Introduction to the book of Mathew

Authorship: Matthew, the author, was a tax collector. In his day, tax collectors were considered to be in the same class of society as harlots, thieves and murderers. Matthew's original name was Levi. This is why in the Gospel according to Mark and Luke he is identified as Levi. It is not known if it was the Lord Jesus Christ who changed his name to Matthew or whether Levi changed it after he became a disciple of Jesus Christ. In either case, God used this name change to demonstrate that only He, God, could change a tax collector named Levi into one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ named Matthew. Thus, God used Matthew, as He did with the Apostle Paul, to be an example of how a life can change by the transforming power of His Grace and Mercy. There is a lot of speculation of exactly when the Gospel according to Matthew was written. However, the majority of scholars say that it was

most likely written around 60 AD. It was penned in common Greek, that is the Greek spoken by the common people. Hence, it was easily understood. The Gospel according to Matthew was and is considered to be one of the most important documents of the Christian faith. It contains the fullest and most systematic account of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. However, the information contained in Matthew is organized in a more topical fashion rather than an exact day to day record of the life of Jesus Christ.

W.F. Albright wrote: The four books in our New Testament which are called the "gospels" stand alone, in that there is no other material by which to judge them. This is not to say that they are a wholly new literary form, but rather that the material they discuss is not to be found paralleled anywhere else. It is true that during the centuries after the events recorded in the New Testament, the apocryphal gospels and various Gnostic compilations of sayings attributed to Jesus were composed. But an examination of the materials so collected, and a comparison of them with the canonical gospels of the New Testament, reveals that these later compositions were slanted to form a belief about the person and work of Jesus which finds no expression in the pages of the New Testament. (W.F. Albright and C.S. Mann. Matthew. The Anchor Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1971, p. xix) B. The Synoptic Problem

The reader of the New Testament may wonder at the fact that there are four books, written by different authors, each of which describes the life of Christ. When one considers the nature and importance of parallelism in the Hebrew mind, perhaps the repetition is not so surprising. Where a western writer would be concerned to present a single, unified account, the Jewish mind wished for the stereoscopic view afforded by parallelism; instead of relying on a single look at the life of Christ, the modern reader is able to view his life from more than one point, thereby getting a much clearer picture than he or she otherwise might. The careful reader of the gospels will notice that the similarities between the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are much greater than is the case with the gospel of John. The result has been to refer to the first three gospels as "Synoptic". "Synoptic" means "to see together" and comes from two Greek words: sun, meaning "with" and optomai, meaning "to see". The synoptic problem arises because the three Gospels present the same general view of the life and teaching of Jesus, raising the question: why are there so many similarities, even to the extent of using exactly the same words -- and why are there such striking differences. The Synoptic Problem can therefore be summarized as follows: 1. Who wrote the Gospels? 2. Were the writers dependent upon each other, and if so, who depended on whom? 3. What other sources did the authors of the Gospels make use of, that they might have had in common?

It seems to be clear that Matthew incorporated almost the entire gospel of Mark in his narrative, although he condensed the accounts of the miracles, apparently for thematic reasons. In addition to Mark, the author of Matthew inserted numerous sayings of Jesus, apparently taken from a source that both he and Luke had in common. This source, whether a written document, documents, or oral tradition, is designated as "Q" by scholars. Q is an abbreviation for Quelle, the German word for "source". Therefore, the order of the Gospels, and their relationship to one another is as follows: 1. Mark 2. Matthew, making use of Mark and Q 3. Luke, making use of Mark, Q, and other sources. 4. John, which apparently did not make reference to the earlier written Gospels, and is not, therefore, one of the synoptic gospels.

The title comes from the assumed author of the book. II. Author and Setting A. Author Matthew appears in all the lists of the twelve apostles (Matthew 10:3, Mark 3:18, Luke 6:15 and Acts 1:13). In Matthew 10:3 he is described as "the tax-collector". Matthew 9:9 describes Matthew's call to be a disciple. In the parallel passages in Mark and Luke he is referred to as Levi and Mark

adds that he was "the son of Alphaeus". Papias, the early second century bishop of Hierapolis, Phrygia (in Turkey), wrote that Matthew "compiled the oracles" in Hebrew. This statement was taken by the early church as evidence that Matthew was the author of the Gospel which had been handed down as being "according to Matthew". Most modern scholars think that Papias was not referring to Matthew's Gospel at all, but rather to a compilation of sayings of Jesus, or of Messianic proof texts from the Old Testament, which might have served the author of Matthew (and the other Gospel writers) as source materials. The disciple, Matthew, remains the best guess for author of the book that bears his name. B. Nature of the narrative The Gospel of Matthew is not chronologically arranged history; rather, we are given materials organized only loosely according to time frame. More important to Matthew, in keeping with his Jewish background, is the matter of theme. As is the case with the Old Testament materials, other organizing principles often are allowed to take precedence over the chronological. As Westerners, this behavior can be somewhat confusing and disturbing; however, the modern reader should be no more surprised by the culture shock in this than he would be in traveling to the Middle East today. What we assume to be normal, self-evident, and natural, is often simply not the case with the biblical narratives. Much of the problems modern critical scholars face in handling the materials in the Bible derives from just this failure to reckon with different cultural approaches to writing a

narrative. See The Thematic Arrangement of Biblical Texts for more information on this subject. Matthew has two principle interests in his gospel: 1) the fulfillment of God's purposes in and through Jesus and 2) how this fulfillment will find expression in the Church that Jesus founded. Matthew is much more concerned with themes than with history. C. Date It has been argued that the Gospel of Matthew was likely written before AD 70, since Jesus predicts the destruction of Jerusalem in 24:2-23 and it would be odd that no mention of its fulfillment would appear in the book had it been written after this date. However, if the Gospel had been written after the destruction of Jerusalem, that destruction would have been so well known, it would have been unnecessary to point out that Jesus' words had been fulfilled. Matthew 27:8 and 28:15 would seem to indicate that some time had passed since the crucifixion, since both have the phrase "to this day". Scholarly opinion seems to favor a date between AD 55 and 75 for the date of composition, with a period from 65-75 as seeming most probable. It is unclear whether the book was written in or out of Palestine; considering the statement in Acts 8:1, regarding persecution and the scattering of the disciples from Jerusalem, and the subsequent persecutions and political instabilities leading up to the disaster of 66-73 AD, it is certainly possible that the Gospel was written somewhere other than Palestine.

III. An Outline of Matthew I. The Preparation of the King 1:1-4:16 II. The Presentation of the Kingdom 4:17-16:12 III. Sermons 16:13-25:46 IV. The Sacrifice 26:1-27:66 V. The Resurrection 28:1-20 Preface Pericope Prologue Matthew Mark 1:1 1:1 Luke 1:1-4 John 1:1-18

2. Birth and Childhood Pericope The Promise of the Birth of John the Baptist The Annunciation Mary's Visit to Elizabeth The Birth of John the Baptist The Genealogy of Jesus The Birth of Jesus The Adoration of the Infant Jesus 1:2-17 1:18-25 2:1-12 1:26-38 1:39-56 1:57-80 3:23-38 2:1-7 2:8-20 Matthew Mark Luke 1:5-25 John

The Circumcision and Presentation in the Temple The Flight into Egypt and Return The Childhood of Jesus at Nazareth The Boy Jesus in the Temple 2:22-23 2:13-21

2:21-38

2:39-40 2:41-52

3. Preparation Pericope John the Baptist John's Preaching of Repentance John Preaching and Replies to Questioners John's Messianic Preaching The Imprisonment of John The Baptism of Jesus The Genealogy of Jesus The Temptation 3:11-12 1:7-8 14:3-4 1:1-17 4:1-11 3:15-18 1:24-28 6:17-18 3:19-20 3:23-38 1:12-13 4:1-13 3:10-14 Matthew Mark 3:1-6 3:7-10 1:2-6 Luke 3:1-6 3:7-9 John 1:19-23

3:13-17 1:9-11 3:21-22 1:29-34

4. The Beginning of Jesus' Public Ministry (According to John) Pericope The Call of the First Disciples Matthew Mark Luke John 1:35-51

The Marriage at Cana The Sojourn at Capernaum The First Journey to Jerusalem The First Cleansing of the Temple Jesus' Ministry in Jerusalem The Discourse with Nicodemus Jesus' Ministry in Judea John's Testimony to Christ 5. Jesus' Ministry in Galilee Pericope The Journey into Galilee The Discourse with the Woman of Samaria Ministry in Galilee Jesus' Preaching at Nazareth The Call of the Disciples Teaching in the Synagogue at Capernaum Healing of the Demoniac in the Synagogue 1:23-28 4:33-37 Matthew Mark 4:12 1:14a Luke 4:14a

2:1-11 2:12 2:13 2:14-22 2:23-25 3:1-21 3:22 3:23-36

John 4:1-3 4:4-42

4:13-17 1:14b- 4:14b- 4:4315 13:5358 4:18-22 1:16-20 1:21-22 4:31-32 15 46a 6:1-6a 4:16-30

The Healing of Peter's Mother- 8:14-15 1:29-31 4:38-39 in-law The Sick Healed at Evening Jesus Departs from Capernaurn First Preaching Tour in Galilee 4:23 The Miraculous Catch of Fish The Cleansing of the Leper The Healing of the Paralytic The Call of Levi (Matthew) The Question about Fasting The Man with the Withered Hand Jesus Heals Multitudes by the Sea The Choosing of the Twelve 4:24-25 3:7-12 6:17-19 12:1516 10:1-4 3:13-19 6:12-16 8:1-4 9:1-8 9:9-13 8:16-17 1:32-34 4:40-41 1:35-38 4:42-43 1:39 4:44 5:1-11 1:40-45 5:12-16 2:1-12 5:17-26 5:8-9a 2:13-17 5:27-32 2:23-28 6:1-5 6:6-11

9:14-17 2:18-22 5:33-39 12:9-14 3:1-6

Plucking Grain on the Sabbath 12:1-8

6. The Sermon on the Mount (According to Matthew) Pericope Occasion of the Sermon The Beatitudes Matthew Mark Luke 20a 5:3-12 6:20b23 John

4:24-5:2 3:7-13a 6:17-

The Salt of the Earth The Light of the World On the Law and the Prophets On Murder and Anger On Adultery and Divorce On Swearing and Oaths On Retaliation On Love of One's Enemies On Almsgiving On Prayer The Lord's Prayer On Fasting On Treasures The Sound Eye On Serving Two Masters On Anxiety On Judging On Profaning the Holy

5:13

9:49-50 14:3435 8:16 16:1617 12:5759

5:14-16 4:21 5:17-20 5:21-26

5:27-32 9:43-48 16:18 5:33-37 5:38-42 5:43-48 6:1-4 6:5-6 6:7-15 6:16-18 6:19-21 6:22-23 6:24 6:25-34 7:1-5 7:6 12:3334 11:3436 16:13 12:2232 4:24-25 6:37-42 11:25 11:1-4 6:29-30 6:27-28 6:32-36

God's Answering of Prayer The Golden Rule The Straight and Narrow and Wide Broad Gate

7:7-11 7:12 7:13-14

11:9-13 6:31 13:2324 6:43-45

The Test of a Good Person, By 7:15-20 their Fruits 12:3335 Not Every One who Says Lord, 7:21-23 Lord shall Enter into the Kingdom The House Built upon the Rock 7:24-27 The End and the Effect of the Sermon 7. The Sermon on the Plain (According to Luke) Pericope Occasion of the Sermon The Beatitudes The Woes On Love of One's Enemies On Judging 5:38-48 7:1-5 Matthew Mark 7:28-29 1:21-22

6:46 13:2527 6:47-49

Luke 20a

John

4:24-5:2 3:7-13a 6:175:3-12 6:20b23 6:24-26 6:27-36 4:24-25 6:37-42

The Test of a Good Person, By 7:15-20 their Fruits 12:3335 The House Built upon the Rock 7:21-27 8. Jesus' Ministry in Galilee Continued Pericope Healing and Cleansing of the Leper The Centurion of Capernaum and his Servant The Widow's Son at Nain in-law The Sick Healed at Evening be Followers Stilling the Storm The Gadarene Demoniacs The Healing of the Paralytic The Call of Levi (Matthew) The Question about Fasting Jairus' Daughter and the Woman with a Hemorrhage 8:5-13 7:30 Matthew Mark 8:1-4

6:43-45

6:46-49

Luke

John

1:40-45 5:12-16 7:1-10 4:46b13:28- 54 29 7:11-17

The Healing of Peter's Mother- 8:14-15 1:29-31 4:38-39 8:16-17 1:32-34 4:40-41 9:57-62

On Following Jesus, the Would- 8:18-22

8:23-27 4:35-41 8:22-25 8:28-34 5:1-20 8:26-39 9:1-8 9:9-13 2:1-12 5:17-26 5:8-9a 2:13-17 5:27-32

9:14-17 2:18-22 5:33-39 9:18-26 5:21-43 8:40-56

Two Blind Men Healed

9:27-31 10:46- 18:3520:2934 52 43 11:1415 8:1 10:2

The Dumb Demoniac Healed

9:32-34 3:22 12:2224

The Harvest is Great Commissioning the Twelve

9:35-38 6:6b 6:34

10:1-16 6:7-11 6:12-16 3:13-19 9:1-6 10:3

The Coming Fate and Persecution of the Disciples

10:1725 24:9-14

13:9-13 6:40 12:1112 21:1219

13:16

Exhortation to Fearless Confession Divisions within Households Conditions of Discipleship

10:2633 10:3436 10:3739

12:2-9 12:5153 14:25- 12:25 27 17:33 9:41 10:16 13:20

Rewards of Discipleship

10:4042

Continuation of Journey Jesus' Answer

11:1 7:18-23 7:24-35 16:16 10:1215 10:2122

John the Baptist's Question and 11:2-6 Jesus' Witness concerning John 11:7-19 Woes Pronounced on Galilean 11:20Cities Jesus' Thanksgiving to the Father Come unto Me 24 11:2527 11:2830 Plucking Grain on the Sabbath 12:1-8 Healing the Withered Hand Jesus Heals Multitudes by the Sea The Ministering Women Jesus is Thought to be Beside Himself On Collusion with Satan 12:2230 9:32-34 3:20-21 12:1521

2:23-28 6:1-5 6:6-11 3:7-12 6:17-19

12:9-14 3:1-6

The Woman with the Ointment 26:6-13 14:3-9 7:36-50 12:1-8 8:1-3

3:22-27 11:1415 11:1723

The Sin against the Holy Spirit

12:3137 7:16-20

3:28-30 12:10 6:43-45 8:11-12 11:16 11:2932 11:2426 3:31-35 8:19-21 15:14 4:1-9 4:25 8:4-8 8:18b 10:2324

Against Seeking Signs, the Sign 12:38of Jonah 42 16:1-4 The Return of the Unclean Evil 12:43Spirit Jesus' True Kindred Relatives The Parable of the Sower The Reason for Speaking in Parables 45 12:4650 13:1-9 13:1017

4:10-12 8:9-10

Interpretation of the Parable of 13:18the Sower He who has Ears to Hear, Let him Hear 23 5:15 7:2 10:26 13:12 The Parable of the Seed Growing Secretly The Parable of the Tares (Weeds) 13:2430

4:13-20 8:11-15 4:21-25 8:16-18

4:26-29

The Parable of the Mustard Seed The Parable of the Leaven (Yeast) Jesus' Use of Parables

13:3132 13:33 13:3435

4:30-32 13:1819 13:2021 4:33-34

Interpretation of the Parable of 13:36the Tares The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and of the Pearl The Parable of the Net Treasures New and Old Jesus' True Kindred Relatives Stilling the Storm The Gerasene Demoniac Jairus' Daughter and the Woman with a Hemorrhage Jesus is Rejected at Nazareth Second Journey (to Jerusalem) The Healing at the Pool called Bethesda 13:5358 5:1 5:2-47 6:1-6a 4:16-30 43 13:4446 13:4750 13:5152 12:4650 8:23-27 4:35-41 8:22-25 8:28-34 5:1-20 8:26-39 9:18-26 5:21-43 8:40-56 3:31-35 8:19-21 15:14

Commissioning the Twelve Herod Thinks Jesus is John, Raised The Death of John the Baptist The Return of the Apostles Feeding the Five Thousand The Walking on the Water Healings at Gennesaret The Bread of Life What Defiles a Person Traditional and Real The Syrophoenician (Canaanite) Woman Jesus Heals a Deaf Mute and Many Others Feeding of the Four Thousand The Pharisees Seek a Sign

9:35 10:1-16 14:1-2

6:6b-13 9:1-6 6:14-16 9:7-9

14:3-12 6:17-29 3:19-20 6:30-31 9:10a 14:1321 14:2233 14:3436 6:26-59 15:1-20 7:1-23 11:3741 6:39 15:2128 15:2931 15:3239 16:1-4 12:3839 8:11-13 11:16 11:29 8:1-10 7:31-37 7:24-30 6:53-56 6:22-25 6:45-52 6:32-44 9:10b- 6:1-15 17 6:16-21

12:5456 The Leaven (Yeast) of the Pharisees A Blind Man is Healed at Bethsaida 8:22-26 16:5-12 8:14-21 12:1