An Introduction to Matthew

Although Mark was the first gospel written, the gospel of Matthew is first in the hearts of most Christians. The virgin birth story and the Sermon on the Mount are two indelible elements of the Christian tradition. The Lord’s Prayer is without doubt the most repeated petition made to God. All three of these Christian treasures come from Matthew.

The gospel of Matthew is the most Jewish account of Jesus in the New Testament. The author was most probably a Jewish Christian living in the Hellenistic world. The earliest manuscripts of the gospel are written in Greek. Because 85% of Mark appears in Matthew, it is unlikely that Matthew was written by an eyewitness. Eyewitnesses do not copy the work of others. If the author had been an eyewitness, you would also expect statements such as I was with him when… Such statements do not occur.

There is a general consensus among most New Testament scholars that Matthew was written between 80 and 90 CE. This dating range is based on the idea that Matthew is dependent on Mark, which was written around 70CE. The intense hostility toward the Pharisees in the gospel of Matthew only makes sense if the gospel was written after 70CE when the Pharisees became the dominant party in Judaism. It has also been noted that the gospel contains no debates concerning circumcision or dietary laws, issues that raged in the 50s during the ministry of Paul. The Church was now firmly centered in the Hellenistic world where such issues were no longer of great concern.

The gospel of Matthew is composed from three sources—Mark represents 50% of the material while Q and sources unique to Matthew make up the rest. I want to talk about each of these three sources in some detail.

We covered many issues related to the writing of Mark in the previous series of blogs. One issue that we conspicuously avoided was the oral tradition. All the stories about Jesus in the New Testament come to us from the oral tradition. I learned important lessons about the oral tradition from an usual set of experiences.

I was a member of a fraternity forty years ago. It was one of the highlights of my college experience. Five years ago I went to a college reunion, my first since graduating, and we told stories. The religious scientist in me perked up instantly.

I remembered some of the stories differently from my friends. Oftentimes, we remembered the punch line, but some of the details had been lost over time. To relate a seamless story, the lost details were invented. Old friends not present at the reunion were described in legendary terms. I was one of the worst offenders.

Memory is a fascinating thing. First, we remember what we want to remember. Second, we remember the gist of a story, the general outline, but not the precise details. Story telling weaves together fact, fantasy, and imagination.

The gospels are based on an oral tradition passed down among the followers of Jesus for forty years. What is amazing is the number of stories that have survived. Jesus obviously made a lasting impression on his contemporaries. And yet these stories were told and retold by human beings for forty years. After the stories were told and retold, they were placed into a gospel by an editor, a flesh and blood human being with definite ideas about Jesus.

Compare the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew (22:1-14) and Luke (14: 15-24). The point of the story is the same: God has given up on the Jews and the kingdom will be for Gentiles. But note that many of the details are different. The excuses made by the invited guests are different in each story. The voice of the editor is also inserted. Matthew’s gospel is concerned with obedience to religious law as a condition of entering the kingdom. Matthew concludes the story with, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” Luke’s gospel focuses on the poor, the downtrodden, the crippled, and the blind. These are the new guests invited to the banquet.

As I indicated earlier, half of Matthew’s gospel comes from stories taken from Mark. These stories are all products of the oral tradition. Another 25% of Matthew comes from the Q gospel. The Q hypothesis was first suggested by Johannes Weiss, a German biblical scholar. Q refers to the German word for source.

Q is classified as a sayings gospel, which means that it contains a collection of sayings from Jesus with no story line. These sayings include teachings of Jesus and parables, all of which contain a strong eschatological flavor. There is no birth story, Passion Narrative, or attempt to link stories into a coherent narrative. Q is believed to be one of the earliest sources of stories about Jesus. The problem is that a Q manuscript has never been found.

Compare Matthew 3:7-10 and Luke 3: 7-9. You will note that after slightly different introductions, the two stories proceed word for word. This story is found only in Matthew and Luke. The best explanation for the identical versions of the story is that the authors of Matthew and Luke took the story from the same source. Sadly, as I indicated above, we have never been able to locate Q. Finally, it is interesting to note how the Q material was integrated into the text. The editor in each case takes the Q material and places it among other stories (different in each gospel) as if he was weaving a patchwork quilt.

The last source of material for the gospel of Matthew are stories that are unique to Matthew. These stories include the virgin birth and the Sermon on the Mount. My next blog focuses entirely on Matthew’s famous story of the miraculous birth of Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount is our topic for three weeks hence.