The Gospel of Matthew-Part 2- Who Wrote Matthew?..

The Gospel of Matthew- Part 2- Who Wrote Matthew

Short Introduction about my Writings

When we earnestly read and study the Bible with the desire to have the knowledge and understanding of the Bible , a very precious, wonderful feeling we receive is to truly feel it is the Inspired Word of God! Without any conditions, restraint, or exception attached to it, God provides us with that feeling!!  Scholars can try to explain away much about the Bible, but Believers cannot be fooled.  Without exception, the writings of the Bible was inspired by God.  The Bible as we have it has withstood assault for over 2500 years (Old Testament) and the New Testament has stood for the last 1800 years.

In this series, you, the reader, may not always understand what I write or perhaps not believe what I write.  I will provide references for my writings and if I express an opinion it will be indicated as opinion.  Please email me if you do not understand something or differ in your opinion.  I ask you to respect my opinion as I will yours.  The Glory of Bible study, regardless if we do not understand or agree with every word, through the study we can come to feel the inspiration and can therefore ourselves be inspired.  When we start to feel the inspiration, better understanding comes. 

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Now,
Who wrote the Gospel of Matthew?

Tradition leads us to accepting the apostle Matthew, also known as Levi (from Luke), as the writer of Matthew; but nowhere in Matthew does the disciple claim authorship!  However, there can be some discussions or disagreement that is not the case. The question you the reader must answer,  “Does it really make a difference in our faith if the disciple Matthew did not write the Gospel.  It is still the inspired word of God.

Suppose you can accept this:  Since the apostle Matthew was an eye-witness to most everything Jesus did, then Matthew’s Gospel should be somewhat unique.  The problem is, The Gospel of Matthew is not totally unique with the other Gospels (more on this below).

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke can very easily be seen together in providing the Gospel of Jesus.  This ‘togetherness’ is referred to as “the Synoptic Gospels”.  In looking carefully at the Gospels of Mark and Matthew we discover the following:

1.      In most published accounts of the Gospels we have the following:  Mark (very likely was written first) has 661 verses, Luke (written second) has 1,071 verses, and Matthew has 1,151 verses. (*4)

2.      Scholars have reason to believe Mark was the first Gospel written and what was came from the traditions of stories told about Jesus.  Traditions that had circulated for many years (*2, pages 630-631).  Mark, as a very young person, was quite possibly an eye witness to portions of Jesus’ Ministry (Mark 14:51,52), especially in the Garden where Jesus prayed His final prayers.  Mark is placed by scholars as written between 50 AD and 60 AD.

3.      Matthew basically repeats at least 606 of Mark’s verses.

4.      About half of Matthew is nearly all of Mark. 

5.      Nearly all scholars believe Matthew was written after Mark, and after 60AD, more likely after 70 AD as Matthew has Jesus referring to the Temple destruction in Matthew 24:1-2.

A Conclusion to Consider

Most scholars believe that a Jewish man other than Matthew wrote this Gospel after 70 AD.  Within the Gospel there is subtle evidence to this.  The glaring reason that the apostle Matthew did not write the Gospel is this fact:  Matthew’s Gospel relies too much on the Gospel of Mark (see #4 above).  If the apostle truly wrote the Gospel why did he rely so much on Mark.  An eye witness would have written as he saw it, not as someone else saw the events.

The Jewish man who wrote Matthew was writing to the Jews with the desire to present the new way to Salvation (And that was truly something to write about!).  The reason that Matthew’s Gospel is presented first is found in two ideas.  It is a very complete Gospel compared to the others; and it serves as a bridge from Old Testament thinking to New Testament thinking about salvation.   No longer are Jews tied to the Old Testament law for salvation, the New Testament thinking represented Jesus as the Christ and Savior the Jews were seeking from the prophecy of the Old Testament.  Matthew’s goal was to show that the Path of Jesus is THE path to Salvation, Love God, Love people (Matthew 22:33-49).  

So, does it make a difference if you believe that Matthew, Jesus’ apostle, was or was not the writer?  As long as people are inspired by this Gospel, does it really matter? 
The authorship is not the issue in this Gospel. 
The Gospel is what it is, it gives us the Good News of our Salvation. 


Next up, Part 3 - 
     The Gospel of Matthew:  Getting the Reader’s Attention.

Why in the world would anyone start a book with a genelogy?  Matthew did and with good reason.

Note:  I will try to keep all these messages of the Bible study to about 600 words.
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References:

*1  The Gospel of Matthew, Vol 1,  Dr. William Barkley,  Westminster Press, 2^nd Printing 1976
        from the Introduction, pages 1-10

*2  “The Interpreters Bible”, Abingdon Press, New York/Nashville, 1951, 

*3  http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09674b.htm#V, 
                under the title “Place and date of composition”

*4   http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/NT-Statistics-Greek.htm    (number of verses in the Bible)