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The Gospel of St. Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels in the New Testament and is a synoptic gospel. It narrates an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It describes his genealogy, his miraculous birth and childhood, his baptism and temptation, his ministry of healing and preaching, and finally his crucifixion and resurrection. The resurrected Jesus commissions his Apostles to "go and make disciples of all nations." (Matthew 28:19)

The Christian community traditionally ascribes authorship to Matthew the Evangelist, one of Jesus' twelve Apostles. Augustine of Hippo considered it to be the first gospel written (see synoptic problem), and it appears as the first gospel in most Bibles. Secular scholarship generally agrees it was written by an anonymous non-eyewitness to Jesus' ministry. The author apparently used the Gospel of St. Mark as one source and the hypothetical Q document as another, possibly writing in Antioch, c 80-85^[1] or c 80-90.^[2] With its integration of Mark's narrative with Jesus' teachings and it emphasis on the church, Matthew was the most popular Gospel when they circulated separately.^[1] Of the Synoptics, it is the Gospel best suited for public reading, and it has probably always been the best-known of them.^[2]

Of the four canonical gospels, Matthew is most closely aligned with first century Judaism, and the author was apparently Jewish Christian. Matthew repeatedly stresses how Jesus fulfilled Jewish prophecies.^[1] He regarded Jesus as a greater Moses and arranged Jesus' teaching into five sermons, probably paralleling the five Books of Moses.^[1] The special commission given to Peter has been highly influential.^[2] He combines key teachings into the Sermon on the Mount.^[2] Matthew is the only Gospel to mention the church (ecclesia).^[1] Jesus cites its authority and calls on Christians to practice forgiveness (ch. 18).^[1] Most modern scholars consider the gospel, like every other book in the New Testament, to have been written in Koine Greek, though some maintain the traditional view^[3] that it was originally composed in Aramaic, see also Aramaic primacy. The gospel is associated with noncanonical gospels written for Jewish Christians, such as the Gospel of the Hebrews.

Overview

For convenience, the book can be divided into its four structurally distinct sections: Two introductory sections; the main section, which can be further broken into five sections, each with a narrative component followed by a long discourse of Jesus; and finally, the Passion and Resurrection section.

1. Containing the genealogy, the birth, and the infancy of Jesus (Matthew 1; Matthew 2).
2. The discourses and actions of John the Baptist preparatory to Christ's public ministry (Matthew 3; Matthew 4:11).
3. The discourses and actions of Christ in Galilee (4:12–26:1).
   1. The Sermon on the Mount, concerning morality (Ch. 5–7)
   2. The Missionary Discourse, concerning the mission Jesus gave his Twelve Apostles. (10–11:1)
   3. The Parable Discourse, stories that teach about the Kingdom of Heaven (13).
   4. The "Church Order" Discourse, concerning relationships among Christians (18–19:1).
   5. The Eschatological Discourse, which includes the Olivet Discourse and Judgement of the Nations, concerning his Second Coming and the end of the age (24–25).
4. The sufferings, death and Resurrection of Jesus, the Great Commission (26-28).

Woodcut from Anton Koberger's Bible (Nuremberg, 1483): The angelically-inspired Saint Matthew musters the Old Testament figures, led by Abraham and David

Infancy narrative

Matthew's genealogy links Jesus to major Old Testament figures, culminating with Abraham, father of the Jews.^[4] Characteristically, the writer inserts quotations from scripture and demonstrates that Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament scripture.^[4] Wise men from Persia or Babylon acknowledge the infant Jesus as king.^[4] Herod's massacre of the innocents and the flight into Egypt liken Jesus to Moses.^[4]

Baptism and Temptation

John baptizes Jesus, and the Holy Spirit descends upon him.^[4] Jesus prays and meditates in the wilderness for forty days, and then is tempted by the Devil.^[4] Jesus refutes the Devil with quotations from Jewish Law.^[4]

Sermon on the Mount

Matthew's principal contribution to Mark's narrative is five collections of teaching material, and the first is the Sermon on the Mount.^[4] Jesus, a "greater Moses," completes and transcends Mosaic law.^[4] The Beatitudes bless the poor and the meek. In six antitheses, Jesus reinterprets the Law.^[4] He offers the Lord's prayer as a simple alternative to ostentatious prayer.^[4] Critical scholars see the historical Jesus in his startling congratulations to the unfortunate and his call to return violence with forgiveness ("turn the other cheek").^[5]

Instructions to the Twelve Disciples

Matthew names the Twelve Disciples.^[4] Jesus sends them to preach to the Jews, perform miracles, and prophesy the imminent coming of the Kingdom.^[4] Jesus commands them to travel lightly, without even a staff or sandals.^[5] Scholars are divided over whether the rules originated with Jesus or with apostolic practice.^[5]

Parables on the Kingdom

Jesus tells the parable of the sower, paralleling Mark.^[4] Like Mark, Matthew portrays Jesus as using parallels in order to prevent the unworthy from receiving his message.^[4] The parables of the wheat and the tares and of the net, uniquely to Matthew, portray God's sure judgment as indefinitely delayed.^[4] The parables of the mustard seed and of pearl "of very special value" emphasize the secret nature and incomprehensible worth of the Kingdom.^[4]

Instructions to the Church

Matthew is the only Gospel to discuss the ecclesia (Greek: assembly), or church.^[4] In Matthew, Jesus establishes his church on Peter, giving Peter and the Church the power to bind and loose (forbid and allow).^[4] The instructions for the church emphasize ecclesiastical responsibility and humility.^[4] He calls on Christians to practice forgiveness, but he also gives them the authority to excommunicate the unrepentant.^[4] Peter's special commission has been highly influential^[2] (see Saint Peter).

Fifth discourse

Jesus heaps the "seven woes" on the scribes and Pharisees.^[4] This hostility is thought to represent the attitude of the first-century church.^[4]

Signs of the Times

Matthew expands Marks' account of the Parousia, or Second Coming.^[4] Matthew names the signs the will precede Jesus' return, such as false Messiahs, earthquakes, and persecution of Christians.^[4] After the tribulation, the sun, moon, and stars will fail.^[4] The narrator's statement that his generation will not pass away before all the prophecies are fulfilled indicates that the author thought himself to be living the in the last days.^[4] This discourse might incorporate two different Parousia traditions, one with typical apocalyptic signs and the other emphasizing that the Master will return without warning.^[4]

Parables and vision of the Second Coming

The parables of the foolish virgins and of the talents emphasize constant readiness and Jesus' unexpected return.^[4] In a prophetic vision, Jesus judges the world.^[4] The godly ("sheep") are those who helped others in need, while the wicked ("goats") are those who did not.^[4]

Final Days and Resurrection

Matthew generally follows Mark's sequence of events.^[4] Jesus triumphantly enters Jerusalem and drives the money changers from the temple.^[4] He identifies Judas as his traitor.^[4] Jesus prays to be spared the coming agony, and a mob takes him by force to the Sanhedrin.^[4] To the trial, Matthew adds the detail that Pilate's wife, tormented by a dream, told him to have nothing to do with Jesus, and Pilate washed his hands of him.^[4] To Mark's account of Jesus' death, Matthew adds additional natural phenomena and saints arising from their tombs.^[4] He provides two stories of Jews conspiring to undermine belief in the resurrection, and he replaces Mark's "young man" at Jesus' tomb with a radiant angel.^[4] Matthew does not relate any of Jesus' postresurrection appearances to the disciples in Judea or his Ascencion.^[4] He appears to the Eleven in Galilee and commissions them to preach to the world and to baptize in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."^[4]

Detailed contents

The approximate contents of the Gospel, in order, are as follows:

Authorship

Saint Matthew, from the 9th-century Ebbo Gospels.

Contemporary scholars generally describe the author as an anonymous Christian writing two or three generations after Jesus' death.^[4] As sources, he used Mark's narrative of Jesus' life and death, plus the hypothetical Q document's record of Jesus' sayings.^[4]

Church tradition

Although the gospels don't name their authors, early church tradition attributed each one to an apostle or to an apostles' associate. Since the time of St. Irenaeus,^[2] this Gospel has been attributed to Matthew the Evangelist, a tax collector who became an Apostle of Jesus. The surviving testimony of the church fathers is unanimous in this view,^{citation needed} and the tradition had been accepted by Christians at least as early as the 2nd century up to modern times. Papias (c 130) records that Matthew wrote down sayings (Logia) in the Hebrew tongue.^[2] In addition, the title "According to Matthew" is found in the earliest codices,^[6] which date to the fourth century.

Modern scholarship

Beginning in the 18th century, however, scholars have increasingly questioned that traditional view, and today the majority agree Matthew did not write the Gospel which bears his name.^[7] Matthew primarily writes for the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians and Gentiles who were, at least partly, Torah observant.^[8]

Herman N. Ridderbos cites a number of reasons to discount Matthew's authorship, such as the text being in Greek, not Aramaic, the Gospel's heavy reliance on Mark, and the lack of characteristics usually attributed to an eyewitness account.^[9] Francis Write Beare goes on to say "there are clear indications that it is a product of the second or third Christian generation. The traditional name of Matthew is retained in modern discussion only for convenience."^[10]

Sources

The relationship of Matthew to the Gospels of Mark and Luke is an open question known as the synoptic problem. The three together are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels and have a great deal of overlap in sentence structure and word choice. Out of a total of 1,071 verses, Matthew has 387 in common with Mark and the Gospel of Luke, 130 with Mark alone, 184 with Luke alone; only 370 being unique to itself.

Although the author of Matthew wrote according to his own plans and aims and from his own point of view, most scholars agree he borrowed extensively from Mark, and possibly another source or sources as well. The most popular view in modern scholarship is the two-source hypothesis, which speculates that Matthew borrowed from both Mark and a hypothetical sayings collection, called Q (for the German Quelle, meaning "source"). A similar but less common view is the Farrer hypothesis, which theorizes that Matthew borrowed material only from Mark, and that Luke wrote last, using both earlier Synoptics. A minority of scholars subscribe to Early Christian tradition, which asserts Matthean priority, with Mark borrowing from Matthew (see: Augustinian hypothesis and Griesbach hypothesis). For example, in 1911, the Pontifical Biblical Commission^[11] asserted that Matthew was the first gospel written, that it was written by the evangelist Matthew, and that it was written in Aramaic.^[12]

In The Four Gospels: A Study of Origins (1924), Burnett Hillman Streeter argued that a third source, referred to as M and also hypothetical, lies behind the material in Matthew that has no parallel in Mark or Luke.^[13] Throughout the remainder of the 20th century, there were various challenges and refinements of Streeter's hypothesis. For example, in his 1953 book The Gospel Before Mark, Pierson Parker posited an early version of Matthew (proto-Matthew) as the primary source of both Matthew and Mark, and the Q source used by Matthew.^[14]

Possible Aramaic or Hebrew gospel of Matthew

There are numerous testimonies, starting from Papias and Irenaeus, that Matthew originally wrote in Hebrew letters, which is thought to refer to Aramaic. The sixteenth century Erasmus was the first to express doubts on the subject of an original Aramaic or Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew: "It does not seem probable to me that Matthew wrote in Hebrew, since no one testifies that he has seen any trace of such a volume." Here Erasmus distinguishes between a Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew letters and the partly lost Gospel of the Hebrews and Gospel of the Nazoraeans, from which patristic writers do quote, and which appear to have some relationship to Matthew, but are not identical to it. The Gospel of the Ebionites also has a close relationship to the Gospel of the Hebrews and Gospel of the Nazoraeans, and hence some connection to Matthew. The similarly named Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew has almost nothing to do with Matthew, however, and instead is a combination of two earlier infancy Gospels.

Most contemporary scholars, based on analysis of the Greek in the Gospel of Matthew and use of sources such as the Greek Gospel of Mark, conclude that the New Testament Book of Matthew was written originally in Greek and is not a translation from Hebrew or Aramaic (Greek primacy).^[8] If they are correct, then the Church Fathers such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Jerome possibly referred to a document or documents distinct from the present Gospel of Matthew. A smaller number of scholars, including the Roman Catholic Pontifical Biblical Commission, believe the ancient writings that Matthew was originally in Aramaic, arguing for Aramaic primacy. These scholars normally consider the Peshitta and Old Syriac versions of the New Testament closest to the original autographs.

Biblical scholar Stephen L. Harris of the Jesus Seminar mentions that the claims of Matthew Levi being the author could actually be references to "an early Christian, perhaps named Matthew, who assembled a list of messianic prophecies in the Hebrew Bible, a collection that the creator of our present gospel may have used."^[15] The Jesus narrative would then have been assembled around these Tanakh (Old Testament) verses.

A Hebrew text of Matthew was published by the Spanish Jewish polemicist Ibn Shaprut in the 14th century. Although it has usually been considered to be his own translation, there are various signs pointing to the possibility that he was using a pre-existing text that may have been based on something older than our present Greek text. There is also a papyrus codex in Coptic containing Matthew from verse 5:38 to the end which also seems to contain hints of an older text. Some passages make more sense, such as the Jews saying to Jesus "Hoshanna in the house of David" ("Save, we pray, in the house of David") rather than "Hoshanna to the son of David" ("Save, we pray, to the son of David") in Matthew 21:9 and 21:15. ^[16]

Date of gospel

There is little in the gospel itself to indicate with clarity the date of its composition. The majority of scholars date the gospel between the years 70 and 100.^{citation needed} The writings of Ignatius show "a strong case ... for [his] knowledge of four Pauline epistles and the Gospel of Matthew"^[17], which gives a terminus ad quem of c. 110. The author of the Didache (c 100) probably knew it as well.^[2] Scholars cite multiple reasons to support this range, such as the time required for the theological views to develop between Mark and Matthew (assuming Markan priority), references to historic figures and events circa 70, and a later social context. Some significant conservative scholars argue for a pre-70 date, generally considering the gospel to be written by the apostle Matthew.^[18] In December 1994, Carsten Peter Thiede redated the Magdalen papyrus, which bears a fragment in Greek of the Gospel of Matthew, to the late 1st century on palaeographical grounds. Scholars date this fragment to the 3rd century, so Thiede's article provoked much debate.

A minority of Christian scholars argue for an even earlier date, as seen in the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia: "Catholic critics, in general, favor the years 40–45..."^[19] In recent times, John Wenham, one of the biggest supporters of the Augustinian hypothesis, is considered to be among the more notable defenders of an early date for the Gospel of Matthew.

Themes in Matthew

Jesus and the true Israel

According to R. T. France,

• Matthew's gospel, more clearly than the others, presents the view of Jesus as himself the true Israel, and of those who have responded to his mission as the true remnant of the people of God . . . to be the true people of God is thus no longer a matter of nationality but of relationship to Jesus.^[20]

Kingdom of Heaven

Of note is the phrase "Kingdom of Heaven" (ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν) used often in the gospel of Matthew, as opposed to the phrase "Kingdom of God" used in other synoptic gospels such as Luke. The phrase "Kingdom of Heaven" is used 32 times in 31 verses in the Gospel of Matthew. It is speculated that this indicates that this particular Gospel was written to a primarily Jewish audience, such as the Jewish Christians, as many Jewish people of the time felt the name of God was too holy to be written. Matthew's abundance of Old Testament references also supports this theory.

The theme "Kingdom of Heaven" as discussed in Matthew seems to be at odds with what was a circulating Jewish expectation—that the Messiah would overthrow Roman rulership and establish a new reign as the new King of the Jews. Christian scholars, including N. T. Wright (The Challenge of Jesus) have long discussed the ways in which certain 1st-century Jews (including Zealots) misunderstood the sayings of Jesus—that while Jesus had been discussing a spiritual kingdom, certain Jews expected a physical kingdom. See also Jewish Messiah.

The relationship between Jesus Christ and the "Kingdom" is also mentioned in the other gospels. Jesus had said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but My kingdom is not of this realm" (John 18:36 NASB). See also New Covenant (theology).

Jewish elements

While Paul's epistles and the other Gospels emphasize Jesus' international scope, Matthew addresses the concerns of a Jewish audience.^[4] The cast of thought and the forms of expression employed by the writer show that this Gospel was written by Jewish Christians of Iudaea Province. The one aim pervading the book is to show that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah — he "of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write" — and that in him the ancient prophecies had their fulfillment. This book is full of allusions to passages of the Old Testament which the book interprets as predicting and foreshadowing Jesus' life and mission. This Gospel contains no fewer than sixty-five references to the Old Testament, forty-three of these being direct verbal citations, thus greatly outnumbering those found in the other Gospels. Matthew uses Old Testament quotations out of context, as individual lines or even letters of Scripture were said to have inspired meanings different from the original ones.^[4] The main feature^{citation needed} of this Gospel may be expressed in the motto "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill" (5:17). See also Expounding of the Law. It was the contention of Marcion that Christ had come to destroy the law.^[21] See Biblical law in Christianity for the modern debate.

This Gospel sets forth a view of Jesus as Christ and portrays him as an heir to King David's throne, the rightful King of the Jews. Matthew's genealogy, wise men of the east, massacre of the innocents, flight into Egypt affirm Jesus' kingship and liken him to Moses. Matthew regards Jesus as a greater Moses.^[4] He arranges Jesus' sermons into five discourses, probably parallel to the five Books of Moses,^[4] the Jewish Torah. Matthew affirms Jesus' authority to give the eternal law of Moses a new meaning.^[4]

The Jewish Encyclopedia (1901) article on the New Testament: Matthew states:

• The gospel of Matthew stands nearest to Jewish life and the Jewish mode of thinking. It was written for Judæo-Christians and made ample use of an Aramaic original. This is evidenced by the terms: "kingdom of heaven," found exclusively in Matthew, a translation of the Hebrew "malkut shamayim" (= "kingdom of God"); "your heavenly Father," or, "your Father in the heavens" (v. 16, vi. 14, et al.); "son of David" for "the Messiah" (ix. 27, et al.; comp. the rabbinical "ben David"); "the holy city" (iv. 5, xxvii. 53) and "the city of the great King" (v. 35) for "Jerusalem"; "God of Israel" (xv. 31); the oft-repeated phrase "that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet"; the retention of Judæo-Christian conceptions (v. 17, x. 6, xv. 24); the genealogy of Jesus, based upon specific haggadic views concerning Tamar, Ruth, and Bath-sheba, so drawn as to make the assumption of his Messianic character plausible (i. 1-16); and the assignment of the twelve seats of judgment on the Judgment Day to the Twelve Apostles in representation of the twelve tribes of Israel (xix. 28; Luke xxii. 30). It has embodied Jewish apocalyptic material, in ch. xxiv.-xxv., more extensively than have the other gospels; and in the Sermon on the Mount (v.-vii.) it shows a certain familiarity with rabbinical phraseology.

While addressing Jewish concerns, Matthew also addresses the universal nature of the church in the Great Commission (which is directed at "all nations") and Interpretations of the Sermon on the Mount and Christian view of the Law.

In art

The Chi Rho monogram from the Book of Kells is the most lavish such monogram

In Insular Gospel Books (copies of the Gospels produced in Ireland and Britain under Celtic Christianity), the first verse of Matthew's genealogy of Christ^[22] was often treated in a decorative manner, as it began not only a new book of the Bible, but was the first verse in the Gospels. In mediaeval typography, the Greek word Christ was sometimes abbreviated as Χρι (the Greek letters Chi-Rho-Iota); the first three letters of the word Christ in the Greek alphabet), and so the Χρι which begin this verse was given an elaborate decorative treatment by such scribes, who had a similar tradition for the opening few words of each of the Gospels. This trend culminated in the Book of Kells, where the monogram has taken over the entire page. Although later scribes (such as those of the Carolingian Renaissance) followed the Insular tradition of giving elaborate decorative treatments to the opening words of texts, including the Gospels, they did not follow the tradition of decoration of this verse.

See also

• Papyrus 64
• Sermon on the Mount
• Olivet discourse
• Great Commission
• Gospel of the Hebrews
• Gospel of the Nazoraeans
• Gospel of the Ebionites
• Joseph Smith—Matthew
• Il vangelo secondo Matteo, a film by Pier Paolo Pasolini

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Gospel of Matthew (KJV)

Online translations of the Gospel of Matthew:

• Unbound Bible 100+ languages/versions at Biola University
• Online Bibles at gospelhall.org: six English translations
• Online Bibles at biblegateway.com: 70 translations in 31 languages, including 19 in English
• New American Bible: a Roman Catholic translation in contemporary English
• Douay-Rheims Bible and the Latin Vulgate: older Roman Catholic translations
• NRSV: oremus Bible Browser
• Early Christian Writings Gospel of Matthew: introductions and e-texts
• Gospel of Matthew NLT version with drill-down concordance.

Other external links:

• Article from the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Jewish Encyclopedia: New Testament - Matthew
• Matthew, Gospel of St. in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• Original Language of Matthew's Gospel? an 1877 argument for a Hebrew original
• Downloadable Bibles, including Bibles for Palm OS, Pocket PC, Blackberry, etc. (many of them free), from OliveTree.com

Related articles:

• A textual commentary on the Gospel of Matthew Detailed text-critical discussion of the 300 most important variants of the Greek text (PDF, 438 pages)
• Commentary on the Gospel of Saint Matthew An interpretation of the Gospel by Swami Nirmalananda Giri (Hindu perspective).

References