Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells the story of who the author believes is Israel's messiah (Christ), Jesus, his resurrection, and his mission to the world. The Gospel of Matthew presents Jesus as the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy.

Matthew wishes to emphasize that the Jewish tradition should not be lost in a church that was increasingly becoming gentile. The gospel reflects the struggles and conflicts between Jewish Christians and the other Jews, particularly with its sharp criticism of the scribes, chief priests and Pharisees, presenting the view that the Kingdom of Heaven has been taken away from them and given instead to the church. It emphasizes Jesus’s role as the Son of David, Son of Man, and Son of God, and frames his teachings, miracles, and parables to reflect both Jewish law and the emerging Christian church. Structured around alternating narratives and discourses—including the Sermon on the Mount, parables, and instructions for discipleship—it culminates in the Passion, Resurrection, and the Great Commission.

The predominant scholarly view is that the gospel was written in the last quarter of the first century by an anonymous Jew familiar with technical legal aspects of scripture, though the traditional attribution still has conservative defenders. Widely popular in the early church, it was likely used by John, attributed to the beloved disciple, as a source. It is possible the gospel incorporates a source written by the disciple. Most scholars think Matthew used the Gospel of Mark and the Q source (shared with the Gospel of Luke), though alternative hypotheses that posit use of Matthew by Luke or vice versa without Q are increasing in popularity. The text is the product of the second generation of the Christian movement, although it draws on the memory of the first generation of the disciples of Jesus.

According to church tradition originating with Papias of Hierapolis (c. 60–130 AD), it was written by Matthew, the companion of Jesus, but the large majority view the gospel as an anonymous composition instead, though the "traditional authorship still has its defenders." It is possible that the gospel incorporates a lost prior source attributable to Matthew. Regardless, the gospel was attributed to Matthew very early, and was highly popular in the early church, with the Gospel of John, often attributed to the beloved disciple, using it as a source. Most scholars hold that it was written in the last quarter of the first century by a male Jew who stood on the margin between traditional and nontraditional Jewish values and who was familiar with technical legal aspects of scripture being debated in his time. Other scholars, such as N. T. Wright and John Wenham, hold there are problems with dating Matthew late in the first century, and argue that it was written in the 40s–50s AD. Whether the Gospels were composed before or after 70 AD, according to Bas van Os, the lifetime of various eyewitnesses that includes Jesus's own family through the end of the First Century is very likely statistically. Markus Bockmuehl finds this structure of lifetime memory in various early Christian traditions.

The majority of scholars believe that Mark was the first gospel to be composed and that Matthew and Luke both drew upon it as a major source for their works. The author did not simply copy Mark but used it as a base, emphasizing Jesus's place in the Jewish tradition and including details not found in Mark. This does not necessarily show a linear approach of continual development and addition only, as some of what Paul the Apostle says is more similar to Matthew's details. Matthew could have depended on Mark through oral tradition or used memorization rather than simply copying. Alan Kirk praises Matthew for his "scribal memory competence" and "his high esteem for and careful handling of both Mark and Q", which makes claims the latter two works are significantly different in terms of theology or historical reliability dubious.

Matthew has 600 verses in common with Mark, which is a book of only 661 verses. There are approximately 220 verses shared by Matthew and Luke but not found in Mark. The Two-source hypothesis considers this a second source, a hypothetical collection of sayings which scholars refer to as Q. This view allows for a further body of tradition known as the M Source. This may represent a separate source, or it may come from the author's church, or he may have composed these verses himself. Michael Goulder argued that virtually all non-Markan material in Matthew were authorial creations, but modern advocates of the Farrer hypothesis have abandoned the idea that Matthew invented most of the content in the double tradition. A growing number of scholars support alternative hypotheses, such as the Farrer hypothesis and the Matthean Posteriority hypothesis, which argue for Luke's direct usage of Matthew and Matthew's dependence on Luke, respectively, and dispense with Q. The author also had the Greek scriptures at his disposal, both as book-scrolls (Greek translations of Isaiah, the Psalms etc.) and in the form of "testimony collections" (collections of excerpts), and the oral stories of his community. Many of the quotations of the scriptures in Matthew are more closely matched with the Masoretic, leading many scholars to believe that the author could understand Hebrew.

Most scholars view the gospel of Matthew as a work of the second generation of Christians, though it draws on the memory of the first generation of Jesus's disciples. For these early Christians the defining event was the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans in 70 AD in the course of the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 AD); from this point on, what had begun with Jesus of Nazareth as a Jewish messianic movement became an increasingly gentile phenomenon which would evolve in time into a separate religion. The author appears to have written for a community of Greek-speaking Jewish Christians located probably in Syria; Antioch, the largest city in Roman Syria and the third largest city in the empire, is often proposed. Other scholars hold that the historical Jesus had already predicted that the Jerusalem Temple would be destroyed.

The community to which Matthew belonged, like many 1st-century Christians, was still part of the larger Jewish community. The relationship of Matthew to this wider world of Judaism remains a subject of study and contention, the principal question being to what extent, if any, Matthew's community had cut itself off from its Jewish roots. It is evident from the gospel that there was conflict between Matthew's group and other Jewish groups, and it is generally agreed that the root of the conflict was the Matthew community's belief in Jesus as the Messiah and authoritative interpreter of the law, as one risen from the dead and uniquely endowed with divine authority.