Introduction to Matthew
The Gospel of Matthew is traditionally the first book of the New Testament and is unanimously attributed to the Apostle Matthew by the early church. The book’s Jewish themes and strong quotation of the Old Testament indicate that it was written as a testament of Jesus Christ to the Jews.
Its date and place of writing are open to some debate, but it is fairly certain that the text was committed before or near 70 AD. Arguments for an earlier writing also exist, carried by the notion that Matthew wrote his text some distance from the traditional Western world of the day and that the text took some time to make its way back.
There is some question as to whether the Gospel of Matthew was written before or after the Gospel of Mark or whether both Matthew and Mark worked from an earlier source also used by the Gospel of Luke. While these questions are academically interesting, they do not take anything away from the book and actually strengthen the case that all three of the Gospel writers worked from the same historical sources, particularly eyewitnesses- himself in the case of Matthew-, giving them significant historical credit.
As with all Bible studies, commentaries or guided studies are useful resources to help keep the study on track. A good place to start is with the People’s Bible Commentary available from the Northwest Publishing House of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Here also is a link to two public domain commentaries on Matthew available at BibleGatway.com, the source of the Bible references used in these Bible studies.
This study is part of the three-year Bible study available from the WELS and begun on 1 January 2006 on this weblog.
Context for Matthew 1
Matthew begins with Jesus’ genealogy as a son of Abraham and David, a factor important to Jew looking for the Messiah based on the prophecies of the Old Testament. In this witness, Matthew starts out his case strongly, beginning with lineage and ending with the fulfillment of prophecy, stating clearly and strongly that his case was for the fulfillment of the Messiah in Jesus.
Who are you? Of course, that is a complex and sometimes difficult question for someone to answer, but it is also sometimes a very important question to have an answer to.
In the cast of Jesus Christ, the answer to that question is most important. In order for Jesus’ death on the cross to have any meaning for us, Jesus had to be someone very particular. If He was not, then our faith is meaningless.
The answer to that question about Jesus is the point of the entirety of the Bible, most especially the Gospels. The Gospels act as a faithful witness to who Jesus was and is and what He did for us.
What those Gospels tell us is that Jesus was the fulfillment of the promise that God made from the very first day mankind fell into sin. Jesus was the Savior, the Son of the Father, the Angel of the Lord incarnate, the Word made flesh, the Son of David, the promised Messiah.
This witness of the Gospel is central to our faith. It is part of the indivisible whole in which anyone who has faith must trust in order to be saved. Without Jesus as the Son, God and man, His death on the cross is irrelevant. With Jesus as the Son, God and man, He is the Savior, Him who redeemed us from our guild with His own body and blood.
For this reason alone, we dwell on Matthew’s witness to whom he knew Jesus to be. Matthew witnesses to the nature of Jesus as the promised Son, and therefore the promised Savior, establishing without question that Jesus was the Messiah, the center of our faith.
DLH
