Introductory Issues#

Logia#

The tradition passed on by Papias which says that Mark wrote down Peter’s reminiscences also says that Matthew wrote logia (Greek for “oracles”) in Hebrew or Aramaic, and that others interpreted them as they were able. In context, logia most naturally refers to a gospel. But we do not possess a gospel from the pen of Matthew in either of the Semitic languages, Hebrew and Aramaic, only the present Greek Gospel, which appears not to have been translated from a Semitic original.

Some have thought that the tradition refers to a collection of messianic proof texts drawn up by Matthew in Hebrew or Aramaic and later incorporated in Greek translation into his Gospel, or to an earlier Semitic edition of Matthew not directly related to our present Greek edition. Others have thought that logia refers to Q.

According to yet another understanding, Papias’s tradition refers to our present Greek Matthew as written in the Hebrew or Aramaic style rather than language and as presenting Matthew’s interpretation - in the sense of explanation - of Jesus’ life alongside Mark’s interpretation.

Authorship#

Modern scholars usually deny that the Apostle Matthew wrote the Gospel bearing his name. Following the equation of Papias’s logia with Q, some have suggested that Matthew wrote Q and that his name became mistakenly attached to the First Gospel (in the order of our New Testament) because the unknown writer of this Gospel utilized so much of Q.

It is argued to the contrary that an apostle like Matthew would not have borrowed narratives of Jesus’ deeds from a nonapostle like Mark. But while adding his own material, Matthew may simply be corroborating the Petrine and therefore apostolic tradition recorded by Mark.

Early church tradition unanimously ascribed the First Gospel to Matthew, and false ascription to a relatively obscure apostle like Matthew seems unlikely until a later date when Christian imagination ennobled all the apostles.

• The skillful organization of this Gospel agrees with the probable interests and abilities of a tax collector such as the Apostle Matthew had been.

• This is the only gospel to contain the story of Jesus’ paying the temple tax (17:24-27)

• The account of Matthew’s call to discipleship uses the apostolic name Matthew rather than the name Levi, used by Mark and Luke (see the lists of apostles in 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:13-16; Acts 1:13)

• Omits “his,” used by Mark and Luke, in describing the house where Matthew entertained Jesus at dinner (9:9-13; compare Mark 2:13-17; Luke 5:27-32)

Date#

If Matthew used Mark and Mark dates from the period A.D. 45-60, Matthew probably dates from slightly later in or after that period. Denial of predictive prophecy and generally more skeptical presuppositions will force a later date in the 80s or 90s. A number of conservative scholars prefer this later date because of other considerations, such as the argument that Matthew’s interest in the church betrays a later period when the doctrine of the church was assuming more importance as a result of the delay in Jesus’ return.

• The doctrine of the church already plays an important role in Paul’s letters, all written well before the 80s or 90s.

• If Matthew wrote especially for Jews, it seems less likely that he wrote late, after the breach between church and synagogue had widened, than early, when Jewish Christians still dominated the church and prospects for converting other Jews seemed brighter.

Furthermore, a late date for Matthew would make odd the business of the temple tax, which only Matthew discusses (17:24-27), and the relative prominence of Sadducees (they appear seven times in Matthew, over against only one mention each in Mark and Luke). For the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70 and thus the Sadducees lost their base of power and, indeed, most of them their very lives.

Structure#

Matthew writes his Gospel for the church as the new chosen nation, which at least for the time being has replaced the old chosen nation of Israel.

The Gospel starts with the nativity of Jesus (chapters 1-2). The rest of the Gospel takes up primarily Marcan narrative (usually condensed) and inserts five discourses of Jesus (though some of the material in these discourses comes from Mark).

The discourses consist of more or less lengthy “sermons,” to which isolated sayings of Jesus have been added in appropriate places. Each discourse ends with the formula, “And it came to pass when Jesus had finished.” Similarly, the formula, “From then on Jesus began to,” introduces a large new section of narrative (4:17; 16:21).

Jewishness#

The fivefold structure of these discourses suggests that for the benefit of his Jewish audience Matthew is portraying Jesus as a new and greater Moses. Like Moses, Jesus speaks part of his law from a mountain. The number of his discourses corresponds to the books of Moses, called the Pentateuch because they are five in number.

By omitting the story of the “widow’s mite,” Matthew even welds the denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees (chapter 23) and the Olivet Discourse (chapters 24-25) into a single unit to gain this fivefold arrangement (contrast Mark 12:38-40; Luke 20:45-47).

Matthew’s comparison of Jesus with Moses shows itself elsewhere too, as in the borrowing of phraseology from the story of Moses to describe Jesus’ nativity and transfiguration (compare 2:13, 20-21; 17:2, 5 with Exodus 2:15; 4:19-20; 34:29; Deuteronomy 18:15). In the Sermon on the Mount according to Matthew, Jesus himself sets his teaching alongside the Mosaic law in a series of statements, “You have heard that it was said to the ancients [there follows a quotation or a paraphrase of the Pentateuch].& But I say to you” (5:21, 27, 31, 33, 38, 43; contrast Luke 6:27-35).

Besides the fivefold structure of the discourses, there are many other indications of Matthew’s penchant for organization. He favors groupings of three and seven.

• He divides the genealogy of Jesus into three sections (1:17) and gives from Jesus’ teaching three examples of righteous conduct, three prohibitions, and three commandments (6:1-7:20).

• There are seven parables in chapter 13 and seven woes against the scribes and Pharisees in chapter 23

Even though some of these numerical groupings may go back to Jesus himself and to the events themselves, their frequency in Matthew shows his fondness for them above that of the other evangelists.

Purpose#

The editorial organization of Jesus’ teaching, its strongly ethical content, and its emphasis on discipleship have led to the views that Matthew writes his Gospel to provide a catechetical manual for new converts or a scholastic manual for church leaders, or that he designs his Gospel for liturgical and homiletical reading in early church services. But the Gospel gives a much stronger impression of having been written to strengthen Jewish Christians in their suffering of persecution, to warn them against laxity and apostasy, and to urge them to use their persecution as an opportunity for the evangelism of all nations.

Matthew’s recurring stress on Jesus’ fulfillment of the Old Testament law and messianic prophecy and his tracing of Jesus’ genealogy from Abraham, father of the Jewish nation, through the beloved King David also indicate a Jewish bent.

Still other Jewish features appear in the characteristically Jewish designation of:

• God as the “Father in heaven” (fifteen times in Matthew, only once in Mark, and not at all in Luke)

• in the substitution of “heaven” for God’s name (especially in the phrase “kingdom of heaven,” where the other evangelists have “kingdom of God”)

• in the typically Jewish interest in eschatology (Matthew extends the Olivet Discourse by a whole long chapter, as compared with Mark and Luke)

• in frequent references to Jesus as the “son of David”

• in allusions to Jewish customs without explanation (23:5, 27; 15:2; contrast the explanation in Mark 7:2-4)

• in the story of Jesus’ paying the temple tax (17:24-27, lacking in the other Gospels)

• in statements by him that have a specially Jewish flavor (for example, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” [15:24]; “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” [10:5b-6]; see also 5:17-24; 6:16-18; 23:2-3).

In telling the nativity story (chapters 1-2), Matthew stresses that Jesus was born into a Davidic family and from that standpoint, therefore, has a legitimate claim to the Jewish throne. Matthew also counters the Jewish charge that the disciples of Jesus stole away his body (28:11-15).

Universality#

On the other hand, universality also characterizes the Gospel of Matthew, which reaches a climax in the Great Commission that Jesus’ followers make disciples of all nations (28:18-20).

• Toward the beginning of the Gospel, the magi (wise men) worship the infant Christ—they are Gentiles (2:1-12).

• Jesus is quoted as saying that “many will come from the east and the west and sit at table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness” (8:11-12).

• The field is “the world” in the parable of the wheat and tares (13:38).

• According to the parable of the vineyard, God will transfer his kingdom from Israel to others (21:33-43).

• Matthew is the only evangelist to use the word church (16:18; 18:17)

We must describe his Gospel, then, as Jewish Christian with a universal outlook.

Provenance#

The Jewish character of Matthew’s Gospel suggests that he wrote it in Palestine or Syria, most probably Antioch, to which many of the original Palestinian disciples had migrated (Acts 11:19, 27). Its remarkable concern for Gentiles supports Antioch, a city with the church that sent Paul on his Gentile missions. In agreement with this view stands the fact that our oldest witness for a knowledge of Matthew’s Gospel is an early bishop of the church in Antioch: Ignatius (first quarter of the second century).

Excursus: New Testament Quotations of Fulfilled Old Testamant Passages#

Matthew’s emphasis on fulfilled messianic prophecy makes appropriate here a consideration of the fulfillment motif throughout the New Testament. The writers of the New Testament and Jesus himself saw in the coming of God’s rule a fulfillment of what we would distinguish in the Old Testament as conscious predictions and unconscious typology.

Fulfillment Themes#

Here is a summary of the main themes of both direct and typological fulfillment in Matthew and the rest of the New Testament: Jesus fulfilled the activities of the Lord himself as described and predicted in the Old Testament (Matthew 1:21; 3:3-4 par.;1 11:5 par.; 13:41; 24:31 par.; 27:9-10).

Jesus was:

1. the foretold messianic king (Matthew 1:23; 2:6, 23; 3:17 par.; 4:15-16; 21:5; 22:44 par.; 26:64 par.)

2. the Isaianic Servant of the Lord (Matthew 3:17 par.; 8:17; 11:5 par.; 12:18-21; 1 Peter 2:22-25)

3. the Danielic Son of Man (Matthew 24:30 par.; 26:64 par.; 28:18).

He brought to a climax:

1. the line of prophets (Matthew 12:39-40 par.; 13:13-15 par., 35; 17:5 par.; 1 Corinthians 10:2; 2 Corinthians 3:7-18)

2. the succession of righteous sufferers since Old Testament times (Matthew 21:42 par.; 27:34-35 par., 39 par., 43, 46 par., 48 par.)

3. and the Davidic dynasty (Matthew 12:42 par.)

He reversed the work of Adam, who plunged the human race into sin (Matthew 4:1-11 par.; Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, 45-49; Hebrews 2:5-9; compare Luke 3:38). He fulfilled God’s promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:16). Since he was the ideal Israelite, his own personal history recapitulated the national history of Israel (Matthew 2:15, 18; 4:4, 7, 10 par.).

Melchizedek prefigured the priesthood of Christ, as did also, in an inferior and sometimes contrasting way, the Aaronic priesthood (Hebrews 7-10). The paschal lamb and other sacrifices symbolized his redemptive death (John 1:29, 36; 19:36; Romans 3:25; 1 Corinthians 5:7; Ephesians 5:2; Hebrews 9-10; 1 Peter 1:19-21; Revelation 5:6-14), as well as Christian devotion and service (Romans 12:1; 15:16; Philippians 2:17).

Jesus is life-giving bread like the manna God provided in the desert during Israel’s journey from Egypt to Canaan (John 6:35; 1 Corinthians 10:3), the source of living water like the rock in the desert (1 Corinthians 10:4; compare John 7:37), the serpent lifted up in the desert (John 3:14), and the tabernacle and temple of God’s abode among human beings (John 1:14; 2:18-22; compare Colossians 1:19).

John the Baptist was the predicted prophetic forerunner of Jesus (Mark 1:2-3). Jesus inaugurated the foretold eschatological period of salvation (John 6:45) and established the new covenant (Hebrews 8:8-12; 10:16-17). Judas Iscariot fulfilled the role of the wicked opponents of Old Testament righteous sufferers (Acts 1:20).

The church is, or individual Christians are:

• the new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15; Colossians 3:10)

• the spiritual seed (= offspring, descendants) of Abraham by incorporation into Christ (Romans 4:1-25; 9:6-33; Galatians 3:29; 4:21-31; Philippians 3:3)

• the new Israel (Romans 9:6-33; 11:17-24; 2 Corinthians 6:16; 1 Peter 2:9-10)

• the new temple (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:20-22).

The Mosaic law prefigured divine grace both positively and negatively (John 1:17; Colossians 2:17; Galatians). The Deluge (Noah’s flood) stands for the Last Judgment (Matthew 24:37-39 par.) and for baptism (1 Peter 3:20-21). The passage through the Red Sea and the rite of circumcision foreshadowed baptism (1 Corinthians 10:2; Colossians 2:11-12).

Jerusalem stands for the celestial city (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 21:1-22:5). Entrance into Canaan prefigures the entrance of Christians into heavenly rest (Hebrews 3:18-4:13). And proclamation of the gospel to all people fulfills God’s promise to Abraham and prophetic predictions of Gentile salvation (Acts 2:17-21; 3:25; 13:47; 15:16-18; Romans 15:9-12, 21).

Text-Plots and Testimony Books#

It is worth noting that the pursuit of these themes kept New Testament writers from atomizing the Old Testament. C. H. Dodd pointed out that they drew most of their fulfillment-quotations from a rather limited set of Old Testament passages (“text-plots”) considered especially relevant to the new age. Perhaps the early Christians also drew up manuals of Old Testament proof texts, called “testimony books” by modern scholars.

Something like a testimony book has appeared among the Dead Sea Scrolls, but of course it is not Christian in orientation. Apparently the early church learned a new and holistic way of interpreting the Old Testament from Jesus himself (compare Luke 24:27).

Textual Traditions#

The Septuagint provided a textual base for most of the Old Testament quotations, but variations are often evident. Matthew in particular appears to have utilized the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, the Targums, and other textual traditions in addition to the Septuagint.

Historicity#

Sometimes it is argued that the early Christians massively invented incidents in the life of Jesus to obtain “fulfillments” of supposed messianic prophecies. It is true that the evangelists often borrow Old Testament phraseology in describing the events of Jesus’ career. But the allusions to Old Testament texts are usually far too fleeting for those texts to have formed the basis of free invention of dominical tradition.

Furthermore, many of the quoted Old Testament passages are so obscure that they could hardly have been the source for corruption of that tradition. The Old Testament quotations appear to be later additions to the tradition concerning Jesus. The tradition came first, the recognition of correspondences to ancient prophecy and typology later.

Summary#

Very early church tradition ascribes the Gospel of Matthew to the Apostle Matthew. Some features of the Gospel comport with this ascription.

Many scholars put the date of writing in the last quarter of the first century; but distinctively Matthean material—for example, the business of the temple tax and the relative prominence of Sadducees—favors a date before A.D. 70. The introductory formula, “From that time on Jesus began to,” divides Matthew’s narrative into three sections (see 4:17; 16:21); and the concluding formula, “When Jesus had finished,” gives a fivefold structure to Jesus’ discourses (see 7:28; 11:1; 13:53; 19:1; 26:1).

Lending a heavily Jewish Christian tone are such features as an emphasis on fulfillment of the Old Testament, the portrayal of Jesus as a lawgiver like Moses, and the necessity of good works in knowledgeable obedience to Jesus’ commands. Given Matthew’s emphases, we may infer that his intended audience consisted of a church or churches populated with false as well as true disciples of Jesus and tempted because of persecution to compromise their Christian testimony, to recant their Christian profession, and even to betray each other to their persecutors.

So Matthew, writing perhaps in Antioch, Syria, warns against such compromise, recantation, and betrayal and urges the use of flight from persecution as an opportunity to make disciples of all the nations.