2 Authorship

There is little in the Gospel itself to indicate the date of its composition. Some conservative scholars argue that it was written before the destruction of Jerusalem (Matt. 24), probably between the years A.D. 60 and 65, but others would date it in the 70s, even as late as A.D. 85. In 1994, Carsten Peter ThiedeCarsten Peter Thiede is a German biblical scholar from the 20th century, best known for his textual criticism of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the hopeful identification of the 7Q5 parchment as a fragment of the Gospel of Mark''. Thiede was an advocate claimed evidence redating the Magdalen papyrusThe Magdalen" papyrus was purchased in Luxor, Egypt in 1901 by Rev Charles B. Huleatt (1863-1908), who identified the Greek fragments as portions of the Gospel of Matthew and presented them to Magdalen College, Oxford, (accession number P64) whence they h to before A.D. 70, and because "Jesus" was replaced by "ΚΣ" (first and last letters of "Kyrios"—Lord), he claimed evidence of belief in Jesus' divinity during the lifetime of the apostles. This claim is not widely accepted, with most dating the Magdalen papyrus to around A.D. 200.

The authorship of this book is traditionally ascribed to St. MatthewMatthew the Evangelist "Gift of the LORD", Standard Hebrew and Tiberian Hebrew Mattay Septuagint Greek Matthaios is traditionally believed to be the author of the Gospel of Matthew. He was the son of Alphaeus, and was a publican or tax-collector at Capern, a tax-collector who became an apostleAlternate meaning: See Apostle (Mormonism The Christian Apostles were Jewish men who were "sent forth" (as indicated by the Greek word apostolos , by Jesus to preach Christianity to both Jews and Gentiles, across the world. He called unto him his disciple of Jesus Christ. However, most modern scholars are content to let it remain anonymous.

Like the authors of the other Gospels, the author wrote this book according to his own plans and aims and from his own point of view, while at the same time borrowing from other sources. According to the two-source hypothesisThe Two-Source Hypothesis is the most commonly accepted solution to the synoptic problem among biblical scholars, which posits that there are two sources to Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of Luke: the Gospel of Mark and a lost, hypothetical sayings collecti (the most commonly accepted solution to the synoptic problemThe Synoptic Problem concerns the literary relationship between and among the first three canonical gospels (the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke), known as the synoptic gospels''. Specifically, a solution to the Synoptic Problem must account for the si), Matthew borrowed both from MarkThe Gospel of Mark is the second in the most usual sequence of printing of the New Testament Gospels. The commonly accepted range of dates for the text in its existing form are ca. AD 65, the traditional date for the death of Peter, to ca. AD 80, a termin and a hypothetical sayings collection, known by scholars as Q (for the German Quelle, meaning "source").

There is much controversy as to the language in which this Gospel was written. Many hold, in accordance with tradition, that it was originally written in Hebrew or the Aramaic vernacular of Palestine, and afterwards translated into Greek, either by Matthew himself or by some person unknown. Despite this theory being earnestly maintained by able critics, there is little ground for adopting it. This Gospel in Greek was received as being of authority in the Church from the first. There is nothing in the book to show that it is a translation. Though Matthew wrote mainly for the Jews, they were everywhere familiar with the Greek language. The same reasons which would have suggested the necessity of a translation into Greek would have led the evangelist to originally write in Greek. Finally, this Gospel has never been found in any other form than that in which we now possess it.

The relation of the Gospels to each other is the subject of some debate. Most modern scholars believe that Matthew borrowed from Mark and Q, but some scholars believe that Matthew was written first and that Mark borrowed from Matthew. Another view was that Matthew was written first in Aramaic, but was translated after Mark into Greek, and the translator used phrases from Mark in it. Out of a total of 1071 verses, Matthew has 387 in common with Mark and Luke, 130 with Mark, 184 with Luke; only 387 being peculiar to itself.

3 Lost Aramaic versions of Matthew

Until the end of the 4th century there were reportedly various versions of the Gospel of Matthew in Aramaic. None of these has survived to the present day. Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. 3.39) quotes the lost treatise of Papias as stating: "Matthew put together the logia ["sayings"] in the Hebrew [sic] language, and each one interpreted them as best he could." Papias appears to be referring to a "sayings" gospel in the genre of the Gospel of Thomas rather than to a narrative akin to Matthew. But Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. 3.1.1) says: "Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome and laying the foundations of the church." Irenaeus had read Papias, and it is most likely that Irenaeus too was guided by the statement he found there. Most critical scholars, based on analysis of the language of Matthew, conclude that the book we have today was written originally in Greek and is not a translation from Aramaic, so that the document referred to by Papias would have a less than direct relationship to the current Gospel.

Conventional titles for such Aramaic versions of Matthew include the Gospel of the Hebrews— not to be confused with the late 1st century Book of Hebrews— which in the fragmentary quotes that survive, does not seem to rely upon canonic Matthew; the Gospel of the Ebionites (see Ebionites), and the Gospel of the Nazoreans are longer than canonic Matthew.

4 See also

• Sermon on the Mount

5 External links

• A textual commentary on the Gospel of Matthew Detailed textcritical discussion of the 300 most important variants of the Greek text (PDF, 438 pages)
• Read Matthew at Bible Gateway
• Read Matthew (KJV) at WikiSource
• Early christian Writings website: texts and introductions

Matthew

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