The Book of Mathew

Posted under Uncategorized on April 15th, 2007 by with no responses 

Author: Matthew
Place: Perhaps Antioch
Date: A.D. 60-70

Content: Matthew was a tax collector, called by Jesus to follow him early in his public ministry; hence, he was an eyewitness of most of the events he describes. He begins with a detailed account of Jesus’ birth of the virgin Mary, his baptism, and temptation in the wilderness. Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God, entrance into which meant eternal life. One entered by repentance and faith. Matthew blocks the teaching of Jesus together into

five discourses in which may be seen the ethics, the proclamation, the parables, the fellowship, and the consummation of the kingdom.

Jesus’ death and resurrection end the Gospel with the command to go into all the world with the good news (gospel) of Jesus Christ.

Theme: Matthew’s main purpose in writing his Gospel is to show that Jesus fulfills the promise of God in the Old Testament. For this reason Jesus is introduced as a “descendant of King David and of Abraham,” and Matthew makes use of numerous Old Testament prophecies and quotations to explain Jesus’ life. Jesus came to be the Savior of the Jews, the Gentiles, and ultimately the world. The ethics required by members of God’s kingdom are found in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7) where the world’s values are rejected and the Kingdom of God and his righteousness become supreme. (Above commentary is from Tyndale Publishers “The One Year Bible Companion” p. 21)

Matthew is one of the three “Synoptic Gospels” – along with Mark and Luke. These 3 gospels are similar in language and material and thus are synoptic – or “seeing together.” 91% of Mark’s gospel is contained in Matthew and 53% of Mark is found in Luke, so it is speculated that both Matthew and Luke may have used Mark as a major source of their gospels.

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