The New Testament in the Bible begins with the Gospel of Matthew. This apparently had the second book of the Bible, Mark, at his disposal: in many parts the two writings correspond . Marcus is the older of the two. Both, like the other books of the New Testament, were originally written in Greek. The fact that Matthew has come to the fore in the Christian tradition is undoubtedly due to the fact that it is most clearly in line with what has gone before: the Old Testament. Matthew discusses, among other things, Jesus’ actions, his suffering and resurrection.
First but not the oldest book
Matthew is the first book of the Bible section called the New Testament. It is around 70 AD. arise after rather than before that year. The Gospel book is the first but not the oldest; that’s Marcus. It also has many similarities with Mark, just as it does with the third book of the New Testament: Luke. Because of these similarities in style and sometimes literally in word usage, the three are also called the synoptic Gospels; due to literally the same word usage). The fourth book, John, is different from the first three; it is therefore not included in the aforementioned synopsis.
Sources
So Mark is a source for Matthew. In addition, a second source has been used, the so-called Q source (Q from the German Quelle ), also known as a logia source. Given the literal similarity, the sources must have been available to the evangelist in writing.
There is also special material in Matthew, that is, material that does not appear in Mark and Luke. It is therefore possible that Matthew had a third source available or that he drew from oral tradition. In any case, the Gospels owe their existence to the first church where they soon began to collect handed down words and histories. This is to be used for worship and catechesis.
Matthew the writer?
Whether Matthew himself was the writer or the collector and editor is controversial in Biblical scholarship.
Layout of the book
Matthew can be divided into four main parts. The beginning (chapters 1 to 4: 11), where Jesus’ birth, baptism and temptation are discussed. The second part concerns His actions in Galilee. Ch. 4: 12 to 13: 58 is about the calling of the first disciples, summarizes the teaching of Messiah Jesus, known as the Sermon on the Mount, describes Him as a miracle worker and is about unbelief and enmity of the Jews. There are also seven parables about the kingdom of Heaven in this passage.
Chapters 14:1 to 20:34 are about Jesus’ wanderings. Among other things, Peter’s confession is discussed, as well as announcements of the Passion, the glorification of Jesus, parables including that of the lost sheep and the healing of two blind men at Jericho.
The fourth part (21:1 to 28:20) is about Jesus’ last days in Jerusalem: including the entry into Jerusalem and the cleansing of the temple, Jesus’ speech about the last things and the Last Supper. Finally: the history of His suffering, death and resurrection and His appearances after His death.
Contents
What is the content of Matthew, in the sense of: what is it about, what is the message? There may be different opinions about this. Christians place different emphasis on each other. In the Bible with Marginal Notes, published in the 1960s, Dr. WS van Leeuwen (who provided the comments on Matthew) describes the characteristic of Matthew (in which he does not distinguish himself from the other evangelists) as follows: He joyfully preaches the grace of the Father who moves towards the world and gives His Child to in death and raises Him up to establish a completely healthy community with people.
Yet this rabbinically trained evangelist (that is, Matthew) has brought forward special aspects. In summary, this concerns the following: First, he has shown the connection with the Old Testament. Secondly, he strongly advanced the King’s line. That King is different from what the Jews expected (He is not concerned with political salvation but with spiritual salvation). Third, Matthew depicted the conflict with the religious leaders, especially the Pharisees, more broadly and deeply than the other evangelists. Fourth, he showed in proverbs and parables that Israel was allowed to come (was allowed to participate in a feast, for example) but did not want to and rejected the Son (Jesus) and was therefore rejected himself. Fifth, he has shown that what God promised is being carried out, and even more than that. Sixth, he paid attention to the church, the true Israel. No cult, no priests set the tone, but service; the most is that which serves the most. The calling of the church is to all nations, Israel first.