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1694 | INTRODUCTION TO Matthew
Mediterranean world often translated freely, putting their own stylistic stamp on their work. The Gospel as we have it does contain a lot of parallelism in its literary style, a regular feature of both Semitic prose and poetry.( 2) Early church tradition affirmed that Mark got much of the contents of his Gospel from the apostle Peter, the leader of the apostles in the mid-first century, which would make his narrative one of great interest to Matthew.( 3) It is not at all clear that 13:52 is the author’ s self-reference, but even if it is, the unusual literacy of tax collectors would have made it natural for Matthew as a follower of Jesus to turn to scribal activity.( 4) Finally, a careful reading of his Gospel shows that while Matthew depicts Jesus as sharply challenging certain Jewish leaders and more general national trends, he does so as a devoted insider, not as an outsider to the movement. There is no compelling reason, then, to reject the early church’ s uniform conviction that Matthew was the author of this narrative. Little interpretive significance necessarily changes, however, if one rejects this conclusion and attributes the book, as many today do, to an otherwise anonymous first-century Christian.
DATE
The second-century Christian writer Irenaeus declared that Matthew wrote“ while Peter and Paul
were preaching the Gospel and founding the church in Rome”( Against Heresies, 3.1.1). If this is
accurate, Matthew was probably
written in the early to mid-60s,
because this is the one time
before the martyrdoms of these
International transportation artery
Mt.
Hermon
two Christian leaders that we know they were together in
Regional roadway
Transfiguration?
( possible site)
the capital of the first-century
Tyre
Predicts his death
Heals the centurion’ s servant, a paralytic, and Peter’ s
Roman Empire.
There are at least three objections to this line of reasoning:( 1) Matt 22:6 – 7 is“ prophecy” after
Turns water into wine
Sermon on the Mount?
Sea of
Galilee
Tiberias
mother-in-law; restores
Jairus’ s daughter to life
Heals blind man; feeds 5,000?
Heals man with demons
( Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26)
the fact, reflecting knowledge of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 by the Romans.( 2) The tensions with Pharisaic Judaism recurring throughout the Gospel reflect conditions in the latter decades of the first century, when
Spends boyhood
Nazareth
Heals men with demons( Matt 8:28)
Christian Judaism and rabbinic
Judaism were competing to be
Restores widow’ s son to life
Transfiguration
( traditional site)
Bethany on the other side of the
Jordan?
Baptism
( Possible site?)
the one true remaining form of
Judaism after the destruction of the others due to the war with Rome.( 3) Matthew was written
SAMARIA
after Mark, and Mark was written either just before or after AD 70,
Talks with woman at well
Ascends into heaven
Sychar
Heals blind Bartimaeus; calls Zacchaeus down from tree
Tempted?
so Matthew must have been written later still.
In reply:( 1) The first objection holds only if Jesus could not have actually predicted the coming fall of Jerusalem, which seems
Clears temple
Emmaus
Baptism
( traditional site)
to require unwarranted antisupernatural presuppositions.( 2) The competition described
Crucifixion and resurrection
Bethany
Birth
Bethany on the other side of the Jordan?
Raises Lazarus from dead; anointed in Simon the
Leper’ s house
Machaerus
Dead
Sea
was beginning already in the 60s, and the numerous references to the Sadducees( not the Pharisees) and the larger Jerusalem temple leadership as Jesus’ primary antagonists, especially during his passion, could support a pre- 70 debate( before the Pharisees alone were left).( 3) Mark may well have been written in the early 60s, so that Matthew’ s use
HIGHLIGHTS OF JESUS’ MINISTRY
Heals Canaanite woman’ s daughter
Caesarea Maritima
Appears to two after resurrection
0 10 km. 0 10 mi.
Ptolemais
Chorazin Capernaum
Magdala Cana of Galilee
Mt. Gerizim
Jerusalem
P H O E N
J U D E A
I D U M E A
G A L I L E E
Mt. of Olives
I C I A
Nain
Bethlehem
Mt. Tabor
Salim?
Jordan R.
Jericho
P E R E A
Gergesa( Kursi)
Gadara
Caesarea Philippi
Bethsaida( Julias)?
Bethsaida( Galilee)
Yarmuk R.
Jabbok R.
D E C A P O
Gerasa
L I S