New Testament · Gospel · book 40 of 66 · 2 min read
The book of Matthew
The gospel written to show that nothing has been abandoned — organised around five blocks of teaching, in deliberate echo of the five books of Moses.
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”
At a glance
- Chapters
- 28
- Author
- Traditionally Matthew the tax collector; formally anonymous
- Written
- Probably 80s AD, possibly earlier
- Written for
- Jewish Christians arguing about continuity with Israel
- Themes
- fulfilment, the kingdom, teaching, the nations
What it is about
Matthew opens with a genealogy, which is a strange way to begin a biography and an obvious one if your argument is that this man belongs in Israel's story. It names four women, three of them foreign or scandalous, which is not an accident.
The book is structured around five long teaching blocks, of which the Sermon on the Mount is the first and by far the best known. That structure is widely read as an echo of the Pentateuch: a new Moses giving instruction from a mountain.
It quotes the Old Testament more than any other gospel and repeatedly says that something happened to fulfil what was written, which is the book's central move. It ends with the commission to go to all nations, which for a gospel this concerned with Israel is the point rather than a coda.
Where to start
Chapter 5. The Sermon on the Mount runs to the end of chapter 7 and is the densest three chapters in the New Testament.
The chapters worth knowing
- Matthew 5 — The Beatitudes and the start of the Sermon on the Mount, which runs to the end of chapter 7.
- Matthew 13 — Seven parables of the kingdom in one block, including the sower and the pearl.
- Matthew 25 — The sheep and the goats, where the criterion is what was done for the hungry and imprisoned.
What people get wrong about it
That the Sermon on the Mount is a set of ideals nobody could keep. Matthew presents it as instruction to be done — the block ends with a parable about hearing these words and acting on them or not.
From this book
- Matthew 6:33, and what "all these things" refers toSeek first the kingdom and all these things will be added is read as a formula for provision. The things are named three verses earlier, and the list is short.
- Matthew 11:28–30, and the yoke nobody quotesI will give you rest is the famous half. The next sentence hands you a yoke, which changes what kind of rest is being offered.
- Bible verses about forgivenessTen passages from the World English Bible with a note on each — including what forgiveness does not require, which is the part most of these pages leave out.
Questions
Why does Matthew start with a genealogy?
Because his argument is continuity: this man belongs in Israel's story. The list runs from Abraham through David, and it names four women whose inclusion would have surprised a first-century reader.
What is the Sermon on the Mount?
Matthew chapters 5 to 7, the first of the book's five teaching blocks. It contains the Beatitudes, the Lord's Prayer and the instruction about not worrying, and it ends by insisting the words are for doing.