How does the Gospel of Matthew connect to the Old Testament?

Answer 1

The Gospel of Matthew makes more references to the Old Testament than any other gospel. The gospel was written in Greek Koine and we can not be certain whether the author had a good command of the Hebrew language, as his references were all to the Septuagint, a flawed early Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures. This is most evident in the author's reference to Isaiah 7:14 to say that a virgin would conceive and bear a child and his reliance on this as evidence that the virginity of Mary had been prophesied. Isaiah 7:14, in the original Hebrew, actually says, "the young woman", and the young woman in question did have a child a few verses later in Isaiah. The Septuagint had incorrectly translated 'the young woman' as 'a virgin', and Matthew's reliance on this demonstrates that he used the Septuagint scriptures.

This gospel's use of the Old Testament is at its most profound in the nativity account, which makes use of many passages from the Septuagint and cleverly draws a parallel between Jesus and Moses of the Old Testament.