What is the background information on the Bible book of Matthew?

Answer 1

In Christian tradition, the Gospel of Matthew was written by the apostle Matthew who was one of the twelve apostles chosen by Jesus. He was a publican or tax collector when he was chosen. Being one of the 12, he was with Jesus during his whole ministry so was well qualified to write the Gospel. See Matthew ch. 10 v.2 & 3

Please see Related Link for some more details on Matthew.

Eusebius indicates that Papias, the bishop of Hieropolis of Phrygia, first associated Matthew, the tax collector with the first Gospel, circa 130 A.D. Dr. W. A. Criswell, noted preacher and Bible scholar, stated: "There is no reason to question the Matthean authorship ofm the initial Gospel." As a custom's officer, Matthew would be skillful in both his native Aramaic, and in Greek.

Answer

We do not know for certain who wrote Matthew's gospel. However, traditionally it has been attributed to Matthew the apostle (and tax collector) or, at least, by one of Matthew's followers. There are several reasons for this:

1. Matthew is the most 'Jewish' of the gospels and uses a great deal of scripture and prophesy to back up his claim that Jesus is the promised Messiah. Also he does not explain Jewish religions practices as he assumes his readers know their details. This is in accord with Matthew being Jewish and is in stark contrast to, say, Luke's gospel which is in a different style altogether, as Luke was a gentile from Antoch.

2. The content of the gospel includes large amount of Jesus' teaching on forgiveness and on not being judgemental. Some scholars feel that this reflects Matthew's forgiveness as a former tax collector and thief.

3. Tax collectors in the Roman Empire were taught a primitive form of shorthand with whicg Matthew was familiar. Matthew's gospel is unique in having a great deal of the actual words of Jesus recorded. Some scholars believe this was only possible because of Matthew's skills in shorthand.

4. As a tax collector, Matthew would have been meticulous in detail and accuracy. This is also reflected in his gospel being unique in soe of the birth stories, as well as a meticulous genealogical chart of the ancestors of Jesus.

Matthew's gospel, as well as Luke's, was based probably on Mark's gospel, with some additions from a now lost collection of sayings called 'Q' plus his own material. Thus Matthew's Mark's and Luke's gospels are termed 'Synoptic' as it is believed that they all came from an original source.