2. The Gospel According to St. Matthew

The Evangelist Matthew

Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, about 130 A.D., wrote about the various Gospel editions. He tells us that the Apostle St. Matthew put together the discourses of Jesus in the Aramaic language. In other words: he says that St. Matthew collected Jesus' words and made one book of them. This book was written in Aramaic, that is: in the language spoken by Jesus Himself.

St. Iraenaeus (about 180 A.D.) reports the same traditions. "St. Matthew", he tells us, "preached among the Jews (in Palestine). He also produced in their language a writing of the Gospel. This he did while Peter and Paul were preaching and founding the Church in Rome". Many other outstanding writers of the early Church confirm this testimony: Pantaneus (about 200 A.D.), Clement of Alexandria (150-215 A.D.), Origen (186-254), Tertullian (160-240 A.D.), Eusebius of Caesarea (265-340 A.D.) and so on. It is evident, therefore, that from the earliest times onwards great men in the Church have ascribed the edition of the first gospel text of St. Matthew, the Apostle. Surely, they were in a good position to trace the author. We have no reason to doubt the accuracy of their information.

Does the Gospel according to St. Matthew itself say anything about its author? It does not do so directly. But when we read the text carefully, we can recognize many characteristic traits of the evangelist. Every author quite naturally leaves the imprint of his personality on the writing he produces. In this way we learn from a reading of the gospel that St. Matthew must have been a close disciple of Jesus. He must have known Palestine well. He shows a personal knowledge of Jewish customs and practices. He is a skilled teacher and must have made a thorough study of the Old Testament. In one passage St. Matthew speaks of his own conversion:

"Jesus left that place, and as He walked along He saw a tax collector, named Matthew, sitting in his office. He said to him, "Follow me". And Matthew got up and followed Him. While Jesus was having dinner at his house (Matthew's house), many tax collectors and outcasts came and joined Him and His disciples at the table..." (Mt 9:9-10).

Matthew had been a tax collector. In those days tax collectors were looked down upon by people, since they were usually dishonest and not interested in religion. Luke (Lk 5:27-29) and Mark (Mk 2:13-15) also mention Jesus' calling of the tax collector, but they call him 'Levi'. Why this difference in name? The most likely explanation is the following: Jews often had two names. Before his conversion this tax collector must have had the name 'Levi'. Perhaps, Jesus Himself gave him the new name 'Matthew' (Gift from God), just as He had given the name 'Peter' to 'Simon'. (Jn 1:40-42; Mt 16:17-18) In any case, among Jesus' disciples and in the early Church, he was known as Matthew. It may be that Mark and Luke wanted to avoid mention of Matthew having been a tax collector before and so they called him by his previous name, 'Levi'. St. Matthew himself, however, would not mind speaking about it. He would never forget how great God's mercy had been towards him! He would always reflect on Jesus special love for himself: that he called him in spite of his having been a 'tax collector'. When enumerating the list of Apostles, Matthew says: "These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector...etc". (Mt 10:2-3)

The Gospel according to St. Matthew went through 2 processes of growth:

a) ARAMAIC MATTHEW. About 50 A.D. St. Matthew, the Apostle, composed the first gospel in the Aramaic language. Since he was writing down the official teaching of the Church, he made ample use of the texts (the words of Jesus) which people had learned by heart under the instruction of the Apostles. In fact, the gospel itself was nothing else but a summary of that instruction arranged for the particular purpose of proving Jesus' divine messiahship to the Jews of Palestine.

b) GREEK MATTHEW. Modern Bible Scholars think that the material handed over by Matthew was worked out by disciples and so they speak of the "School of St. Matthew" to which we owe the Gospel in its present form. They translated it into Greek, (added some sections, cut others short). The Gospel may have reached its final form in the eighties.

"Aramaic Matthew" has entirely been lost, since there were very few people who spoke Aramaic in later times. Anyway, what the Church has canonised is the complete Greek Gospel which we know presently.

We know very little about Matthew's further life. Tradition narrates that he first preached to the Jews in Palestine and then to other nations outside the Holy Land. Some ancient writers say that he went to Ethiopia; others mention Persia, Syria, Greece and even Ireland. The circumstances of his death are also uncertain. but we may presume that tradition is right in calling him a martyr. His liturgical feast is celebrated on the 21st of September.

St. Matthew's Gospel in the Church

Of the four Gospel editions St. Matthew's is the one most frequently used in the Church.

The Fathers of the Church quote with preference from this Gospel. Even in the very early Christian writings texts from Matthew are cited extensively: the Didache (120 A.D.?), St. Clement of Rome (ca 95 A.D.), the Epistles of Barnabbas (ca 120 A.D.), the martyr St. Ignatius (ca 107 A.D.), St. Polycarp (ca 120 A.D.), St. Justin (ca 150 A.D.), etc. We may conclude from this that St. Matthew's Gospel enjoyed a special place in the Church. In fact, everything seems to point to the conclusion that St. Matthew's Gospel was used as a textbook for catechetical instruction.

When we make use of catechisms and catechetical handbooks for our religious instruction, these should never replace the Gospel text itself. For the content of our instruction is actually the Gospel. Our pupils should not have the impression that our modern books are more important than the Gospels. So let us always use the Gospel as our first text book. Once, when visiting a hospital, I asked a boy of twelve years: "Do you have catechetical instruction?" He said: "No". I was taken aback and so I asked: "Does nobody tell you about our faith?" "Of course", he answered, "Every week the teacher and the priest read the Gospel to us in school and told us about Jesus!" Do we teach catechism like this?

The Structure of St. Matthew's Gospel

When composing his gospel edition, St. Matthew decided not to follow so much the actual sequence of events in Our Lord's life (putting first what happened first), but to make an artificial arrangement of the material ( grouping together what belongs together ) . He wanted to present Our Lord as the New Moses, as the new Messianic Teacher. That is why he arranges the material round five central sermons, no doubt in analogy to the 'five books of Moses'. Schematically it looks like this

Purpose and Principal Doctrines

St. Matthew wanted to impress on his fellow Jews in Palestine this important truth:

Jesus Christ is the Messiah, promised in the Old Testament."

Matthew shows this in a variety of ways. First of all, Jesus came from the family of David, thereby fulfilling the prophecy that the Messiah (the Redeemer) would be a descendant of David (see 2 Sam 7:8-16; Mt 1:1, 6, 17, 20) Christ is often called 'Son of David' in this Gospel. (Mt 9:27; 12:23; 15:22, 20:30-32; 21:9, 15)

Moreover, he stresses that Jesus is the New Moses, sent in fulfilment of the prophecy by which God had promised that He would raise the Messiah as a new Moses. (Dt 18:15-19) Just as Moses had promulgated the old law on Sinai, so Jesus promulgates His Law on a mountain. (Mt 5:1) Instead of the ten commandments, He gives eight beatitudes. (Mt 5:3-10) He explicitly refers to the old law, perfecting the ancient precepts. (Mt 5:17-20; 21 etc.) Moses appears as Jesus' forerunner on the mount of transfiguration. (Mt 17:34) Jesus abrogates the permission to divorce granted by Moses. (Mt 19:3-9)

When relating Jesus' words and actions St. Matthew keeps pointing out Messianic prophecies that have been fulfilled in them. He frequently says that a certain event happened "in order to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet". Such instances are:

—Mt 1:23, 22 Jesus' birth of a virgin............ ..................................Is 7:14
—Mt 2:15 the flight to Egypt ............................................................Os 11:1
—Mt 2:18 the murder of the innocents ...............................................Jer 31:15
—Mt 4: 15-16 Jesus' ministry in Galilee............................................. Is 9: 1-2
—Mt 8:17 Jesus' miraculous cures .....................................................Is 53:4
—Mt 12:17-21 Jesus' unassuming leadership .....................................Is 42:1-4
—Mt 13:14-15 the blindness of the people....................................... Is 6:9-10
—Mt 13:35 Jesus' preaching in parables ...........................................Ps 78:2
—Mt 21:4-5 Jesus' riding on an ass ...................................................Is 62:11; Zach. 9:9
—Mt 27:9-10 Judas' treachery .........................................................Zach 11:12;
.................................................................................................Jer 32:6-15; 18:1-2

Very often the Old Testament is cited in other ways:

—'for it is written" ...................................Mt 2:5; 4:4, 6, 7, 10; 11:10; 21: 13; 26:31.
—"Have you never read?" ......................Mt 19:4; 21:16; 21:42; 22:31;
—"God said " .........................................Mt 15:4: 19:5.

The Jews knew the Old Testament prophecies so well. Matthew does his utmost to point out every detail fulfilled in Jesus' life. And with
preference he quotes the sayings of Jesus in which Jesus Himself refers to the Old Testament.

Matthew takes care to stress that Jesus is not a political Messiah (such as many Jews were expecting), but that He is a Messiah
with divine power. Jesus' divinity and equality with God the Father is brought out in many ways:

—Jesus is greater than God's temple (Mt 12:6), than Jonah and Solomon (Mt 12:42), than David. (Mt 22:41-46)
—Jesus does miracles. which only God can do, such as stilling the storm (Mt 8:23-27), raising Jairus' daughter
(Mt 9:23-25), etc.
—God the Father testifies about Him: "This is My Son" (Mt 3: 17; 17:5); Jesus knows all that the Father knows.
(Mt 11:27) —Jesus will judge mankind as only God can judge. (Mt 16:27; 19:28; 24:27; 24:30-31; 25:31-46)
—Jesus is, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, Almighty God, in whose name all men should be baptized. (Mt 28:19)

Jesus also founded God's Kingdom, the Church which—in the Jewish fashion—is called "the Kingdom of Heaven".
He laid down many conditions of membership: the sanctity required in this 'Kingdom'! All the five Sermons in St Matthew's Gospel speak
of this Kingdom.

Gospel Passages we find only in Matthew

The Gospel of St. Matthew contains much valuable information about Jesus and about His teaching which we do not find in the other evangelists. Regarding events in Jesus' public life, the following are proper to Matthew alone:

—the healing of the two blind men..................... Mt 9:27-31
—the promise of the primacy to Peter ....................Mt 16:17-1
—the tax paid by Jesus ..........................................Mt 17:24-28
—the story of Judas' suicide................................... Mt 27: 3-10
—the guard at Jesus' sepulchre ..............................Mt 27:62-66

Matthew also provides reflections on Jesus infancy (Mt 1-2) and testimonies about the resurrection (Mt 28:9-20)
not found in the other Gospels.

Moreover, Matthew has preserved for us many teachings of Jesus of which we would otherwise not know:

PARABLES

The city on a hill........................................ Mt 5:14
the pearls before the swine .............................Mt 7:6
the wolves in sheep's clothing .........................Mt 7:15
the fruit of the fig tree......................................Mt 7: 16-20
the parable of the weeds sown among corn ....Mt 13:24-30
the merchant who finds a hidden treasure....... Mt 13:44
the merchant who finds the pearl................... .Mt 13:45-46
the net full of good and bad fish ..................... Mt 13:47-48
the householder and his storeroom .................Mt 13:52
the debtor who did not forgive his fellow ........Mt 18:23-35
the labourers in the vineyard ...........................Mt 20:1-6
the willing and unwilling son.............................Mt 21:28-32
the wise and the foolish virgins.........................Mt 25:1-13
the division of the sheep from goats..................Mt 25:31-46

INSTRUCTIONS

on reconciliation before the sacrifice .....................................Mt 5:23-24
on avoiding oaths...................................................................Mt 5:33-37
on practising virtue in secret...................................................Mt 6:1-8, 16-18
on taking up His yoke ...........................................................Mt 11.28-30
on authority in the Church...................................................... Mt 181S-20
on the value of celibacy........................................................ Mt 19:10-12

Matthew's interest in Jesus' words

We have already seen that St. Matthew composed his Gospel around five Sermons of Jesus. This by itself shows how important Jesus' teaching is in his eyes. On the former page we see that he has not many passages of his own dealing with events of Jesus' life, but that he did preserve fourteen of Jesus' parables and instructions which we do not find in the other Gospels. All this proves one thing: St. Matthew was more interested in Jesus' teaching than in the details of Jesus' life. In his Gospel he gave the first place to Jesus' sayings and he uses the narrative sections mainly as the setting for these sayings. That is why Papias could say that Matthew made a collections of Jesus' words (see pg. 17 above)!

Now it is of the greatest importance to recognize St. Matthew's interest in Jesus' words; otherwise we may misunderstand his pur pose. Let us take one example: did Jesus really speak all these beautiful sayings in Mt 5-7 on one occasion? The answer is: No. St. Matthew has collected many sayings of Our Lord, which He must have spoken on different occasions, and put them in the Sermon on the Mount. The teaching is truly Jesus' teaching, but the "setting" and the "putting them all together" was done by St. Matthew. It is as if St. Matthew has condensed many sermons on sanctity spoken by Christ into the one Sermon on the Mount. This is nothing extraordinary: we do the same today by collecting various statements of the Popes in one book, even though they were made on different occasions. In thc same way we collect 'select poems' of great writers, 'letters' of politicians and 'speeches' of leaders. The Sermon on the Mount is such a collection of select sayings of Jesus.

Matthew's special interest in Jesus' sayings also led to another characteristic trait of his writing. Whenever he narrates events,
he tends to abbreviate them. See how Matthew and Mark tell of the same event

Many details of the story are purposely omitted by St. Matthew. He doesn't tell us about the great rush to hear Jesus' preaching; he does
not say that the paralyzed man was carried by four friends; he does not even mention the extraordinary way in which they bring the paralyzed
man to Jesus' feet. Matthew makes the story as short as possible. His real interest does not lie with the first part of the narrative which recounts the circumstances, but with Jesus' words. Jesus' words are not abbreviated. For Jesus' words are the important thing for Matthew.
Other outstanding examples of Matthew's tendency to shorten narration are the following passages:

—exorcising the Geresenes .................................................Mt 8:24-34............. Mk 5:1-20
—raising Jairus' daughter...................................................... Mt 9:18-26 ..............Mk 5:21-43
—John the Baptist's death ...................................................Mt 14: 1-12 .............Mk 6:14-29
—the cure of the epileptic ....................................................Mt 17:14-21 ............Mk 9:13-28
—the question of the law..................................................... Mt 22:34-40 ............Mk 12:28-34
—preparing the last Supper .................................................Mt 26: 17-20 ...........Mk 14: 12-17

St. Matthew's Gospel presents us with a complete 'Life of Jesus': from Jesus' birth to His death and Resurrection. But throughout the Gospel we should remember to pay special attention to Jesus as the greatest Teacher of mankind. For this is what St. Matthew—under inspiration of the Holy Spirit!—wants to stress in his Gospel edition.

Typical Jewish ways of Speaking

In His preaching Our Lord used many typical Jewish ways of speaking. St. Matthew composed His gospel for Jewish readers, as we have
seen. Small wonder then that he preserved many sayings of Christ in the characteristic Jewish form.
The Jews had great respect and fear of God's Holy Name. Had not God commanded them.

"You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain"?(Deut 5-11)

Taking this commandment very literally, the Jews avoided pronouncing God's Name at all times and in all circumstances. Instead, they
used indirect ways of speaking about God.

From all these examples we see that Jesus too employed the indirect way of speaking about God. Instead of saying 'God', he would use words such as: "Heaven", "Power", "Glory", "Name", the "Highest", etc. The Jews (to whom Jesus was speaking) would immediately understand the deeper meaning of such expressions.
There was another way in which the Jews used to avoid God's Name while speaking: by putting the sentence in the passive voice. If, for instance, a father wanted to bless his daughter at marriage he would not say:

"May God give you many children!
"May God protect your health!
"May God grant you many days of happiness!" and so on.

He would say:

"May many children be given to you.
May your health be protected!
May many days of happiness be granted to you!"

In the second form, "God" is not mentioned in so many words. But, because of the passive voice, the Jews would immediately
understand that "God" was meant to be the Author, but that His Name had been omitted out of reverence and respect. Such a passive
is called a theophoric passive: i.e. a passive which in its meaning carries God as the author.
Christ used this way of speaking quite often and it is in St. Matthew's Gospel once more that we find many examples of it:

In the following example one should notice how characteristically Jewish the phrase is: to 'loose' and to 'bind' means to declare something
forbidden or allowed'; 'in heaven' stands for 'with God'; moreover, there is the theophoric passive; finally, the statement is repeated twice
(both negatively and positvely