Genealogies: Matthew is the first book of the New Testament in our modern Bibles, and it was a favorite of the early church. This is partly because Matthew’s focus appealed to Jewish Christians with its logic and language. There are 28 chapters, and the first chapter begins with a genealogy of Jesus tracing His ancestry back to Abraham. In fact, the first detail that Matthew emphasizes to the readers of his book is that Jesus was the son of David and the son of Abraham. Then he proceeds to prove it with his famous list of begats, or the father of. Matthew stresses the idea of fourteen generations from Abraham to David, from David to the Babylonian exile, and from the return from exile to Jesus. This is significant because there are three groups of double sevens. The Jews of the day would have done the math and had an instinctive acceptance and openness to Matthew’s logic. Seven was holy; where a person came from was important; and Messiah must be descended from David. Thus, with his opening list of Jesus’ ancestors, Matthew made a favorable impression with others in his culture by proving that Jesus was a royal descendant of King David.
Author: The author of the book was one of Jesus’ disciples. He has two names—Matthew and Levi. Levi is the name that the gospels of Mark and Luke give him when they describe how he was called to be one of Jesus’ disciples. In his own gospel, he gives himself the name of Matthew when he tells of his call by Jesus. However, in the lists of disciples, he is only known by Matthew. Matthew’s father’s name is listed as Alphaeus. Some commentators think that the difference in names is because Matthew was a nickname that may have been given to Levi by Jesus, just as Simon was renamed Peter. Matthew was a rich tax collector although probably not as rich as the short chief tax collector Zacchaeus who climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus above the crowd. Matthew was only an agent manning a toll booth on a main road. He collected taxes from travelers on the great Damascus Road and those crossing the Sea of Galilee. After his calling, Matthew gave a feast to honor Jesus where Jesus was criticized by the Pharisees for associating with tax collectors and sinners. The only mention of Matthew outside of the gospels is in Acts 1:15. However, since the gospel of Matthew was written at least twenty years after Jesus’ death, there is biblical proof that Matthew was still around and serving his Master for many years. Legend says that Matthew remained in Jerusalem for about fifteen years before acting as a missionary to the Medes, Parthians, and Persians and finally dying as a martyr in Ethiopia. If true, Matthew traveled widely.
Synoptic Gospels: The book of Matthew is one of the synoptic gospels. This means that the book describes the life of Jesus in a manner similar to the gospels of Luke and Mark. The message is the same in all the gospels, but the focus differs in each one. Another difference involves some seemingly contradictory details that do not change the books’ historical accuracy, but instead the small differences give confidence in the reliability of the firsthand witnesses of Jesus’ life and death. In other words, different people viewed the same event from different perspectives and witnessed to what they had seen personally rather than repeating an agreed upon story to fool their followers. An example of these differing details is that Matthew mentions two demoniacs in the country of the Gadarenes while Mark mentions only one. Some critics latch onto this variance as proof of the gospels’ unreliability, but in fact, the apparent contradiction can be easily explained by the authors’ focus. The writers were not trying to write every detail down exactly as it happened. As John states in his gospel, trying to do that would require a world of books. In their limited space, the authors were writing the details that were important for the message that they needed to deliver. In the present example, Mark was focusing on telling the expanded human story of one of the demoniacs while Matthew, the precise money counter, thought the exact number of demon-possessed men was important but gave hardly any personal details.
Organization: Matthew starts with genealogies then goes on to Jesus’ birth. There is a logic of cause and effect in Matthew’s choice of organization rather than simple chronological order. Why didn’t Joseph divorce Mary like a good Jewish man? An angel gave confirmation of Mary’s story. How do we know that Jesus was the Son of God and not Joseph’s child? Joseph did not sleep with Mary until after Jesus was born. Why didn’t the family stay in Bethlehem rather than raising Jesus in disreputable Nazareth? The wisemen’s visit led to danger from Herod so that they had to escape to Egypt. They returned to Israel as soon as it was safe, but then they realized that there would be no safety in the area of Bethlehem as along as Herod’s son Archelaus was in power. The next logical step for Matthew was the testimony of John the Baptist and Jesus’ baptism. Then comes the wilderness temptation and the calling of the first disciples.
Having established the beginnings of Jesus’ life and ministry, Matthew turns to the great teachings of Jesus. Matthew and Luke are a little different from Mark in that they include many sayings of Jesus. Luke spreads these sayings around through his whole gospel, but Matthew organizes Jesus’ teachings into blocks of information. I have read some commentators who say that Matthew is the more chronological of the gospels, but I disagree. Matthew’s purpose was to prove that Jesus was Emmanuel, the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, so he rearranges his details according to this focus. I believe that Luke is much more chronological.
Matthew 5-7: TEACHING: The Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 8-9: Miracles
Matthew 10: TEACHING: The Missionary Discourse
Matthew 11-12: The Beginning of Jesus’ ministry
Matthew 13: TEACHING: The parables
Matthew 14-16: The middle of Jesus’ ministry including both feedings of multitudes
Matthew 17: The transfiguration and the last stages of Jesus’ ministry
Matthew 18: TEACHING: Church relationships
Matthew 19-21: In Judea, heading for the final destination
Matthew 22: The last week begins
Matthew 23-25 TEACHING: Eschatological discourse
Matthew 26-28 The crucifixion and resurrection
Theme: Matthew has two basic themes. As previously mentioned, his most obvious focus is that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies about Messiah. Over and over, he tells his readers that an event happened to fulfill what was spoken of by the prophets. However, a more subtle yet in many ways more powerful theme is that Jesus is Israel. Where Israel failed, Jesus succeeded. Israel was known as God’s son; so is Jesus. Thus, Matthew confidently takes Old Testament verses that originally pertained to the corporate people of Israel and applies them to Jesus. For example, “and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son’” (Matthew 2:15). These words were originally about Israel as a corporate whole, yet Matthew has no problem applying them to Jesus. Why? Because the Holy Spirit has revealed to Matthew an exciting and deeply meaningful pattern in Jesus’ life. Jesus is Israel, and Matthew wants his readers to understand this basic principle. Thus, he shows us that where the children of Israel failed in their wilderness wandering, Jesus succeeded in His wilderness temptations. Jesus travels to the mountain to reveal the law as it should have been understood, and yet was not, by corporate Israel. Matthew wants us to discern that Jesus is the founder of a new kind of Israel as it should have been originally. Without understanding this underlying theme, Matthew’s logic will sometimes elude modern readers, but once this insight is taken into account, the wisdom found in the gospel of Matthew will be opened up to the reader in ways that are vastly significant to the church that Jesus founded and loves as His bride.