Why is Matthew's Gospel placed first in the New Testament?

Answer 1

The author we know as Matthew used the Gospel According to Mark as his primary source for information about the life of Jesus. But he added to this, using sayings from a sayings gospel we call the Q document. Unlike Mark's Gospel, the Gospel According to Matthew also contains a version of the story of the birth of Jesus, and his genealogy back through Joseph and King David.

Answer 2

Matthew's Gospel is placed first in the New Testament because it is traditionally believed to have been written by one of Jesus' twelve apostles, Matthew. It also provides a genealogy of Jesus tracing his lineage back to King David, appealing to Jewish readers. Additionally, its emphasis on Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies makes it a fitting introduction to the New Testament.

Answer 3

Great question! Mark was written first and is considered more historically accurate. Yet, the early church was not concerned with either. The early church was moving forward with a new Judeo-Christian tradition, realizing that Christianity flows from Judaism. Since Matthew's Gospel was written specifically for Jews who were also Christian, it makes sense that this book be first. By contrast, Luke's gospel was written for a Gentile audience and, since that was not as common, Luke appears after Mark. The Gospel of John, was a whole different style and incorporates years of previously-developed Christian tradition, so it makes sense that John would be last.
Religious authorities at one stage thought that Matthew was the first gospel to be written, although this belief probably arose after the order of the gospels had alreay been decided. It could be simply that the New Testament gospels are published in reverse alphabetical order by name (Mat, Mar, L, J).

Answer 4

The author of Matthew worked from Mark, copying something like eighty per cent of his text virtually word for word, in the Greek language. This accounts for the majority of the similarities between Matthew and Mark.

Mark originally ended at verse 16:8, with no appearances of the risen Jesus. The "Long Ending" (verses 16:9-20) was added much later, so that Jesus met "the two of them" on the road, although the remainder of the Long Ending is closer to Lukethan to Matthew.

Answer 5

A:The Church Fathers of the second century noticed that, when laid side by side in the Greek language, they could see a great deal of common material in the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). They was an obvious literary dependency, and they decided that Matthew's Gospel was first and that Mark and Luke were written from it. They might even have attributed this gospel to Matthew, one of the disciples of Jesus, for this very reason.

Modern scholars agree that there was a literary dependency but say that Mark's Gospel was actually the first New Testament gospel, written approximately 70 CE. They now realise that Matthewand Luke were copied from Mark.

Answer 6

A:The Church Fathers of the second century noticed that, when laid side by side in the Greek language, they could see a great deal of common material in the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). They was an obvious literary dependency, and they decided that Matthew's Gospel was first and that Mark and Luke were written from it. They might even have attributed this gospel to Matthew, one of the disciples of Jesus, for this very reason.

Like all the New Testament gospels, Matthew was originally anonymous and only attributed to the apostle Matthew later in the second century. Once it had become attributed to one of the apostles, it was unacceptable that the author needed to base this gospel on another gospel, and therefore any questions of literary dependency had to be resolved by the assumption that Mark and Luke were copied from it. This attribution and the logic that follows from it form the only real evidence for Matthew being written before Mark.

Modern scholars agree that there was a literary dependency but say that Mark's Gospel was actually written before both Matthew and Luke. There is indisputable evidence that Mark was the original New Testament gospel and that Matthew and Luke were substantially copied from it.

Answer 7

Another answer from our community:

In fact, the book of Matthew is the first GOSPEL in The Bible. The first book is GENESIS, which means "beginning". It is the first book of the New Testament. There is some debate as to whether it is first in chronological time,or if Mark is. Matthew is a natural choice for being placed at the start of the New Testament because of the genealogy listed at it's beginning. This creates a natural transition between the Old Testament and the New, and helps tie them to each other. You can buy Bibles that are arranged in the approximate order of writing. It doesn't really matter....it's the content that counts.

Answer 8

A:

The four New Testament gospels were all written anonymously, and were attributed to the persons whose names they now bear later in the second century. Matthew's Gospel was attributed to the disciple Matthew largely because it frequently referred to that disciple, and the fourth gospel was separately attributed to the apostle John for almost the reverse reason - that it never referred to the apostle John, but only to the 'disciple whom Jesus loved' (on the grounds that John was being 'modest' about his role).

The remaining two gospels bore remarkable literary resemblances to Matthew's Gospel, when looked at synoptically ('with the same eye') in the Greek language. The Church Fathers decided that they must have been based on Matthew's Gospel, in which case they could not have been written by eyewitnesses and were attributed to Mark and Luke respectively. Now, if Matthew was the original, it might have made sense to place this gospel first in the New Testament, when eventually bound together as one book. Another reason could be that the books are in reverse alphabetic order.

A:

It could be that Matthew's Gospel is a good bridge between the Old and the New Testaments. Its very first words go back to the forefather of the Old Testament people of God, Abraham, and to the first great king of Israel, David. The gospel of Matthew has a strong Jewish flavor, it has many quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures.

Answer 9

Although we now know that Mark was the first New Testament gospel to be written, that was not always the case. The second-century Church Fathers believed that Matthew was actually by one of the disciples and that Mark's Gospel was written as a combined summary of Matthew and Luke, although we now know that Matthew and Luke were largely based on Mark.

It would be easy to say that Matthew is first because of the second-century error, but if that were the reason Matthew is generally first in the New Testament, why is Luke not second. Perhaps the order of the gospels is influenced by the fact this places them in reverse alphabetical order.

Answer 10

When the early Church Fathers compared the New Testament gospels side by side in the Greek language, they noticed there was a literary dependency among the three gospels now known as the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), such that two of them must have been based on or copied from the third. They decided that Matthew was the original gospel and that the Gospels of Mark and Luke were based on it. This provided reason to place Matthew's Gospel first when determining the books to include in the New Testament.

Although scholars now realise that Mark was actually the first New Testament gospel and that Matthew and Lukewere based on it, it is now too late to change a traditional order.