels to another country, we have a clear indication that the scope of the gospel is inclusive of Gentiles.
In this parable, the servants are beaten, stoned, and even put to death by the tenants. Then the householder sends his son to collect the rent, but when the tenants see the son, they cast him out of the vineyard and kill him, clearly a reference to the fact that Jesus was put to death because of his Jewish enemies.
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