NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible | Page 102

INTRODUCTION TO Matthew  | 1695
of Mark poses no problem for a date in the early or mid-60s. Whether one dates Matthew to the 60s
(which more conservative scholars prefer) or the 80s (which more liberal scholars prefer), we are still
well within a 60-year period of time from the events narrated. Most ancient history that has sur-
vived and is deemed to be reasonably trustworthy was written considerably longer after the events
happened than this. Matthew merits all the more trust.
BACKGROUND, OCCASION, AND PURPOSE
What little ancient testimony we have (Irenaeus, Eusebius, Jerome) suggests that Matthew wrote in
the Holy Land or to Jewish believers in the Holy Land. Most of the tradition affirms simply that he
addressed predominantly Jewish Christians without specifying their location or a place from which
he wrote. Modern scholars have frequently suggested Antioch of Syria because of its large Jewish
and Jewish-Christian population and because it was a city outside of Israel that would have needed
a Greek rather than Hebrew or Aramaic account. Beyond these basic points it is difficult to add much
with any confidence.
It may well be, as a consensus of modern scholarship has increasingly suggested, that Matthew
was writing primarily to Jewish-Christians who had broken from the synagogue (or been excommu-
nicated by their local synagogues) because they accepted ­Jesus as Messiah and Lord. But they were
not so far removed from their Jewish roots that the tensions of this break had dissipated. Believers
wanted their purely Jewish friends and family to join them in worshiping ­Jesus. Non-Christian Jews
increasingly feared that God was punishing Israel for tolerating this “apostasy” in its ranks. Such
“sibling rivalry” could naturally have produced some of the strong language in Matthew’s Gospel
about the Jews of ­Jesus’ day and accounted for the emphasis on some of ­Jesus’ equally strong invec-
tive against various Jewish leaders (e.g., 15:3 – 9; ch. 23). Conflict with key Jewish leaders also prob-
ably hastened the shift to a multiethnic church of Jew and Gentile alike (e.g., 21:43; 28:18 – 20).
So Matthew’s central purpose is to commend following ­Jesus as the true way for a Jew to continue
as one of God’s elect people. But he doubtless has multiple purposes. His distinctive inclusion of
five large blocks of ­Jesus’ teaching (chs. 5 – 7; 10:5 – 42; 13:1 – 52; ch. 18; chs. 23 – 25) suggests catecheti-
cal designs, especially since so much of this teaching involves ethical matters, and discipleship is a
major theme in Matthew as well. With unique references to the “church” (16:18; 18:17) and to God’s
people living in community, along with warnings against false teachers, Matthew may also be try-
ing to take some of the first steps in implementing organization and criteria for leadership in the
Christian church.
GENRE
Despite some claims to the contrary, Matthew is still more like Mark in literary genre than any other
known work of its time, and Mark still reads more like theological biography than any other known
genre of its time. Like all ancient historians, the Gospel writers’ main reason for writing was not
to chronicle unadorned facts about the person of ­Jesus of Nazareth like some modern dispassion-
ate historians. Biographers in antiquity selected paradigmatic events. Though the evangelists had
theology they wished to stress, that does not impugn their reliability. After all, the very nature of
certain ideologies requires factual support in order to be persuasive! Matthew, like Christians more
generally, had an uphill battle in convincing monotheistic Jews that ­Jesus is God, so he would have
had no reason to create additional problems for his cause by playing fast and loose with the history
on which it was built. Competing Jewish movements would have quickly debunked the fledgling
church, given the care with which Jews in general passed on by oral tradition information that was
important to them. Strikingly, the traditions about ­Jesus that were preserved from ancient Jewish
sources regularly called him a “sorcerer who led Israel astray.” In other words, they acknowledged his
wondrous feats but disputed which supernatural power inspired him.
At the same time, this is a “gospel,” an account of good news. Like Mark, Matthew is convinced
that ­Jesus of Nazareth was God’s heaven-sent envoy to proclaim good news to Israel and to fulfill all
of Scripture’s prophecies, even if by unconventional and unexpected methods — dying for the sins of
the world rather than fighting to rid the land of the Romans. Christians ever since have believed that
this is the most important good news that anyone can receive or share.
THEOLOGY
In light of the circumstances that led to Matthew’s Gospel described in Background, Occasion, and
Purpose, this page, the dominant and distinctive themes of this book occasion no surprise. Matthew
stresses how a message that is the fulfillment of the hopes of Israel is increasingly rejected by many
within the nation and how ­Jesus prepares the way for the Gentile mission his disciples will embark
on. Only Matthew has ­Jesus’ comments about being sent just to Israel during his earthly life (10:5 – 6;
15:24), and only Matthew has ­Jesus sending the disciples to all the nations (28:18 – 20) and the king-
dom being taken from the current Jewish leadership and “given to a people who will produce its
fruit” (21:43).