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INTRODUCTION TO
MATTHEW
AUTHOR
The unanimous tradition of the early church ascribed this Gospel to Matthew, one of ­Jesus’ 12 closest
followers and a former tax collector, also named Levi (cf. 9:9 – 13 with Mark 2:14 – 17). Strictly speak-
ing, however, all four Gospels are anonymous. No statement within them anywhere identifies their
authors; in contrast, Paul’s name appears in the opening greetings of each of his letters. It is likely
that the titles were added only after there was more than one Gospel, thus necessitating a need to
distinguish them from one another. So the author of this Gospel (Greek euangelion kata Maththaion)
probably was not the person to give his document this title.
At the same time, no other names ever competed with Matthew’s as this Gospel’s author. The old-
est known testimony comes from an early second-century Christian writer named Papias, whom
Eusebius, an early fourth-century church historian, quoted as saying, “Matthew composed his G
­ ospel
in the Hebrew [or Aramaic] language, and everyone translated as they were able” (Ecclesiastical
History, 3.39.16). Of the 12 apostles (except for Judas, who betrayed ­Jesus), it is not likely that anyone
would have chosen to ascribe this Gospel to Matthew, the once hated tax collector, unless they knew
that he actually wrote it.
Some modern scholars think Matthew is not the author for four main reasons: (1) We have dis-
covered no ancient text of this Gospel in Hebrew (see the Eusebius quotation above), and most
of ­Matthew in Greek does not read like a direct translation from a Semitic tongue. (2) Matthew
appears to have relied on Mark’s Gospel for his content and wording at numerous places, but an
apostle would not have had to depend on a Gospel written by a lesser-known Christian who was
not an eyewitness to most of what he penned. (3) Matthew appears to refer to himself in 13:52 as an
early C
­ hristian scribe, not a tax collector. (4) Some of Matthew appears too anti-Jewish to have been
written by a Jewish follower of ­Jesus the Jew.
On the other hand, (1) writers translating from one language to another in the ancient
Stone depiction of a Roman lease payment. Matthew was a tax collector before ­Jesus called him into ministry.
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