Matthew's Gospel

Here's a highlights summary of the Gospel According to Matthew outside of my reflections on one of today's scriptures so I easily can link back to it.


Matthew's Gospel

Every year on the first Sunday of Advent that's always the Sunday closest to Saint Andrew's Day on November 30^th, the church begins a new year of grace. Gospel readings for this formally designated Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) Year A are mostly from Matthew. During the great 50 days of Easter, all three lectionary years feature John's gospel.

Along with Luke and Mark, Matthew is one of the three synoptic gospels that view Jesus with a similar perspective, despite each having a markedly different personality. Syn=together (synthesis, synod, synagogue, synopsis, synergy, synonym); optic=related to vision (optician, optical, optometrist, optimistic, optimum, optimal)


Overview

• Date and Author

circa 80 - 90

There's no historic indication of "Matthew" as author until the second century, but we can assume followers of the apostle and tax collector Matthew similar to the way we consider the community that surrounded John the beloved disciple authored John's gospel.

• Sources

Matthew contains 90% of the verses in Mark, the earliest canonical gospel. (Luke contains about 50% of Mark.) Matthew and Luke both contain parallel, sometimes identical passages not found in Mark. Scholars still speculate there might have been a no longer extant written collection of Jesus' sayings, sometimes referred to as "Q", from the first word of the German Quelle—river or source.

• Language

Scholars still aren't certain, but suggestions include Semitic Greek, or possibly Aramaic that was the vernacular Hebrew Jesus spoke.

• Setting

Greek-speaking Jewish Christians in Antioch in Syria, where they first called Jesus' followers Christian – Acts 11:28. That particular Antioch's part of present-day Turkey. There's also an Antioch, Ohio, USA.


World View / Content

• Book of Beginnings, Book of Origins = biblios geneseos. Matthew presents a new Genesis, a New Creation as he tells the story of Jesus of Nazareth's birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension.

• Matthew's genealogy goes back to Abraham, Father of the Jewish nation, in whom all nations would be blessed. Matthew's Jesus is Son of Abraham, who blesses all people everywhere. Matthew's Jesus is Son of David, not a temporary, short-term monarch like the old David, but this new David reigns for all eternity, embracing all creation.

• Matthew's Jesus is the ultimate Rabbi – "teacher" – who wants students, pupils, learners.

• Concern about fulfilling Hebrew Bible prophecies and predictions

• Kingdom of Heaven rather than Kingdom of God because of the Jewish proscription against saying G-d's name aloud.

• Angel's visit to Jesus' stepfather Joseph; Joseph's dream to flee to Egypt. Possibly an echo of Joseph the dreamer in Genesis? (Luke tells us more about Mary.)

• Visit of the Magi at Epiphany in response to a dream: ethnic foreigners from a different religion reveal God for the world. Scripture does not say how many kings there were, but tradition says three because the text lists three gifts.

• Jesus as the New Moses – "a prophet like me," as Moses himself predicted in Deuteronomy 18:15

* Flight into Egypt – Jesus as refugee
* New Exodus out of Egypt with Jesus as freedom-giver, liberator, like the first Moses
* Five discourses that parallel the Torah/Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses: Jesus as a new Moses, the gospel as a new Torah. The Sermon on the Mount explicates ten commandments/ten words God gave the people through Moses at Mount Sinai.

(1) chapters 5–7
(2) chapter 10
(3) chapter 13
(4) chapter 18
(5) chapters 24–25

• Matthew 16:18; 18:17 – the only gospel that uses the word "ecclesia," and has some instructions related to church order and structure. Ecclesia is the Roman city council, New England town meeting. Ecclesiology, ecclesiastical are words about the church. In southern California there are quite a few mostly Spanish-speaking assemblies that style themselves iglesia.

• Before Jesus' resurrection Matthew calls God's people "Israelites"; after the resurrection he calls them Jews.

• Concluding Great Commission in 28:16-20 positions the Good News as salvation (integrity, wholeness, shalom) for everyone everywhere.