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Matthew

Κατὰ Ματθαῖον Kata Matthaion, “according to Matthew”. Gospel. 28 chapters, 1,071 verses.

Jesus as the promised Messiah, son of David and son of Abraham, who fulfils Israel’s Scriptures, teaches the way of the kingdom and sends his followers to all nations.

Read Matthew 1 →

Overview

Matthew opens with a genealogy that traces Jesus from Abraham through David (1:1), and a birth story in which one prophecy after another is fulfilled. After John the Baptist and the temptation in the wilderness, Jesus begins preaching in Galilee: “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (4:17). The Sermon on the Mount follows in chapters 5–7.

Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:16), is the book’s turning point. “From that time” Jesus begins to tell his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer and be killed (16:21). The last chapters move to Jerusalem, the cross and the empty tomb. The book ends on a mountain in Galilee, where the risen Jesus sends the eleven to “make disciples of all nations” and promises, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (28:19–20).

Author and date

The Gospel does not name its author. It was known as “according to Matthew” by the 2nd century, and it alone gives the name Matthew to the tax collector whom Jesus calls (9:9); Mark and Luke call him Levi.

Traditional view

Matthew the apostle · c. AD 50s–60s

Early church writers, starting with Papias, a bishop writing early in the 2nd century, name Matthew, the tax collector who became one of the Twelve. Papias says Matthew compiled Jesus’ sayings in Hebrew (or Aramaic), which some take to mean an earlier work lying behind the Greek Gospel. Holders of this view usually date the Gospel before the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, and early tradition placed it first of the four.

Academic view

Anonymous Jewish Christian · c. AD 80–90

Most academic scholars think the author was an unnamed Jewish Christian writing after AD 70, perhaps in Syria, with Antioch often suggested. A main reason is that the Gospel appears to draw on Mark, and many think an apostle who had seen the events himself would be unlikely to do so. The king in the parable of the wedding feast who “burned their city” (22:7) is often read as looking back on Jerusalem’s destruction.

Both views see a writer steeped in the Jewish Scriptures, and both recognise that Matthew shares much of its wording with Mark and Luke.

Audience and setting

Matthew seems to have been written for Jewish followers of Jesus, with Gentile believers alongside them. They were working out their place between the synagogue and the wider world. It explains fewer Jewish customs than Mark, quotes the prophets constantly, and usually speaks of the “Kingdom of Heaven” where Mark and Luke say “God’s Kingdom.” Its setting is Galilee and then Jerusalem in the last week, around AD 30.

Genre, and how to read it

Matthew is carefully arranged. Five long speeches each close with the same formula, “When Jesus had finished…” (7:28, 11:1, 13:53, 19:1, 26:1). Some readers see a deliberate echo of the five books of Moses; others see a teacher gathering Jesus’ sayings by subject. Between the speeches come stories of healing, controversy and growing opposition.

7:28 The Sermon on the Mount
11:1 Sending the Twelve
13:53 Parables of the kingdom
19:1 Life in the community
26:1 The end of the age

About nine-tenths of Mark reappears in Matthew, often word for word, and Matthew also shares many sayings with Luke that are not in Mark. The most widely held explanation is that Matthew and Luke each used Mark and a lost collection of sayings that scholars call Q. Others argue that Luke used Matthew directly, with no Q, and a minority keep the older view that Matthew came first. Whichever view is right, comparing them shows what each writer added, trimmed or rearranged.

Two genealogies

Matthew opens with Jesus’ ancestry, counting forward from Abraham. Luke gives it after the baptism, counting back to “Adam, the son of God” (Luke 3:38). From Abraham to David the two lists are the same fourteen names. After David they part: Matthew runs through Solomon and the kings of Judah, Luke through David’s son Nathan. They cross once, at Shealtiel and Zerubbabel, and meet again at Joseph. In Matthew, Joseph’s father is Jacob; in Luke, Heli.

Three fourteens

Matthew counts “fourteen generations” from Abraham to David, from David to the exile, and from the exile to the Christ (Matt 1:17). To keep the second fourteen he passes over four kings that 2 Kings names: Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah between Joram and Uzziah, and Jehoiakim before Jechoniah (2 Kgs 8:24; 11:2; 12:21; 24:6). The last fourteen names thirteen.

Five women, and a second Cainan

Matthew names women where genealogies usually do not: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, “her who had been Uriah’s wife” and Mary (Matt 1:3–16). Luke has a Cainan between Arphaxad and Shelah (Luke 3:36) whom Genesis does not, where Arpachshad is Shelah’s father (Gen 11:12).

Two readings: why two lines after David?

Both are Joseph’s

Matthew traces the royal line, the heirs of the throne, and Luke Joseph’s natural descent. Where the lines differ, a death without children and a brother’s marriage to the widow could give a man two fathers on paper. This is the oldest explanation on record.

Luke gives Mary’s

Luke’s “being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph” (Luke 3:23) marks Joseph as only the supposed father, and Heli as Mary’s father, so Luke traces Jesus through his mother while Matthew gives Joseph’s legal line.

Five speeches

Matthew sets five long speeches of Jesus into its story. Together they are 322 of the gospel’s 1,071 verses, about three in ten, and the first and last are much the longest. Each one closes the same way, When Jesus had finished…, and the last closes them all: all these words (26:1).

1 2 3 4 5

The Sermon on the Mount 5:3–7:27 to the disciples, on the mountain 107 verses When Jesus had finished saying these things 7:28
Sending out the twelve 10:5–42 to the twelve 38 verses When Jesus had finished directing his twelve disciples 11:1
Parables of the kingdom 13:3–52 to the crowds by the sea, then the disciples 50 verses When Jesus had finished these parables 13:53
Life together 18:3–35 to the disciples 33 verses When Jesus had finished these words 19:1
The end of the age 24:4–25:46 to the disciples, on the Mount of Olives 94 verses When Jesus had finished all these words 26:1

Each speech is counted from Jesus’ first words to the verse before its formula, with the narrator’s short lines inside it (as at 13:10 and 13:34–36). Chapter 23, the woes on the scribes and Pharisees (23:1), runs straight into the fifth speech and has no formula of its own; some readers count it in.

One week, a third of the book

Every gospel slows down at the end. From the entry into Jerusalem to the last page is a single week, and it fills more than a third of Matthew, Mark and John and a quarter of Luke. A century ago Martin Kähler called the gospels passion narratives with extended introductions.

Matthew 36% 389 of 1,071 verses week from Matthew 21:1; first prediction Matthew 16:21
Mark 37% 253 of 678 verses week from Mark 11:1; first prediction Mark 8:31
Luke 25% 286 of 1,151 verses week from Luke 19:28; first prediction Luke 9:22
John 38% 332 of 879 verses week from John 12:12

Verses as the WEB numbers them, so these are shares of the text, not of time. Mark’s count includes the longer ending (16:9–20), which the earliest manuscripts lack; without it, its last week is 36%. Luke spends its middle on the road, ten chapters from Luke 9:51 to the city. John has no prediction like the others’; its turn comes at the supper, Jesus knowing that his time had come (John 13:1). The week itself, day by day, is in the Almanac’s Holy Week.

Each gospel’s favourite words

Each gospel has words it reaches for. Counted in the site’s Greek text, Matthew alone speaks of the kingdom of heaven, Mark says immediately more than all the others together, Luke dwells on the Holy Spirit and on today, and John has believe almost a hundred times and the doubled amen, amen that no other gospel uses.

Phrase	Matthew	Mark	Luke	John
the kingdom of heaven ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν WEB: the Kingdom of Heaven	32 times	0 times	0 times	0 times
the kingdom of God ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ WEB: God’s Kingdom	4 times	14 times	32 times	2 times
immediately εὐθύς, εὐθέως WEB: immediately	19 times	43 times	9 times	6 times
the Holy Spirit τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον WEB: the Holy Spirit	5 times	4 times	13 times	3 times
today σήμερον WEB: today	8 times	1 times	11 times	0 times
believe πιστεύω WEB: believe	11 times	14 times	9 times	98 times
I am ἐγώ εἰμι WEB: I am	9 times	5 times	9 times	38 times
amen, amen ἀμὴν ἀμήν WEB: Most certainly	0 times	0 times	0 times	25 times

Circles are sized by how often the gospel uses the phrase per 10,000 Greek words, so short Mark and long Luke compare fairly; the number is the count. Counted in the Nestle 1904 text by Strong’s number. The WEB renders amen as Most certainly, whether single or doubled, and writes the kingdom of God as God’s Kingdom. I am counts the Greek ἐγώ εἰμι wherever it stands, not only in the sayings with an image.

Outline

Beginnings (1–4)

1:1–2:23 Genealogy and birth — From Abraham to Jesus, the magi, the flight to Egypt
3:1–4:25 John, the baptism and the temptation — Jesus begins preaching in Galilee and calls fishermen

Ministry in Galilee (5–18)

5:1–7:29 The Sermon on the Mount — The Beatitudes, the law fulfilled, the Lord’s Prayer
8:1–9:38 Deeds of power — Healings, a calmed storm, the call of Matthew
10:1–10:42 The Twelve sent out — Instructions for the mission, and warnings of persecution
11:1–12:50 Questions and opposition — John’s doubts, Sabbath disputes, the sign of Jonah
13:1–13:58 Parables of the kingdom — The sower, the weeds, the mustard seed, the pearl
14:1–17:27 Who is this? — Feedings, walking on water, Peter’s confession, the transfiguration
18:1–18:35 Life in the community — Greatness, straying sheep, forgiveness without limit

To Jerusalem (19–28)

19:1–20:34 The road to Jerusalem — Divorce, the rich young man, the workers in the vineyard
21:1–23:39 Conflict in the temple — The entry into Jerusalem, parables of judgement, woes on the scribes and Pharisees
24:1–25:46 The end of the age — The temple’s fall foretold, watchfulness, the sheep and the goats
26:1–27:66 The Passion — The Last Supper, Gethsemane, the trials and the cross
28:1–28:20 The resurrection — The empty tomb and the commission to all nations

Key themes

Fulfilment: Again and again Matthew notes that events happened “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet” (2:15), and Jesus says of the law and the prophets, “I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill” (5:17).
The Kingdom of Heaven: The kingdom is the heart of Jesus’ preaching (4:17) and the subject of the Beatitudes, which begin “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (5:3).
Messiah and Immanuel: The book opens by calling Jesus “the son of David, the son of Abraham” (1:1) and “God with us” (1:23), and closes with his promise to be with his disciples always (28:20). The Covenants page follows the promise to David.
All nations: Jesus first sends the Twelve only to Israel (10:5). Yet Gentile magi worship him at the start, and at the end the risen Jesus sends his followers to all nations (28:19).

At a glance

100 people and 33 places named.

Most mentioned: Jesus Christ, Simon Peter, John the Baptist, David, Elijah

Main places: Galilee, Jerusalem, Judea, Jordan, Bethlehem

In the Almanac: Seah, Talent, Denarius, Didrachma, Stater, Assarion, Quadrans, Pieces of silver, What things cost, Holy Week, Hours of the day, Watches of the night, Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Sanhedrin, Tax collectors, The Twelve