The Gospel of Matthew

There some old traditions about this Gospel. According to Papias of Heiropolis who was a bishop in the 2nd century, AD, this Gospel was written by Matthew, the tax collector who became one of Jesus' 12 disciples. There is also a tradition that it was the first of the Gospels to be written, and a belief among some Bible students (based on an ambiguous statement by Papias) that it was originally written in Hebrew.

None of these traditions are correct.

Papias was a kind of "literary detective" who did his best to figure out who the authors of the Gospels were. That's exactly what modern scholars do, but they have techniques and access to information that are better than Papias. They tell us that we don't know who the author of this Gospel was, but that we can be confident he was a Jewish Christian living in Syria and writing in 80-90 AD.

Matthew was probably the second of the Gospels to be written (Mark was the first.) It borrows a lot of stories from Mark, embellishing some and leaving others virtually unchanged. It also borrows a number of sayings of Jesus from some older source, which Bible scholars call the Q Source.

The author was not an eyewitness to the events of Jesus' life but a was faithful believer who told the story in a way that would help him reach the wider Jewish community in Syria. He wanted to show them that following Jesus was consistent with Jewish tradition, which is why he makes more allusions to Old Testament scriptures and stories than any of the other Gospels.

Matthew is probably the most quotable of the Gospels, and Jesus' pithy wisdom, surprising parables, warmth, and deep compassion are all very much on display in its verses.