The Gospel of Matthew

And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Matthew 4:19

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Jesus as teacher. Jesus as the new Moses. Jesus and the Law. These are some of Matthew's big themes. Here are two more:

• Matthew emphasises Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies and prototypes. He often uses expressions like '...this happened to fulfil what was written by the prophet so-and-so, saying...' Matthew's 'fulfimlment formulae', as they are sometimes called, flag up the relationship between Jesus and the Old Testament.
• Matthew's gospel contains many parables about the 'kingdom of heaven'. There are ten in total (perhaps an echo of the Ten Commandments upon which God's Old Testament 'kingdom' was to be built?). Six are in chapter 13, with one each in chapters 18,20,22,25. Many of these kingdom parables are unique to Matthew.

There is a prophecy in the Law of Moses, in Deuteronomy 18, which predicted that one day a prophet would come who would be like Moses, only even greater. Moses was the one who had brought the Israelites God's laws, who had saved them from the Egyptians, and who had led them towards the Promised Land - so this was a very special prophecy indeed. One of Matthew's key goals is to show that Jesus is the fulfilment of that prophecy.

He does this is several ways. He quotes the Old Testament to show how Jesus fulfilled it. He shows how events in Jesus' life (particularly his birth) are like things that happened in the early life of Moses and in other Old Testament incidents. He shows how Jesus relates to the Old Testament scriptures and to the Law of Moses (Jesus did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfil it), and He presents Jesus as the New Moses, one who also gave a 'law' or 'code of conduct' from a mountain (Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount), just as Moses had.

According to tradition the gospel of Matthew was originally written in Hebrew to a Jewish audience by Matthew the Tax Collector. While most scholars would place the gospel later than this (perhaps towards the end of the first century AD), there is no particularly strong reason to do so (other than the assumption that the destruction of Jerusalem could not have been predicted before it happened in AD70 - not a good argument if one believes in the possibility of fulfilled prophecy). The number of Greek idioms in the book does suggest that the gospel may have been written in Greek rather than Hebrew, however.

Matthew is one of four books collectively referred to as the Gospels. Most Bible students assume that Mark was the first gospel to be written, and that Matthew and the other writers had a copy of Mark in front of them as they worked. There are also some passages which are common to Matthew and Luke (but are not found in the other gospels), and many scholars therefore posit the existence of another, hypothetical, document known as Q which contained that shared material. However, no copy of Q has been discovered, and whether or not it ever existed makes little difference to how one understands or interprets both Matthew or Luke. There is also material in both gospels which is unique to them. Other pull-downs highlight some of Matthew's special features.

Matthew presents Jesus' teaching in five major discourses (chs 5-7, 10, 13, 18, 22-25). While the other gospels also present Jesus' teaching, the way Matthew gathers these teachings into longer blocks or discourses is unique. Each discourse ends with a phrase like 'And when Jesus had finished these sayings....', and each is separated from the next by a block of narrative material. Why this five-fold shape? Given Matthew's interest in presenting Jesus as the New Moses and the fulfilment of the Old Testament scriptures, the reference could be to the five books of Moses which form the foundation of the Old Testament - the Torah or Pentateuch (Genesis to Deuteronomy). Just as the Old Testament is built on a five-fold pattern of Mosaic books, so Matthew's gospel is built on a foundation of these five discourses by the New Moses.

Matthew the tax collector, the assumed author of Matthew's gospel according to tradition, only appears by that name in the gospel which bears his name. The other gospels refer to Levi the tax collector. Why? Perhaps he had two names. Or perhaps Levi was his original name, and Matthew a name that he began calling himself upon conversion and acceptance of Christ.

Jesus' teaching is ambitious and full of challenge for disciples of all ages. Nowhere does this come across more forcefully than in Matthew's gospel, since it focuses particularly on presenting Jesus as a teacher. He is idealistic and demanding in what he asks of his disciples. He asks them to always go further than what people expect. He asks them to go beyond what was demanded by the letter of the Law of Moses, and to think instead of the spirit and principle underlying it. It is a message of moral and spiritual reform, perhaps more powerful and exciting in today's world of relativism and pluralism than it has ever been. 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God!' Jesus says. 'Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect.' There just isn't a higher calling than that. Jesus' teaching, as Matthew presents it, is truly inspiring.