Genesis to Revelation: Matthew Leader Guide: A Comprehensive Verse-by-Verse Exploration of the Bible

About the Writer

Robert E. Luccock served as a minister and was professor of worship and preaching, Boston University School of Theology, Boston, Massachusetts. David Kueker served as pastor of Pawnee United Methodist Church, Pawnee, Illinois.

INTRODUCTION TO MATTHEW

by David Kueker

The meaning of Christianity rests upon the meaning of the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and the meaning of his life, his deeds, his teachings, his death, and his resurrection. The first four books of the New Testament, known as Gospels, tell us the story of the life of Jesus. The word gospel means good news. The Gospel According to Matthew means the good news of Jesus Christ from Matthew’s viewpoint.

Where Did the Gospels Come From?

The Bible contains four Gospels, known as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Tradition assigns their authorship to the disciples Matthew and John, Peter’s travel companion John Mark, and Paul’s travel companion, the physician Luke. The early church thought that the Gospels were only trustworthy if written by eyewitnesses or those close to eyewitnesses.

In fact, the Gospels themselves are anonymous works. Nowhere do the authors name themselves, except the author of John who describes himself as the beloved disciple and says no more. For the sake of convenience, however, we continue to use the names that history has given the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Many different people had input to the developing understanding of Jesus’ life. Modern scholarship sees several levels to the development of the Gospels. The first level is the historical event of what Jesus said or did before eyewitnesses.

The second level is the retelling of what Jesus said or did, again and again. Both Jewish-Christians and Gentile-Christians passed on what Jesus said or did according to their vital needs. Scholars call this the verbal tradition. The words and deeds of Jesus lived on in this way for at least thirty years.

As these bits of Jesus’ words and deeds were being told and retold, each began to take on a form. Some lost their historical context and became brief sayings, almost proverbs. In the process of being told and retold, the parables of Jesus were translated into the practical needs of the first-century Christian churches. Therefore, some parables are very short, while others are long and complicated. Other bits of the tradition held on to details of where they happened in the life of Jesus. In time these bits began to be connected by the early church into small informal collections that were told together.

And then someone decided to gather these unwritten bits of history, put them in an order, and write them down. Now one could read a complete statement about Jesus from the beginning of his life to the events after his death. A scholar would call this person a redactor, a word that means editor. These editors gathered the stories of Jesus from every source they could find and put them together in an order like pearls on a string.

The three levels can be seen in Luke’s explanation of the origin of his own Gospel (Luke 1:1-4).

1. Historical Events: Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us . . .

2. Verbal Tradition: . . . just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. . . .

3. Redactor: . . . I too decided to write an orderly account for you. . . .

The layers move from what Jesus actually said, through the memories of eyewitnesses and the early church, up to the editor who brought all the material together. Remember that persons at each level heard Jesus speaking to them in the story on a personal level. The story meant something to them. As they passed it on in their own words, we also receive their perspective along with the words of Jesus.

That this perspective has been passed along is not negative. The translations of the various versions of the Bible available today also add their perspective as they translate. They cannot help it. These additions are not harmful as long as we are aware of them.

As we read Matthew, then, we need to keep the following three sets of questions in our mind:

1. Why was this passage important to Matthew, the editor? What point was Matthew trying to make?

2. Why was this passage important to the disciples and the early church? What problems might they have faced that made this saying of Jesus especially meaningful to them?

3. What was the intent and purpose of Jesus? What was he trying to say to the people he spoke to? Jesus was a Jew speaking to other Jews. The Gospels are writings of the early church, which was made up mostly of non-Jewish Christians.

For example, the early church quickly fastened upon the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount as highly important teachings of Jesus in contrast with the teaching of the Pharisees.

In Matthew 5:28-29a, Jesus says: But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. . . .

The early church took this advice at face value. For this reason, and because of the mood of the times, men and women secluded themselves in cloistered monasteries. For years people took those phrases literally.

A careful reading and a concern for the purpose of Jesus, however, may lead us to decide that his words are not a pronouncement that lust is the same as adultery. We may see that his intention was to knock the props out from under the self-righteousness of any of his hearers. Underneath you are all the same, Jesus could have been saying, and you all stand in need of God’s forgiveness. This stance outraged the Pharisees and is consistent with the context.

Keeping these three sets of questions in mind helps us understand the point that Matthew is trying to make to the readers of his generation. But it can also lead us into a deeper understanding of what the Bible means. These questions are particularly important when a particular section of Matthew is difficult to understand.

How Is Matthew Related to the Other Gospels?

The first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, also known as the Synoptic Gospels, are very closely related. (John’s material is so different that it appears to be unrelated.) Because of this, early scholars began to wonder if one of the first three Gospels was a parent to the other two. Two of the three might be adaptations of the other. This question became known as the synoptic problem.

Certain evidence suggests a parent Gospel. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all share quite a lot of material that is worded almost exactly alike. Most of the rest of Matthew and Luke that does not appear in Mark is strikingly similar. Each Gospel also has portions that appear only in that Gospel.

The most widely accepted theory is that Mark’s Gospel, the shortest, was the first to be written. Mark was a resource for the writing of Matthew and Luke. Matthew and Luke have some material in common that is not found in Mark. To account for this, scholars believe that they may have had another written source. This source was a collection of Jesus’ sayings and parables that scholars called Q, short for the German word for source, Quelle. This theory is called the two-sources theory. Matthew and Luke might have written their Gospels with Mark and Q in front of them. They were seeking to provide a more complete account of Jesus’ life. In this theory, M and L stand for material that appears only in Matthew and Luke.

Another theory is based on the fact that where Matthew and Mark disagree on passages they have in common, Luke agrees with Matthew. Therefore Matthew or Luke would have been first. Mark’s Gospel then would be a very carefully constructed condensation of Matthew. The tradition of the early church, well established less than a century after Jesus’ death, is that Matthew was the first Gospel.

Who Was the Author of Matthew?

The author of the Gospel According to Matthew remains a shadowy figure. His book shows him to be well acquainted with Judaism and probably a trained scribe and teacher. While he is critical of the Judaism of Jesus’ time, he is careful to show Jesus as emerging from the traditions of the Old Testament. The Gospel is intended to present Jesus either to people of Jewish background or to a people very familiar with Judaism.

The author of Matthew’s Gospel writes after the destruction of Jerusalem (Matthew 22:7). Therefore a dating before about AD 70 is excluded. Some time has probably elapsed since the composition of Mark’s Gospel. Therefore Matthew could have been written in AD 85. The critical attitude toward Judaism suggests an origin outside Israel but close enough to Israel to be within the Jewish sphere of influence. Most scholars suggest the author came from Syria or Northern Palestine. Some think the author came from Antioch, one of the largest and most important cities in the Roman Empire. Antioch was located in Syria, north of Galilee. As an important trading center and the Roman provincial capital, Antioch had a large Jewish community and was an early stronghold of the Christian community.

Matthew’s Gospel spread quickly and soon became very important in the early church. Passages from Matthew are more frequently quoted in the writings of early Christians than any of the other Gospels. Matthew’s importance then and now is as a teaching Gospel. Matthew’s intention is to teach us how to be disciples of Christ. Matthew is carefully organized so that it lends itself easily to teaching, preaching, and being read in worship. Its passages are beautifully and meaningfully rendered. Matthew’s Gospel also answers questions. Written with an eye toward disputes in the early church, Matthew attempts to give an authoritative last word on a subject. Many questions that are raised by Mark’s rougher version of Jesus’ life are smoothed over and answered neatly in Matthew.

What Is the Structure of Matthew’s Gospel?

Matthew’s intentions as a teaching Gospel can particularly be seen in how he structures his Gospel. Sections of Jesus’ teaching are alternated with the ongoing story of Jesus’ life and death, which is called the narrative. Five times during the story of the life of Jesus, Matthew stops the narrative to give whole chapters of the teachings of Jesus on a subject. Matthew, then, is made up of six narrative (historical) sections, with five teaching sections between them.

Chapters 1–4 (Historical): Birth and Appearance

Chapters 5–7 (Teaching): Righteous Living

Chapters 8–9 (Historical): Mighty Works

Chapter 10 (Teaching): How to Be a Missionary

Chapters 11–12 (Historical): Jesus Rejected by His People

Chapter 13 (Teaching): The Kingdom of God

Chapters 14–17 (Historical): The Messiah Corrects the Pharisees

Chapter 18 (Teaching): Loving Those With No Status

Chapters 19–23 (Historical): The Final Confrontation in Jerusalem

Chapters 24–25 (Teaching): The Second Coming

Chapters 26–28 (Historical): Passion, Death, Resurrection

What Is the Theology of Matthew?

Jesus fulfills the faith of the Old Testament.

Matthew wanted his readers to see that Jesus not only emerged out of orthodox Jewish tradition, but also fulfills many ancient prophecies. Matthew uses a style that echoes Old Testament phrases and commonly used words and uses over sixty quotes from the Old Testament. Matthew thereby establishes Jesus as the Messiah through the Old Testament. Thus Jesus emerged from Judaism, but Matthew shows clearly the contrast between Jesus’ teaching and that of normal Judaism as taught by the scribes and Pharisees. Matthew advises a balance between the tradition of the Old Testament and the tendency of the new emerging non-Jewish early church to ignore the Jewish tradition as irrelevant. ‘Every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old’ (13:52).

Discipleship and the church are important.

Matthew’s Gospel is the how to manual for the individual disciple and the early church. High standards are set for both. It instructs the individual, for example, in how to be a good person (Chapters 5–7) and how to be a missionary (Chapter 10). Chapter 18 instructs the church not to be haughty or proud. Persons are to love those with little status, such as the children, who should be sought as lost sheep. Those who fall short of the requirements of discipleship are to be forgiven and given another chance.

The Gospel also reflects Matthew’s concern that discipleship is submission to authority, first to Jesus and then to the church’s leaders. Matthew, for example, is the only Gospel to contain Jesus’ speech where Peter is given the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

The kingdom of God will reign in the present and future.

The reign of Christ as Lord over the souls of his followers in the present will be followed by a gathering of the faithful disciples into a real kingdom of God in the near future. Many of the Kingdom passages relate to the high ethical conduct required of the disciples as they are exhorted to prepare for the coming of the Kingdom. And so, the kingdom of God is shown to be present, as the reign of King Jesus has begun in their hearts. Yet Matthew’s Gospel is also apocalyptic, for Matthew’s church serves and waits for the second coming of the King (Chapters 24–25). The Kingdom in Matthew seems primarily to be a heavenly rather than an earthly place, contrary to current popular interpretation.

Matthew, following Jewish custom with only five exceptions, substitutes the phrase kingdom of heaven for kingdom of God used in the other Gospels. The name of God was sacred and not used lightly in everyday conversation, so Matthew politely substitutes heaven.

They will call him Immanuel (which means God with us) (1:23).

1

JESUS’ BIRTH, INFANCY, AND BAPTISM

Matthew 1–3

DIMENSION ONE: WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

Answer these questions by reading Matthew 1

1. With whom does the genealogy of Jesus begin? (1:2)

The genealogy begins with Abraham.

2. What five women are included? (1:3, 5, 6, 16)

Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Uriah’s wife (Bathsheba), and Mary are included.

3. Is the ancestry traced to Joseph or Mary? (1:16)

The ancestry is traced to Joseph.

4. How many generations are reported?