Where did Matthew get the information for his gospel?

Answer 1

Another answer from our community:Matthew relied primarily on his own experiences since he was thought to be an eyewitness to many of the events recorded. Matthew also quotes from the Old Testament frequently and included the genealogies which were recorded by the Jews. The other factor that he shared with the other writers of The Bible was that he was guided not just by his observations and personality, but also guided by the Holy Spirit. It is this guidance by the hand of God that gives his account substance and power.

It is also pretty well established that Matthew had access to a primitive gospel as did Luke and Mark. This is why there are so many similarities between the first three Gospels. There are of course important differences as well, generally having to do with the audience for whom the gospels were written.

Answer 2

A:Although Matthew's Gospel, like the other New Testament gospels, was originally anonymous, the second century Church Fathers decided that the author was Matthew, one of the disciples. On this view, Matthew got his information as an eyewitness. Of course, Matthew could not have got his information about the birth of Jesus this way, nor his information about events at which he was not present, but the second-century attribution provided a satisfying explanation.

Modern New Testament scholars say that the gospel could not have been written by an eyewitness to the events portrayed. They say that Matthew contains some 600 verses copied from Mark's Gospel, in the same order and often in exactly the same words in the Greek language. It also contains material copied from the hypothetical 'Q' document, as does Luke's Gospel. Scholars do not know where the author got his information about the nativity, but note that it draws some parallels between Jesus and Moses in the Old Testament. They believe this material is not historically true.

Answer 3

As Raymond E. Brown states, most scholars believe that both Matthew and Luke copied much of their material from Mark's Gospel, and obtained many sayings they attributed to Jesus from the hypothetical 'Q' Document. Matthew also used the Septuagint, an early Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, extensively to provide a Judaic background to his gospel account.