EXPLORING CHRISTIANITY: New Testament writers; Matthew

EXPLORING CHRISTIANITY - EYEWITNESS

THE BIBLE
Can we trust a book written 2000 years ago?

EYEWITNESS
Did the writers of the New Testament get their picture of Jesus right?

GOD - MAN
Is Jesus really God?

RESURRECTION
Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

RELIGIONS
With so many religions, why Christianity?

SUFFERING
If there is a God, why is there so much suffering?

TRINITY
Understanding the Trinity.

SCIENCE
The complementary nature of Science & Christianity.

FORGIVENESS
What it is and why it matters?

GUIDANCE
How does God guide?

REPENTANCE
What it is and why you can't get to heaven without it.

BORN AGAIN
What does it mean to be converted and born again?

SAVING FAITH
The kind of faith that will get you to heaven

ASSURANCE
Can I know for sure that I am going to heaven?

TRUTH
What is truth and does it matter?

MORALITY
Does it matter how we live? A Christian view of morality.

THE CHURCH
God's vision for his family, the Church. A call to the churches of the new millennium.

PURPOSE
How can I find a great purpose for living?

IDENTITY
Who am I; Finding my true identity as a human being and as a child of God.

SELF-ESTEEM
How can I feel good about my self? The Christian basis for proper sel-esteem.

LIFE AFTER DEATHChristianity's Hope & Challenge.

THE CROSS
Why did Jesus Die? What the Bible says about the Cross.

Eyewitness Testimony in the New Testament
Matthew

Matthew's gospel has been called "the most important book in the world" (Renan), and "the most successful book ever written" (Goodspeed). It occupies the first place in all early witnesses to the text of the four Gospels and in all early lists of the canonical books of the New Testament. Its suitability for defending Christian beliefs against attacks from Jewish opponents, for instructing converts from paganism and for reading in Christian worship made it the favourite gospel for Christian writers of the second century, who quote it frequently. A work "so beautiful in design, so consistent in style, and so majestic in content" must rank in the forefront of world literature, whoever the author and whatever the date.

Matthew's gospel has been called "the most important book in the world"

Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis around AD 120-140, recorded that "Matthew composed the writings in the Hebrew dialect [Aramaic] and everyone translated them as he was able." Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons towards the close of the second century and described as a hearer of the apostle John, asserted that this original document was written by Matthew while Peter and Paul were founding the church in Rome (the mid-sixties). There is no other name that surfaces in the early church as a possible author.[2] It would be hard to explain how, within a period of 60 or 80 years, the name of the true author of such a significant book could have been lost and a fictitious name substituted. The earliest tradition cannot be lightly set aside.

[2] It is significant that no evidence exists that any of the four Gospels were ever known by any other name than than those by which we know them now. Hengel argues that, given that the Gospels must have acquired titles at a very early stage, the titles that survive in the earliest manuscript tradition (c. 200 onward) are the "original" titles).

However, there are some problems. There is no record of an earlier Aramaic version and the Greek of Matthew does not appear to be a translation from Aramaic. The writer apparently makes considerable use of Mark's gospel and appears to use another written source that is also common to Luke. An explanation could well be that whoever wrote the final gospel as we have it today made free use of Matthew's writings as well as using other written sources. After that, the original writings of Matthew in Aramaic went out of use and were lost. If this is so, then the authorship and date of the final document are unknown, though scholars are always prepared to make their guesses.

There are hints in the gospel itself that some of the material that is not common to Mark or Luke could well have come from the pen of Matthew, the apostle who travelled with Jesus for about two and a half years. Matthew was a tax collector in Galilee, probably in the service of Herod Antipas. Of all the apostles, he would probably have been the most qualified to leave written records. At least he was accustomed to recording monetary transactions and may even have known a form of shorthand which was in reasonably common use in the first century.

There is no direct claim to the use of eyewitness material found in Matthew's gospel, as is found in Luke and John. If the early tradition of Matthew's authorship of at least some of the material is correct, then eyewitness material is certainly there. The gospel is not lacking in vivid touches.

However, my suggestion that we do indeed have eyewitness reporting here would take a different line. Matthew is supremely a teaching gospel. The author arranges his material not chronologically, but in blocks of teaching. For instance, the so-called "Sermon on the Mount" occurs in chapters 5,6 and 7. I would ask any unbiased reader to read these three chapters through several times and to note the following: the remarkable moral challenge of this "sermon", its comprehensive nature, the personal claims made by its author, and the authority with which it is given. Also consider the courage it would take to proclaim such things. The character of the person that must lie behind such teaching fits perfectly with the character of Jesus that is presented to us consistently in the New Testament. Taking into account also the influence that this "sermon" has had in human history, I find the idea that it did not come from the mouth of Jesus incredible. Similar statements could be made about much else that is in Matthew's gospel.