Why was Matthew written to the Jews?

Answer 1

A:

There are two principal reasons that Matthew's Gospel has traditionally been thought to have been written for Jews. The first is the traditional attribution of this originally anonymous gospel to the disciple Matthew and the second is its extensive use of references from the Old Testament .

Modern New Testament scholars now say that the Gospel could not have been written by an eyewitness to the events portrayed, which rules out Matthew as the real author. They also point to clear evidence that the Gospel was written in Greek, meaning that it was written for a Greek-speaking audience. Its Old Testament references were taken from the Septuagint and include errors that Palestinian Jews would hve quickly recognised. Matthew's Gospel may perhaps have been written for Jews of the Greek-speaking diaspora, but not for Palestinian Jews.

Answer 2

Matthew includes quite a number of Old Testament prophecies which would have been familiar to the Jews, to demonstrate Jesus as their Messiah. He also had Jesus' genealogy and showed Jesus' teaching as that of a Jewish rabbi. He also referred to a number of Jewish customs. None of these things he gave much explanation to since it seems since he assumed that the Jews would understand what he was referring to. If he had been writing to another audience he would either not have had such things or would have needed to provide more explanation.

Answer 3

If indeed Matthew's Gospel was written to the Jews, it would have been for use by Christian Jews and perhaps to help in converting Jews to Christianity.

However some modern Jews question whether Matthew was really written to Jews at all. They say that the Gospel's use of the Septuagint, a flawed early Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, as its source of scriptural material would have lessened its appeal for many Jews. Since it was originally written in Greek, Matthew would certainly not have been written for Palestinian Jews.

Answer 4

The book of Matthew was written by one Jew, Matthew.