Key Observation: The Gospel of Matthew’s distinctive portrait of Jesus focuses on Jesus as God’s Wisdom come in person (Immanuel) and as a wise teacher.

The Gospel of Matthew was the most popular of the four Gospels in the first few centuries of Christianity. It was written for Jewish Christians who were familiar with the Old Testament and especially with Jewish Wisdom Literature (for example, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach). The First Evangelist seeks to present Jesus as both a wise man and as God’s wisdom incarnate, God come in person to his people, Immanuel (which means “God with us”). Thus, we have six blocks of teaching in this Gospel, beginning with Matthew 5–7, which depict Jesus as one even greater than Moses or Solomon, whose teaching is the definitive revelation of God’s will for his people. Not surprisingly, it was this Gospel that was used repeatedly in the early church for discipling new Christians, teaching them what they should believe, how they should behave, and how to practice their faith in terms of prayer, fasting and feasting, almsgiving, worship, and much more.

This Gospel was written in the form of an ancient biography, which did not have the same form as modern biographies. For one thing, sheer limitations of length meant that it had to be much more selective in the material it included. The ancients believed that a person was born with a certain personality and that while it was revealed over time, it was not developed over time. Thus, there was no need to focus on someone’s youth or growth into adulthood. In short, it was an adult-oriented culture.

Just as the origins of a person were believed to reveal much about who a person was, so also it was believed that how a person died most revealed their character. In the case of Jesus, this was problematic since he died in the most shameful way imaginable in antiquity—on a Roman cross. It is for this reason that the Gospel writers spend about one-third of their total account on the last week of Jesus’ life. This shocking end to the life of a person who had been admired by many for his teaching and miracles had to be explained in detail, and for Jewish Christians, it had to be explained in terms of scripture, showing that it was part of God’s plan all along.

Scholars are divided over whether Matthew was a source for this Gospel (perhaps its unique material, perhaps also its collection of six blocks of teaching material) or the final author/editor. In either case, the Gospel reflects a person like Matthew the tax collector, who indeed would have been literate and presumably able to organize source material quite readily.

The structure of the Gospel, which, broadly speaking, follows a chronological outline (birth, baptism, temptation and ministry, climactic final week of life, resurrection, and appearances to disciples), also alternates between the actions of Jesus and the teachings of Jesus. In other words, the Evangelist himself has organized the material in this way within the larger framework of the ministry of Jesus. This was not unusual in an ancient biography. Following a strict chronology of events and activities was not required. The main thing was to be selective and include that material that best revealed the character of the person about whom the biography was written.

Questions for Reflection

1. What features of Matthew’s Gospel made it popular from the early church until today?
2. Why do all the Gospel writers, and Matthew in particular, spend so little time on Jesus’ birth and early life and focus so heavily on his final days?

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