Matthew: the promised king
Matthew tells of Jesus as the Christ, the son of David, the king the Old Testament promised. It opens with his family line, gathers his teaching into five discourses, and ends with the risen king sending his disciples to all nations.
About the book
The New Testament opens with four Gospels. "Gospel" renders the Greek , good news, and a Gospel tells that news through Jesus' words and deeds, his death and resurrection. One gospel is told by four witnesses, so the manuscripts title them the Gospel according to Matthew, to Mark, and so on. The church received these four, which came from apostles and their companions and were read everywhere from early on. Each sees the one Lord from its own place; together they show him more fully. On the other writings called gospels, see What about the 'other gospels'?
The book names no author, but the church has received it from the start as the work of Matthew, the tax collector who became one of the Twelve. Early in the second century Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, said that Matthew put together the Lord's sayings in the Hebrew language Eusebius, Church History 3.39; around 180 Irenaeus wrote that Matthew issued a Gospel among the Hebrews in their own tongue while Peter and Paul were preaching in Rome Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.1.1. Our Matthew is in Greek, so what Papias meant is debated. Where Mark and Luke call the tax collector Levi, this book calls him "a man named Matthew" (Matthew 9:9), and its list of the Twelve has "Matthew the tax collector" (Matthew 10:3). The church long held it the first Gospel, written before the temple fell in AD 70.
Most scholars today think Mark was written first: Matthew follows Mark's order and much of its wording, often smoothing it, so Matthew and Luke drew on Mark. Many therefore doubt that an apostle would lean so heavily on another's account. They hear the fall of Jerusalem in a parable's king who sent troops to "burn their city" (Matthew 22:7), and date the book to the 80s, the work of an unnamed Jewish Christian teacher. Many other scholars, among them evangelicals, who stress the authority of Scripture and the telling of the gospel, hold that the apostle wrote it: the early witness is unanimous, no other name was ever attached to the book, and an apostle could well use Mark, which carries Peter's preaching.
Its events fall in the era the map under the Jesus tab calls Jesus (c. 4 BC–AD 30). Matthew writes with Jewish readers in view: his genealogy begins with Abraham, and he often notes that this "took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet" (Matthew 1:22).
How it unfolds
Matthew sets five great blocks of Jesus' teaching within the story (chapters 5–7, 10, 13, 18 and 24–25), and each closes with words like "When Jesus had finished saying these things" (Matthew 7:28).
| Chapters | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1–4 | The king comes: genealogy and birth, baptism and temptation |
| 5–9 | The Sermon on the Mount (5–7); healings and miracles |
| 10–12 | The Twelve sent out (10); opposition grows |
| 13–17 | Parables of the kingdom (13); Peter's confession (16) |
| 18–23 | Life in the church (18); into Jerusalem |
| 24–25 | The temple and the end of the age |
| 26–28 | The passion and resurrection; the commission to all nations |
Key passages
The first line gives the theme: "the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1). Jesus begins to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near" (Matthew 4:17). Matthew's kingdom of heaven is the other Gospels' kingdom of God, in what many take as a reverent Jewish way of speaking of God: God's reign as king, not only where we go when we die.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says how he stands to the law:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
Matthew 5:17
He fulfils what they pointed to, and teaches their meaning down to the heart. The parables of chapter 13 tell of a kingdom that begins small, like a mustard seed, and grows. In chapter 16 Peter confesses, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16), and Jesus promises, "I will build My church" (Matthew 16:18). The book ends with the risen Lord's commission:
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations
Matthew 28:18-19
The book and Christ
The risen Jesus explained from Moses and all the Prophets what was written about himself (Luke 24:27), and Matthew's book does the same. Jesus is the son of David, the promised king. Magi came asking for "the One who has been born King of the Jews" (Matthew 2:2), and as he entered Jerusalem the crowds shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" (Matthew 21:9). As the son of Abraham, he turns the promise of blessing for all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:3) into his command to make disciples of all nations.
The question the guide under the Jesus tab follows, "Who do you say I am?" (Matthew 16:15), comes from this scene. Hilary, a fourth-century bishop in Gaul, writes that Peter's confession was rewarded "for that he had seen the Son of God in the man" Hilary.
The book opens and closes with the promise of Immanuel. Matthew explains the name as "God with us" (Matthew 1:23), and the risen Lord's last words are "surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).
Reading it
A chapter a day takes four weeks; begin with Matthew 1. The genealogy runs in three sets of fourteen generations (Matthew 1:17), through David and the exile to the Christ. Read the five discourses slowly, above all the Sermon on the Mount in chapters 5–7; ‘When Jesus had finished’ brings you back to the story. Afterwards, go on to the short, swift Mark.
Practice
- Practice 1 of 6
Of the five great discourses in Matthew, which is the first, in chapters 5–7?
- Practice 2 of 6
In Matthew 5:17, what does Jesus say about the Law and the Prophets?
- Practice 3 of 6
When Jesus asked, "Who do you say I am?", what did Peter answer?
- Practice 4 of 6
What do the beginning (1:23) and the end (28:20) of Matthew tell together?
- Practice 5 of 6
What work does the risen Jesus give his disciples at the end of Matthew?
- Practice 6 of 6
What is true of the authorship of Matthew?
Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.
Related topics
Source
- Eusebius, Church History 3.39 — c. 325. Quotes Papias: Mark, Peter's interpreter, wrote down what Peter taught; Matthew put together the oracles in the Hebrew language. Reads Papias as naming the apostle John and an 'elder John', and says he used 1 John and 1 Peter.
- Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 3.1.1 — c. 180. How Matthew, Mark, Luke and John came to write the Gospels (John at Ephesus).
Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds and classic commentary. Each book's author and date are given as the church has received them, and scholars who see them otherwise are presented fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.