The lack of clear evidence about the place of writing is disappointing. However, as is the case with the
uncertainty about authorship, there is plenty of material that we do know about this Gospel to keep us
occupied with serious study. We will have to do so without certainty about the place of writing.
WHY WAS MATTHEW WRITTEN?
The question of the kind of literature and the structure of Matthew has led to several understandings of the
Gospel‘s purpose. Many have argued that Matthew was written to supply lectionary readings about Y‘shua‘s
life and teachings for the worship services of Jewish followers of Christ. The carefully organised paragraphs
of Matthew and a pattern that fits the Jewish festivals provide the support for this view.
Also popular is the view that Matthew was written to provide a ―proceeding by question and answer‖ manual.
This way of describing Matthew as a discipleship teaching manual is based on the emphasis on teaching and
the large blocks of the teachings of Y‘shua.
The most common view is that Matthew was written to provide correctives to a church in danger of
loosing either its Jewishness or its connection to Christ. Problems with false prophets with how to view
the law and with hypocrisy are seen as the reason Matthew wrote. Matthew was written to a church that was
struggling to find and maintain its Hebraic roots‘ identity.
WHO WAS MATTHEW?
Matthew was the son of Alphæus, as we learn from Luke, who also calls him Levi (Luke 5:27-29). He calls
himself ―Matthew the publican‖, refusing to conceal in his own history the despised calling that had engaged
him before he entered the service of Christ. He was a Jew, but had so far lost the national feeling that he
was a collector of the hateful Roman tribute at Capernaum, and was sitting at the receipt of custom when
called by our Lord to leave all and to follow him. His history of the Saviour shows, however, that he was more
dominated by Jewish ideas than the writers of the other three Gospels.
Of the life of Matthew (after the death of the Saviour) we have no information; for no reliance can be placed
upon the whereabouts concerning his later history.
WAS MATTHEW WRITTEN MORE UPON A JEWISH VIEW OF MATTERS?
The Gospel of Matthew shows the methodical habits of a businessman, for of all the writers he is most
systematic in his arrangement. He gives by far the fullest accounts of the Sermon on the Mount, the charge
to the Apostles (Matt 10), the Discourse on Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the Arraignment of the
Scribes and Pharisees, of the Parables, and of the Prophecies concerning the Overthrow of the Jewish
State.
It has always been held that Matthew wrote especially for Jewish Christians. It is therefore supposed that he
wrote first either in the common language of Judea at that time (Aramaic) which was spoken by the Saviour
and his Apostles; or else in the pure Hebrew, which was then generally understood. Whether written
originally in Hebrew or not, it can hardly be doubted that Matthew wrote for Jewish readers. He takes for
granted a familiarity with Jewish customs, laws, and localities to a far greater extent than the other writers do.
The whole narrative precedes more upon a Jewish view of matters, and is concerned more to establish that
point, which to a Jewish convert would be most important; namely, that Y‘shua is the Messiah prophesied in
the Old Testament. Also the commencement of his genealogy from Abraham and David and the frequent
notice of the necessity of this or that event happening, because it was foretold by the prophets.
IS MATTHEW A JEWISH GOSPEL?
It is generally agreed that Matthew‘s Gospel is the most Jewish of all the Gospels. In Matthew, Y‘shua insists
that he has been ―sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel‖ (Matt 15:24), and commands his
disciples to ―go nowhere among the Gentiles... but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel‖ (10:5).
Matthew makes frequent and explicit appeal to the Old Testament as he tells the story of Y‘shua more than
the other evangelists. In the first two chapters alone, he quotes from the Jewish Scriptures on five occasions.
In the case of four of these quotations, he introduces them with the formula, ―This was to fulfil what had been
spoken through the prophet...‖ or a variation of that formula.