The Gospel of Matthew was the most popular New Testament book of Early Christianity. It is the most quoted NT writing in other early Christian literature. It appears to be the text used in the largest number of early sermons. The book strives to connect the ministry of Jesus to the Jewish expectations of the coming Messiah through Old Testament Scriptures. No doubt its extensive presentation of the Sermon on the Mount added to this Gospel’s popularity.
It was natural for the early church to be fascinated with the Old Testament Scriptures that were fulfilled in Jesus. Matthew uses an abundance of references to the Old Testament. While many come from the Greek LXX, Matthew includes several that are from the Hebrew text, probably pointing us to his Judean readership.
Who Wrote the Book?
The external evidence testifies to the early existence and use of Matthew. The Didache is the first to clearly indicate this. “The Epistle of Barnabas,” Justin Martyr, and Eusebius, an early Christian historian, all quote from the gospel. Pantaneus found a Hebrew copy of Matthew in India, proposed to be Matthew’s destination.
The early church almost unanimously ascribed the gospel to the Apostle Matthew. Iranaeus, Polycarp, Clement of Rome, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen are just a few of the early church leaders who preserved this tradition.
Matthew was not one of the more outspoken of the apostles. Thiessen writes, “It would be strange to assign the Gospel to him if he did not write it.”
But you can see he was certainly fit for such a task. As a tax-collector he would have needed to know the local Aramaic form of Hebrew as well as been fluent in classical Greek. The task of collecting taxes would have made him a tremendous record keeper.
It was not until the liberal theology of the 1800s in Europe that the authorship to the apostle was questioned. For an understanding of the current liberal position, see the article on “The Synoptic Gospels.”
To Whom Was Matthew Written?
The extensive use of the Old Testament coupled with its strong emphasis upon the Messiah and the Kingdom leads one to believe the readers were Jewish Christians in and around Palestine. Matthew’s roots were as a tax collector in and around Jerusalem which would give additional support to this theory.
When Was Matthew Written?
Attributing a certain date for the writing of this gospel greatly depends upon the understanding of the authorship of the book. If the author were the Apostle Matthew, a companion of Jesus, there would have been little reason or need to confer with other historical sources. The Apostle’s credibility as an eyewitness would have negated the need to copy from someone else. Coupled with such early attestation in other written sources, Matthew could well have been one of the earlier writings of the New Testament.
Given the meticulous nature of the record-keeping of a tax collector, Matthew may well have been written no more than a decade after the resurrection of Jesus, putting that gospel’s writing around 45AD. Papias writes about this gospel in his writings around 130AD and speaks of it in the past tense. Since Matthew does not mention the Fall of Jerusalem (70AD), we must conclude that the gospel was written before that tragedy. Thiessen concludes the Aramaic Matthew was written in 45AD and the Greek version in 50AD.
Modern theologians place a priority on the Gospel of Mark. This theory sees the writing coming from time Mark spent with Peter in Rome as Peter was facing his death. This account of Jesus’ life would then have to travel back to Palestine where some of Matthew’s followers copied from Mark and embellished their own version. This would have to place the dating sometime between 70AD and 125AD.
What Messages Resonate in Matthew?
We have already mentioned that the gospel of Matthew carries a very Jewish flavor, emphasizing the King and His Kingdom from Old Testament references. In addition, Matthew has these characteristics:
- The first four chapters are chronological. Chapters 5 – 13 are topical while chapters 14 to 28 are chronological again.
- The words “righteous” and “righteousness” occur more often in Matthew than the other three gospels combined.
- The word “then” in the Greek occurs 90 times in Matthew while 6 times in Mark, 14 times in Luke and 10 times in John. Its frequency is probably due to Matthew thinking in Aramaic.
- Matthew is the only gospel where the word “church” occurs.
- Matthew has six great addresses of Jesus, including the Sermon on the Mount.
- There are 15 parables in Matthew and 20 miracles.
- Matthew shows an incredible interest in the Gentiles throughout the book.
- Only Matthew tells of the sorrow and perhaps repentance of Judas.
What Do People Say About the Book?
In grandness of conception and in the power with which a mass of material is subordinated to great ideas no writing in either Testament, dealing with a historical theme, is to be compared with Matthew. In this respect the present writer would be at a loss to find its equal also in the other literature of antiquity.”—Zahn.
The captions κατὰ Μαθθαῖον, κατὰ Μάρκον, etc., are traced back from the oldest of our manuscripts, the Vaticanus, 1209, (B), to Irenæus in 185, and to the earliest collections of apostolic writings in the incipient formation of a New Testament canon.
— R. C. H. Lenski
In the last resort, we engage in evangelism today not because we want to or because we choose to or because we like to, but because we have been told to go, to preach, to make disciples, and that is enough for us.
— John R.W. Stott