The Gospel of Matthew (Gk. Κατά Ματθαίον Ευαγγέλιον) 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 in Galilee, his trip to Jerusalem marked by an incident in the Temple, and finally his crucifixion and resurrection. The resurrected Jesus commissions his Apostles to "go and make disciples of all nations."
The Early Christian tradition attributes the Gospel to Matthew, one of Jesus' disciples.
Of the four canonical gospels, Matthew is most closely aligned with first century Judaism. Matthew repeatedly stresses how Jesus fulfilled Jewish prophecies.[ Most scholars hold that the author was a Jewish Christian rather than a Gentile. ]The special commission given to Peter has been highly influential.[ With its integration of Mark's narrative with Jesus' teachings and its emphasis on the church, Matthew was the most popular Gospel when they circulated separately.][Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985.] Matthew has a rhythmical and often poetical prose. [ Graham N. Stanton (1989), p.59] Of the Synoptics, it is the Gospel best suited for public reading, and it has probably always been the best-known of them.]["Matthew, Gospel acc. to St." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005] Matthew provides a full and well-ordered account of teachings of Jesus; its Sermon on the Mount is widely respected and referred to, even by non-Christians; but, according to Graham N. Stanton, his awkward use of the Old Testament as a set of proof texts, anti-Jewish statements and harsh comments on Judgment has been puzzling for modern readers.][ Graham N. Stanton (1989), p.60] ]Like the two other synoptic Gospels but in contrast with John, in Matthew Jesus talks more about the Kingdom of Heaven than himself, and teaches primarily using short parables or short sayings rather than extended speeches (as in John).
Composition
Authorship
The Early Christian tradition attributes the Gospel to Matthew, one of Jesus' disciples. Some scholars date back this tradition of authorship to the middle of the second century CE. [Bart Erhman (2004), p. 92] .]Contemporary scholars describe the author as an anonymous Christian writing towards the end of the first century. [ Howard Clark Kee (1997), p. 447] ]The consensus view of the contemporary New Testament scholars is that the Gospel was originally composed in Greek rather than being a translation from Aramaic or Hebrew.
Matthew the Evangelist
Since about the middle of the second century, the Christian tradition has attributed the Gospel to the disciple Matthew. [ Watson E. Mills, Richard F. Wilson, Roger Aubrey Bullard(2003), p.942 ] ][Aubrey William Argyle (1963), p.16 ] Arguments made to discount Matthew's authorship include the text being originally composed in Greek, not Aramaic, the Gospel's heavy reliance on Mark (nearly universally agreed among scholars][ D. Moody Smith, "Matthew the evangelist", Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 9, p.5780 ] Howard W. Clarke and Aubrey William Argyle (of Regent's Park College, Oxford) argue that "the author never adverts to his being an eyewitness of his gospel's events (nor does he ever indicate an eyewitness source), and it would leave unexplained his apparent dependence on Mark, who was not an apostle." [Howard W. Clarke (2003), p. xxi ] ]Papias's church history
The first reference to a text written by the disciple Matthew comes from Papias (bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor during the first half of the second century) around 120-130 CE, around fifty years after the book was put in circulation. Papias remarked that "Matthew composed the "logia" in the Hebrew tongue and everyone interpreted them as he was able". According to Ehrman this is not a reference to the gospel we have since the New Testament scholars are unified in the view that the Gospel of Matthew was originally written in Greek and not Hebrew.[ Bart Ehrman, "Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium", Oxford University Press, p.43 ] The interpretation of the above quote from Papias depends on the meaning of the term "logia". The term literally means "oracles", but the intended meaning by Papias has been controversial. Traditionally this was taken as a reference to the gospel according to Matthew. Another view uses the fact that the early Church fathers used oracles to refer to the words of the Old Testament, to argue that Matthew composed a list of prophecies or prooftexts from OT. Others say that this refers to a list of saying of Jesus (perhaps Q or something like Q). Adopting the latter translation, Ehrman argues that Papias is not referring to our Matthew since it contains much more than sayings. [ Geoffrey William Bromiley, "The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia", Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Publisher, p.281 ] ]Irenaeus and the four gospels
Apart from Papias' comment, we do not hear about the author of the Gospel until Irenaeus around 185 CE who remarks that there are only four Gospels that had been inspired by God, and that they were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. According to Erhman, Irenaeus had reasons to convince his readers of the apostolic origin of the books: Irenaeus and many other Church leaders were involved in heated debate over correct doctrine. Irenaeus for example knew large group of people who believed that there were two separate Gods, the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. Each group adhering to a certain doctrine had books in proof of their view. In order to support the authenticity of previously anonymous gospels, names were attached to them. The insistence on the disciple Matthew's authorship therefore, in Erhman's view, should be viewed as part of the campaign against heretics. [ Bart Erhman, "Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium", Oxford University Press, p.44 ] ]Contemporary scholarship
Modern scholars have made several suggestions as to the identity of the author: a converted Jewish rabbi or scribe, a Hellenised Jew, a Gentile convert who was deeply knowledgeable about the Jewish faith, or a member of a "school" of scribes within a Jewish-Christian community. [Donald Harman Akenson, "Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds", 2001, University of Chicago Press, p.260 ] [ For a review of the debate see: Paul Foster, "Why Did Matthew Get the Shema Wrong? A Study of Matthew 22:37", Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 122, No. 2 (Summer, 2003), pp. 309-333 ] ]Some scholars have suggested that the author, in Matthew 13:52, may be hinting that he is a learned scribe when says: "every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings out of his treasure things new and old." [Anthony J. Saldarini (2003), p.1000] According to Browning, it is possible that the author was coming from a city whose Church was founded by the disciple Matthew. [ W. R. F. Browning, Gospel of Matthew, "A dictionary of the Bible", Oxford University Press, p.245-246] ]ources
The Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke (known as Synoptic Gospels) include many of the same episodes, often in the same sequence, and often even in the same wording. The relationship of Matthew to the Gospels of Mark and Luke is an open question known as the synoptic problem. The great amount of overlap in sentence structure and word choice of the three Gospels has been explained by arguing that the Gospel writers either copied from each other, or they all copied from another common source. It is nearly universally agreed among scholars that Matthew (and Luke) used Mark's narrative of Jesus' life and death, plus the hypothetical Q document's record of Jesus' sayings while the minority argue that Matthew was the first, Luke expanded on Matthew and Mark is the conflation of Matthew and Luke. For most scholars, the Q collection accounts for what Matthew and Luke share — sometimes in exactly the same words — but are not found in Mark. Examples of such material are devil's three temptation of Jesus, the Beatitudes, Lord's prayer and many individual sayings.[ Howard Clark Kee (1997), p. 448] ][ Amy-Jill Levine (2001), p.372-373 ] ][Bart Erhman, "Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium", Oxford University Press, p.80-81] Matthew contains around 612 verses out of 662 verses of Mark, and with few exceptions all in the exact order. [ Graham N. Stanton (1989), p.63-64] Matthew however quite frequently removes or modifies from Mark redundant phrases or unusual words and modifies the passages in Mark that might put Jesus in a negative light (i.e. removing the highly critical comment that Jesus "was out of his mind" in Mark 3:21, removing "do you not care" from Mark 4:38 etc) [ Graham N. Stanton (1989), p.36] ]Language
New Testament scholars are unified in the view that the Gospel of Matthew was originally composed in Greek.["Gospel According to Matthew.", Encyclopædia Britannica. ] There is a pervasive Jewish-Christian dimension in the Gospel of Matthew, suggesting that the author was of Jewish-Christian background and was writing for Christians of similar background: Christ's fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies are emphasized. Jesus is represented as a new lawgiver whose miracles are a confirmation of his divine mission. Some scholars have suggested that the Papias's statement about Matthew's collection of Jesus' sayings is a reference to the earlier version of the Gospel in Aramaic that was used by the author of the Gospel of Matthew. ]Place of composition
It is suggested that the Gospel was possibly written in Syrian Antioch on the River Orontes, a cluster of urban communities in that neighborhood, or one of the larger settlements in Galilee. [ Stanley P. Saunders, "Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible", Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000, p.871-873 ] According to W. R. F. Browning, the content of the Gospel indicates tensions between the Christian and Jewish community in that area: the Gospel underscores the role of Jewish leaders as opponents of Jesus from the beginning of the gospel (Matthew 2:1) to its conclusion. According to Matthew 10:17, Christians could expect to be hauled before a local court (Sanhedrin) where Jesus might be dismissed as a magician and a deceiver. The Gospel replies to the current Jewish explanation about the alleged empty tomb. The author uses his knowledge of the Old Testament in defense of the Christian claims. ]Characteristics
According to W. R. F. Browning (who adopts the more common view that the author of Matthew was a Jewish-Christian), due to author's rabbinical background, he avoids using the holy word God, and has preference for the term "Kingdom of heaven". He also divides his work into great blocks each ending with the phrase: "When Jesus had finished these sayings ..." This narrative framework echoes that of Hexteuch: "the birth narratives/Genesis; the baptism in the Jordon and Jesus' temptations/Exodus; healing of a leper and an untouchable woman/Leviticus; callings of disciples/Numbers; the Passion and Death of Jesus/Deuteronomy; the Resurrection/Joshua (the entry into promised land)".
The Sermon on the Mount of Matthew embodies the ethical teachings of Jesus. It "relates the new righteousness in the light of the coming of the Kingdom to the former obligations of the Law. The authority which the Law has for Christians has to be interpreted by the overriding injunction to love and therefore stretched out to an ideal not attained in the practices of the Pharisees."
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.
# Containing the genealogy, the birth, and the infancy of Jesus (). See also Expounding of the Law. It was the contention of Marcion that Christ had come to destroy the law. [ [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/3827/Epip13.html Epiphanius:Panarion: No.42] ] 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. He arranges Jesus' sermons into five discourses, probably parallel to the five Books of Moses, the Jewish Torah. Matthew affirms Jesus' authority to give the eternal law of Moses a new meaning.
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.
Comparison with other canonical Gospels
According to Amy-Jill Levine, in Matthew (and the two other synoptic Gospels), Jesus talks more about the Kingdom of God than himself unlike John in which Jesus identifies himself as the true vine; the bread of life; the way, the truth and the life. Another difference is that while in Matthew and the two other synoptic gospels, Jesus teaches primary using short parables or short sayings, in John he does so using extended speeches. Levine states that each of the three synoptic gospels offer a distinct portraits of Jesus. For example, "Matthew has Jesus' earthly mission restricted to the 'lost sheep of the house of Israel' (Matt 15:24, see also 10:5-6) and emphasizing obedience to and preservation of biblical law. Mark however opens this mission to Gentiles and suggests abrogation of the dietary regulations mandated by the Torah."[ Amy-Jill Levine (2001), p.373 ] ]According to Levine, in terms of chronology Matthew agrees with all other gospel that Jesus' public ministry began with an encounter with John the Baptist. Then Matthew (and the two other synoptic Gospels) mention teaching and healing activities of Jesus in Galilee. This is followed by a trip to Jerusalem marked by an incident in the Temple. Jesus is crucified on the day of Passover holiday. John by contrast puts the Temple incident very early in Jesus' ministry and depicts several trips to Jerusalem. The crucifixion is also placed before the Passover holiday, on the day of preparation for passover when the lambs for the Passover meal were being sacrificed in Temple.
Details related only by Matthew
Certain details of Jesus's life, of his infancy in particular, are only related by Matthew. For example, Only Matthew mentions "Joseph’s perplexity on learning that Mary is pregnant, the homage of the Wise Men, the flight into Egypt to escape Herod’s soldiers, the massacre of the innocents, and the return of the holy family from Egypt"
In art
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 [ [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+1:18 Matthew 1:18] ] 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.
ee also
*List of Gospels
*List of omitted Bible verses
*Gospel of the Ebionites
*Gospel of the Hebrews
*Gospel of the Nazoraeans
*Great Commission
*Il vangelo secondo Matteo, a film by Pier Paolo Pasolini
*Joseph Smith—Matthew*Olivet discourse
*Papyrus 64
*Sermon on the Mount
Notes
References
*Amy-Jill Levine, chapter 10, "The Oxford History of the Biblical World", Oxford University Press, 2001.
*Anthony J. Saldarini, "Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible", Editors: James D. G. Dunn, John William Rogerson, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0802837115.
*Aubrey William Argyle, "The Gospel According to Matthew: New English Bible", Cambridge University Press, 1963.
*Bart D. Ehrman, "The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings". New York: Oxford, (2004), ISBN 0-19-515462-2.
*David D. Kupp, "Matthew's Emmanuel: Divine Presence and God's People in the First", Cambridge University Press, 1996, ISBN 0521570077.
*Eduard Schweizer: "Das Evangelium nach Matthäus. Übersetzt und erklärt". Das Neue Testament deutsch (NTD) 2. Göttingen (1973) 4. Aufl. 1986 ISBN 3-525-51306-2.
*Graham N. Stanton, "The Gospels and Jesus", Oxford University Press, 1989.
*Harris, Stephen L., "Understanding the Bible", Palo Alto: Mayfield, 1985.
*Howard Clark Kee, part 3, "The Cambridge Companion to the Bible", Cambridge University Press, 1997.
*Howard W. Clarke, "The Gospel of Matthew and Its Readers", Indiana University Press, 2003.
*Markus Bockmuehl, Donald A. Hagner, "The Written Gospel", Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 0521832853.
*Mary Clayton, "The Apocryphal Gospels of Mary in Anglo-Saxon England", Cambridge University Press, 1998, ISBN 0521581680.
*Michael Green: "The Message of Matthew. The Kingdom of Heaven". Bible Speaks Today. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove 2001 ISBN 0-8308-1243-1.
*Michael J. Wilkins: "Matthew. From Biblical Text – to Contemporary Life". NIV Application Commentary. Zondervan, Grand Rapids 2004 (1003 S.) ISBN 0310493102.
*Scott Gregory Brown, "Mark's Other Gospel: Rethinking Morton Smith's Controversial Discovery", Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2005, ISBN 0889204616.
*Watson E. Mills, Richard F. Wilson, Roger Aubrey Bullard, "Mercer Commentary on the New Testament", Mercer University Press, 2003.
External links
*A list of online translations of the Gospel of Matthew: bibleref|Matthew|1-28
* [http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~wie/TCG/TC-Matthew.pdf 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).
* [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/matthew.html Early Christian Writings] "Gospel of Matthew:" introductions and e-texts.