In antiquity, when many Jews would convert into Christianity, the Gospel of Matthew was written. As the first book to start the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew uses a different style as it was written with the perspective from a Jew. Matthew uses this unique perspective on Jesus as a chance to tell the story of who Jesus is and why he is important. In doing so, Matthew’s biography of Jesus convincingly presents Jesus as the promised Messiah, the Son of God. The Gospel of Matthew is consistent in both the theme and the perspective of Jesus as the divine deliverer, appointed by God the father. Indeed, Matthew validates that Jesus is the Christ; the prophesied Savior. Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus in order to depict that Jesus …show more content…
To portray Jesus as the promised Messiah, Matthew uses the evidence of Jesus Christ and the prophecies concerning John the Baptist. Matthew affirms the theme of fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies and indicates that John the Baptist “is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’’” (Matthew 3:3). This verse has been prophesied by Isaiah that John the Baptist will be the one professing the arrival of Jesus. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus also recognizes John the Baptist as the spirit of Elijah, as Jesus states that, “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John came; and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.” (Matthew 11:13-14). By including this message, Matthew can further confirm that Jesus is the Christ that has come to fulfill prophecies. With the statement that John the Baptist is the spirit of Elijah, Matthew continues to certify that Jesus is the Messiah through a conversation with his disciples. When the disciples had asked Jesus, “Why, then, do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” (Matthew 17:10), Jesus answers that, “Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they please.” (Matthew 17:12). With this explanation, the …show more content…
The reality that Jesus has risen from the dead had been denied, which would argue that Jesus was not a divine Messiah. The well-known argument for this phenomenon was that Jesus’ disciples simply “came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.” (Matthew 28:13). With the disciples stealing the body of Jesus, they could execute a lie and claim that the resurrection had truly happened. To resolve this, Matthew purposefully mentions the “plan to give a large sum of money to the soldier” to convince them to cover up the fact of Jesus’ resurrection. (Matthew 28:12). This verse is powerful because it indicates that the tomb was truly empty. Instead of the Jews denying that the tomb was empty, they decided to come up with an explanation as to how this phenomenon occurred. By mentioning the argument that the disciples have stolen the body only confirmed the significant truth that the tomb was empty. Furthermore, Matthew resolves the theory that Jesus’ disciples have stolen the body, as Matthew expresses that Pilate gave an order to secure the burial of Jesus and sent a “guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can. So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.” (Matthew 27:65-66). Matthew illustrates that every possible precaution was taken in order to prevent an enactment of a resurrection. The large number of soldiers placed
He is known as the tax collector who turned disciple who writes to Jewish believers to emphasize the legitimacy of Jesus as the long awaited Jewish Messiah. According to Hindson and Elmer Matthew provides some of Jesus most prominent sermons, parables, and miracles, plus a record of important messages. He provides an eyewitness account of such significant events as the transfiguration, the triumph entry, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. He explains the character and nature of the ministry of John the Baptist as the last of the prophets. Matthew originally crafted the Gospel for a group of Christians who were already familiar with the Old Testament. Both church tradition (external evidence) and the contents of the Gospel itself (internal evidence) suggest that this Gospel was originally written for Jewish Christians who were given the responsibility to share its message with the world (Hindson and Elmer pg. 350). Matthew also gives special attention to the rejection of Jesus by the Jewish leaders. He exposes the religious blindness of his fellow countrymen, and he demonstrates Jesus superior understanding of the person of God, the intent of the law, and the proper application of biblical
“When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18). Lastly, to complete the prophecy of Jesus’s birth, Matthew reaffirms that “. . . Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea . . .” (Matthew 2.1). Matthew inserts these assertions to emphasize the credulity of Jesus’ tie with traditional Judaism.
Matthew is the first of four gospels in the New Testament. Matthew presents his story of Jesus, the demands of Christian discipline, and shares the news of the death and resurrection of Jesus. There are many questions in Matthew that can not be answered.The book of Matthew is a gospel that contains narrative history, genealogy, parables, sermons, and some prophetic oracles. The gospel of Matthew was originally written for a Jewish audience by a Jewish perspective. This is why Matthew is often referred to as "The Gospel for the Jews". Although Matthew was written for Jews, it does not include very much of the Jewish culture and tradition. Throughout the entire gospel of Matthew, it is very clear that the entire book is mainly incorporated with Jews. The book of Matthew ties in with the Old Testament several times, such as when they refer to Jesus as Messiah or King. The key word used in Matthew is "kingdom" and it is used 28 times. The reason Matthew was written was to reveal that Jesus was the messiah, the long of the Jews, and to conceive the Jews that Jesus Christ was indeed their long awaited messiah. The author of Matthew
In this paper, there will be research on the Gospel of Matthew from Daniel Harrington’s commentary “The Gospel of Matthew”, This paper will explain the teachings of the “6 Antithesis” in chapter 5 verses 21-48, and the main point on “Jesus came not to abolish but to “fulfill” the Law and Prophets (Harrington 90).” This paper will also have Daniel Harrington interpretations of the writing of the gospel of Matthew. I believe that Jesus had a reason for his teachings and how he went forward to preach them to the congregation.
Isaianic prophecy aside it is also clear that Matthew above the other three evangelists presents Jesus as the fulfilment of the law, a new Moses. The structure of the book into five sections is intended to help the Jewish readers identify Jesus as an antecedent of Moses. Jesus is according to some scholars a type of Moses bringing about a new exodus and a new Israel. More explicitly however, Matthew portrays Jesus as the only man to have fulfilled the law in its entirety as well as the messianic fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy through the many formula quotations (3:15; 5:17-48;12:17-21; 13:35; 21:5, 16, 42; 22:44; 23:39; 26:31; 27:9, 35, 46).
In the Gospel of Matthew, the focus on the Jewish genealogy of Jesus played a significant role in the birth story. To fully understand Jesus, it was imperative to first acknowledge who Jesus was within Jewish ancestry and his subsequent position as King of the Jews.
Matthew’s Gospel has been understood as Jewish-Christian in outlook. Matthew had a number of purposes for writing the Gospel. One was “to instruct and exhort members of his community.” He has two broad categories of material: narrative and discourse. Many scholars conclude “Matthew’s primary intent was to write a handbook for church leaders to assist them in preaching, teaching, worship, mission, and polemic.” In his Gospel, Matthew focused clearly on
Craig Blomberg, New Testament Scholar and Professor at Denver Seminary, provides an insightful commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. Blomberg investigates the text using a historical, literary, and theology analysis. The commentary begins with an introduction analyzing the following 7 topics regarding the entirety of the Matthean Gospel: (1) structure, (2) theology, (3) purpose and audience, (4) sources, (5) date, (6) author, (7) and historicity and genre. Blomberg, then, throughout the rest of the commentary, provides a verse by verse discourse on the text by breaking it down into 3 main sections: (I) Introduction to Jesus’ Ministry (1:1-4:16), (II) The Development of Jesus’ Ministry (4:17-16:20), and (III) The Climax of Jesus’ Ministry (16:21-28:20).
In the Gospel of Matthew, the infancy narrative contributes a large sum of background information of Jesus that contributes to the development of Matthew’s Christology. In order to analyze how Matthew develops the Christology, we have to cut the infancy narrative into sections. This paper will discuss background information of the writing of this Gospel, literary elements of Jesus’ miraculous conception that reinforce his Jewishness, how Magi and literary devices help to understand Matthew’s Christology, what important biblical hero the infancy narrative parallels, and what foreshadowing is caused from this infancy narrative. Comparatively, the use of divine intervention in dreams to fulfill prophecy has been a key focus of the infancy narrative in order to create an unusual birth narrative and develop the unique Christology that Matthew envisioned specifically for the Jewish Messiah.
The details of Jesus’ childhood were skipped by Matthew, most likely to show how significant his years of ministry were. The next important moment in the life of Jesus was his baptism. He went to the Jordan River where he met his cousin, John the Baptist, who was a prominent preacher of the time. John knew that Jesus was the Son of God, so he found it difficult to baptize him. He felt that Jesus should be the one baptizing him, but Jesus made it clear that it was his Father’s will that it should be done. As Jesus was baptized, the presence of God was felt among Jesus and the crowd. Matthew 3:16 tells of the heavens being opened up and the spirit of God descending upon him in the form of a dove. In Matthew 3:17, God said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” To anyone who is unfamiliar with Jesus, this is strong evidence of his powerful presence in the world to do the work of God.
important and who are wondering how Jesus fits into history of the Jewish people. This problems means that Matthew’s community was largely Jewish Christian and needed to be reassured that being a Christian did not separate then from the Jewish heritage.
Instead, the Jews seem to be more prominence with Matthew trying to portray Messiah since they consider Matthew the most Jewish out of the other four Gospels. Matthew started to unveil the genealogy of Jesus, and started with Abraham and started to trace the father and son relationships, it started with Isaac and it ended with the husband of Mary who Jesus was born and he is called Christ. Matthew portrays as the “New Moses” for the Israel people.
The Gospel According to Matthew is the first book of the New Testament in the Bible, and is a Gospel narrative. The narratives provided by the Gospels in the New Testament are here to provide us with descriptions of the life, death, and resurrection of our savior Jesus Christ, as well as to share His teachings. Like any other narrative, it is important to understand the historical and literary contexts surrounding the Gospel of Matthew, as well as the importance and significance of Matthew itself. As a Gospel, Matthew is here to present us with the narrative of Jesus Christ as our Messiah, as promised in the Old Testament Prophesy. While it is important to evaluate the extensive context surrounding the narrative of Matthew, the meaning behind the narrative can be found through relating it to the various events that are described in the other Gospels. By comparing the Gospels, it is easy to evaluate the underlying meaning and significance, within the context of the Gospels. Because the Gospels were written as narratives to provide us with information on the life and death of Jesus Christ, and all that happened in between, it is important to compare the different accounts described in the Gospels whenever possible. In doing so, it is possible to examine the Gospels within the appropriate context. With 4 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), it is important to compare them with one another in order to further evaluate the importance of Jesus Christ, as he is the
In previous chapters, the real identity of Jesus is unknown- the crowds wonder if he is the Son of David (Matt 12:23), the disciples previously said that he was “the Son of God (Matt 8:29, 14:33) and Jesus himself identifies himself as “the Son of Man” (Matt 10: 23; 2:8; 12:40) and even likening himself to a Prophet (Matt 13:57).
The Book of Matthew, he said, is the most complete account of Jesus’ life on earth, and of His message to the world. The professor says that Gospel of Matthew was written for the conversion of the Jews. He further stated that the writer of this book was obviously interested in the establishment and maintenance of the Church, and the coming of Christ. Hence, the presenter was quite adamant about his