![]() ![]() The gospel of Matthew is arranged according to a divine plan. Whereas it is in other places mostly called the "kingdom of God", Matthew calls it thirty two times "kingdom of the heavens" only five times the expression "kingdom of God" is used. In close connection with this is a further important mark of the gospel of Matthew: the frequent mention of the messianic kingdom, which is mentioned fifty times. Altogether eight times the Lord Jesus is called the "Son of David" ( Matthew 1:1 Matthew 9:27 Matthew 12:23 Matthew 15:22 Matthew 20:31 Matthew 20:31 Matthew 21:9 Matthew 21:15). The aim of the Holy Spirit in this gospel is made clear already in the first verse: Jesus Christ is the Son of David and the Son of Abraham, and therefore the Messiah, the rightful, promised King of Israel, the fulfiller of all prophecies of the Old Testament. Things that happened in the life of the Lord Jesus are on fourteen occasions explicitly described as fulfilments of prophecies of the Old Testament ( Matthew 1:22-23 Matthew 2:5-6 Matthew 2:15 Matthew 2:17-18 Matthew 2:23 Matthew 4:14-16 Matthew 8:17 Matthew 11:10 Matthew 12:17-21 Matthew 13:35 Matthew 21:4-5 Matthew 21:42 Matthew 26:31 Matthew 27:9-10). But some of these are only a few words (for example Matthew 5:21 Matthew 5:27 Matthew 5:38 Matthew 5:43 Matthew 24:15)Ī total of thirty quotes from the Old Testament are actually mentioned as such (for example Matthew 2:5-6 Matthew 3:3 Matthew 4:4 Matthew 4:7 Matthew 4:10). The gospel of Matthew contains some sixty quotes from the Old Testament. This however is not the only reason for it to be rightly listed in the first place, but also because it forms a link between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The gospel according to Matthew is the most detailed and, in its format, clearest of all four gospels. The church father Irenaeus (ca 140-202AD) hints on the gospel of Matthew having been written around 61-66AD. While some researchers believe the gospel was written after the destruction of Jerusalem (70AD), others think that there are no facts supporting this, and they date it as 60-70AD. ![]() The gospel does not contain any details about its exact time of writing, therefore the opinions in regard to that vary considerably. The name Matthew can be traced back to various Hebrew names: Matthija, Matthitja, Mattanja or Matthai, which all have the same meaning - "gift of the Lord". Another noteworthy fact is that Matthew is only called "Matthew the tax-gatherer" in the list in Matthew 10:3. While on this occasion Luke calls him "Levi, the tax-gatherer" and Mark "Levi, the son of Alphaeus", he is called "Matthew" only in our gospel. All three synoptic gospels - so called because of their similarity - tell us about his calling ( Matthew 9:9 ff, Mark 2:13 ff, Luke 5:27 ff). The name of the author, Matthew, is listed in all lists of apostles at the seventh or eighth place ( Matthew 10:2-4, Mark 3:16-19, Luke 6:13-16, Acts 1:13). The text of Matthew's gospel is now generally viewed as Greek original, and not as a translation. On the other hand it is possible that at the beginning there was a collection of the words of Jesus in Aramaic, but this remains a theory if not confirmed by text findings. But both arguments miss out that the Holy Scriptures have been written by men, who were under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Who led them in their writings with regard to contents as well as form (cf. The reason for the assumption that the apostle Matthew could not have been the author of this gospel is that an eye witness could not have written like this, and that it is unthinkable that an apostle would have based his writings on the work of a non-apostle like Mark. They believe that the writer was no apostle, that he wrote the gospel in Greek and based it on two sources: the gospel of Mark and a so-called "Logia Source Q", which only exists in theory. The view of the more recent scholars is that the gospel was neither written by Matthew nor in Hebrew or Aramaic. Papias (ca 65 - 150 AD) writes: "Matthew has written these words (Greek logia) in the Hebrew language, but everybody translated them as best they could." The interpretation of this is not easy, and there have been various explanations. But this tradition also says that Matthew's gospel was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic. But right from the beginning the Christian tradition confirms that the apostle Matthew is the author of this gospel. There is only one good news of the great work that God had accomplished by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, but in His wisdom it needed four different men to make this news of salvation known to the world in written form.Īs in most books of the Bible, the name of the author is not mentioned in Matthew's gospel. ![]() The heading of the first book of the New Testament is in most manuscripts "Gospel according to Matthew".
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