Was Matthew's Gospel written for a Jewish audience?

Answer 1

Another answer from our community:

If you mean 'was Matthew originally written in aramaic' then the answer is "possibly". If you mean "was it written for a Jewish audience" then the answer is definitely yes.

Answer 2

The gospel of Matthew, like all the other New Testament Gospels, was originally anonymous and only attributed to Matthew, the disciple of Jesus, later in the second century. However, scholars say that the gospel could not have been written by an eyewitness to the events in the gospel. Scholars can, however, demonstrate that the author of Matthew relied on Mark's Gospel for everything he knew about the life and mission of Jesus, as well as taking sayings material from the hypothetical 'Q' document. So, Matthew's Gospel was a rewriting of Mark's Gospel, and the question is whether it was rewritten for a Jewish audience. More than any other gospel, Matthew refers back to the Hebrew scriptures for supposed prophecies and foreshadowing of the events in the life of Jesus.

Matthew certainly could not have been written for Palestinian Jews. It was clearly written in the Greek language. Also, while the Jews of Palestine continued to read their scriptures in the Hebrew language, when Matthew makes reference to the scriptures it is to the Septuagint, an early and flawed Greek translation from Hebrew. A Jew from Palestine would have quickly realised the difference and recognised that the author was unfamiliar with what were regarded as the original Jewish scriptures.

Matthew does correct some minor errors in Mark, particularly errors of geography, but also carries forward some cultural errors, demonstrating an unfamiliarity with Jewish culture. Although no one suggests that the author of Johnwas writing for a Jewish audience, he nevertheless shows more awareness of Jewish culture than does the author of Matthew.

In early Christian times, Matthew was thought to have been the first gospel, written at a time when few Gentiles had yet joined the church, with Mark and Luke copied from it. Having been attributed to Matthew, a Jewish disciple of Jesus, it was therefore natural to think of it as written for Jews. Based on what we now know about Matthew's Gospel, it was certainly not written for the Jews of Judea and Galilee, and was probably not written for Jews of the diaspora.