The Gospel
according to Matthew
The Gospel according to Matthew opens the New Testament by presenting Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, and the King whose coming fulfills the promises of God.
Matthew is not merely recording events from the life of Jesus. He is showing how those events fit within the larger story of Scripture. Again and again, Matthew connects Jesus with the Law, the Prophets, the promises given to Abraham, the royal line of David, and the expectation of God's Kingdom. From the opening chapter, his message is clear: Jesus is the promised Messiah and King.
Who Wrote Matthew?
Historic Christian tradition identifies the author as Matthew the Apostle, the former tax collector whom Jesus called to become one of the Twelve. The Gospel itself does not explicitly name its author, so that traditional attribution should be respected while also recognizing the limits of what the surviving text itself directly states.
If the traditional attribution is correct, Matthew personally witnessed a substantial portion of Jesus' public ministry, heard His teaching, saw His miracles, traveled with Him, and encountered the risen Christ. Matthew could not, however, have personally witnessed every event he records. Accounts concerning Jesus' birth, childhood, Joseph's dreams, the Magi, and other events before Matthew joined the disciples necessarily came through testimony, preserved tradition, earlier sources, or other means available to the earliest followers of Jesus.
Who Was Matthew Writing To?
Matthew appears to have written with a strongly Jewish and Jewish-Christian audience in view. His Gospel assumes familiarity with Abraham, David, Moses, the Law, the Prophets, Jewish religious practices, the Temple, the Pharisees and Sadducees, and Israel's expectation of the Messiah. Matthew quotes the Hebrew Scriptures repeatedly and emphasizes that Jesus fulfills what God had previously spoken.
Yet the Gospel does not remain confined to Israel. It ends with the risen Jesus commanding His disciples to make disciples of all nations. Matthew therefore speaks deeply from within the Jewish world while deliberately pointing toward the worldwide mission of the Gospel.
What Is Matthew About?
Matthew presents Jesus as the Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, the Son of God, Immanuel, the Son of Man, and the King. One of the Gospel's strongest themes is fulfillment. Matthew repeatedly draws attention to the Hebrew Scriptures and shows how the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus stand in continuity with what God had already revealed.
Another dominant theme is the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus announces the Kingdom, teaches about the Kingdom, demonstrates its authority, describes the character of its citizens, and ultimately sends His disciples into all nations under His authority. Matthew is therefore both a proclamation of who Jesus is and a guide to what it means to follow Him.
Why Was Matthew Written?
Matthew's central purpose is to demonstrate that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah and King and that God's promises find their fulfillment in Him. The promises to Abraham, the royal line of David, the Law, the prophets, the Kingdom, and the hope of Israel all converge in Jesus Christ.
Matthew also preserves some of the largest collections of Jesus' teaching in the New Testament so that those who recognize the King will understand how His disciples are called to live.
The movement of the Gospel can be summarized simply: THE KING HAS COME. He is the promised Messiah. He fulfills what God promised. He teaches His people how to live in His Kingdom. He dies, He rises, He possesses all authority in heaven and on earth, and He sends His disciples to the nations.
When Was Matthew Written?
The exact date of composition is uncertain. Proposals range from the middle of the first century to the decades following the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. The surviving evidence does not allow the date to be established with certainty, and this paraphrase will not claim more precision than the evidence permits.
What Was Happening Around Matthew and His Readers?
The Jewish people of Matthew's world lived under Roman power, and questions concerning the Messiah, the Kingdom of God, the Law, Israel's future, and the promises of God were deeply important. At the same time, the earliest Christian movement was expanding rapidly beyond Judea. Gentiles were coming to faith, Jewish believers in Jesus were working out how faith in the Messiah related to their inherited religious world, and Jewish and Gentile Christians were learning how to live together as one people under Christ.
If Matthew was written in or near Antioch, these questions would have been especially immediate. Antioch was a major Roman city with substantial Jewish and Gentile populations and became one of the most important centers of early Christianity. If Matthew was written after AD 70, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple would also have formed part of the historical world surrounding its readers, profoundly affecting Jewish life and intensifying questions concerning Israel, worship, the Law, the Messiah, and the purposes of God. Because Matthew's precise date and place of composition remain uncertain, these circumstances should be understood as historical background rather than as facts Matthew explicitly states.
Where Was Matthew Written?
Matthew does not identify the place where the Gospel was composed. Syria, particularly Antioch, has frequently been suggested because the Gospel reflects a world in which Jewish and Gentile concerns intersect strongly, but that location remains a historical proposal rather than something explicitly stated by Matthew.
How to Read Matthew
Read each passage for its complete thought before comparing individual verses. Use TWMC for the paraphrase and KJV for comparison. Keep the author, purpose, audience, and setting described above in view, and record questions for further study. The Greek and Romanized Greek follow each verse for closer study.
For Deeper Study
A fuller discussion of Matthew's authorship, eyewitness material, historical setting, major themes, textual questions, translation decisions, and theological significance is provided in the individual THE WORD, MADE CLEAR — The Gospel According to Matthew: Paraphrase & Study Guide edition.
THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW