[T]he Son of man came eating and drinking,
and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors
and sinners!” Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Introduction
In the second century a.d., the
Gospel of Matthew was placed at the very beginning of the New Testament.
It was believed to be the first Gospel written, though we now know
that the Gospel of Mark dates earlier. Because it is the Gospel
most intensely concerned with issues related to Judaism, it provides
an appropriate transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament
in the Christian Bible. Matthew became the most important of all
Gospel texts for first- and second-century Christians because it
contains all the elements important to the early church: the story
about Jesus’s miraculous conception; an explanation of the importance
of liturgy, law, discipleship, and teaching; and an account of Jesus’s
life and death. The Gospel of Matthew has long been considered the
most important of the four Gospels.
Though second-century church tradition holds that the
author of the Gospel is Matthew, a former tax collector and one
of Jesus’s Twelve Apostles, also known as Levi, scholars today maintain
that we have no direct evidence of Matthew’s authorship. Because
the Gospel of Matthew relies heavily on the earlier Gospel of Mark,
as well as late first-century oral tradition for its description
of events in Christ’s life, it is unlikely that the author of the
Gospel of Matthew was an eyewitness to the life of Christ. Instead,
the author was probably a Jewish member of a learned community in
which study and teaching were passionate forms of piety, and the
Gospel was probably written between 80 and 90 a.d.
Matthew is arranged in seven parts. An introductory segment gives
the story of Jesus’s miraculous birth and the origin of his ministry,
and a conclusion gives the story of the Last Supper, Jesus’s trial and
crucifixion, and the resurrection. In the middle are five structurally
parallel sections. In each section, a narrative segment—interrupted
occasionally by dialogue and brief homilies—tells of Jesus’s miracles
and actions. Closing each section, Jesus preaches a long sermon
that responds to the lessons learned in the narrative section. The
Sermon on the Mount, which introduces the basic elements of the
Christian message, follows Jesus’s first venture into ministry (5:1–7:29).
The Mission Sermon, which empowers Jesus’s apostles, follows Jesus’s
recognition that more teachers and preachers are necessary (10:1–42).
The mysterious Sermon in Parables responds to Jesus’s frustration
with the fact that many people do not understand or accept his message
(13:1–52).
The Sermon on the Church responds to the need to establish a lasting
fraternity of Christians (18:1–35).
Finally, the Eschatological Sermon, which addresses the end of the
world, responds to the developing certainty that Jesus will be crucified
(23:1–25:46)
Summary
Matthew traces Jesus’s ancestors back to the biblical patriarch
Abraham, the founding father of the Israelite people. Matthew describes Jesus’s
conception, when his mother, Mary, was “found to be with child from
the Holy Spirit” (1:18).
Matthew focuses very little on Mary herself, and praises Joseph
for not abandoning his fiancée.
Jesus is born in Bethlehem, where he and his parents are
visited by wise men from the East bearing gifts. The wise men follow
a star to Bethlehem. Their king, Herod the Great, hears the rumor
that a baby named Jesus is the “king of the Jews” (2:2).
Herod orders all young children in Bethlehem to be killed. To escape
the king’s wrath, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus flee to Egypt. Joseph
and his family return to Israel after Herod’s death, but then move
to Nazareth, a town in the northern district known as Galilee.
Years pass, and Jesus grows up. A man in a loincloth,
who lives by eating wild honey and locusts, begins to prophesy throughout Judea,
foretelling of Jesus as the one who will come to “baptize you with
the Holy Spirit and fire” (3:11).
This prophet, John the Baptist, who is likely a member of the ascetic
Jewish Essene community, eventually meets Jesus. John baptizes Jesus,
and Jesus receives the blessing of God, who says, “This is my Son,
the Beloved” (3:17). Jesus
is led into the wilderness for forty days without food or water to
be tested by Satan. Jesus emerges unscathed and triumphant, and begins
to preach his central, most often repeated proclamation: “Repent!
For the kingdom of heaven has come near” (4:17).
His ministry begins.
