Matthew

What Matthew is about

Matthew opens with a genealogy, which is an odd way to begin a book unless you know what it is claiming. It traces Jesus back to David and to Abraham, and it names four women in a list that would ordinarily have none — Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, all with complicated stories, three of them outsiders. Before a single event is narrated, Matthew has told you that this is Israel’s promised king and that his family tree includes people you would not expect.

The Gospel is built around five blocks of teaching, each ending with a variation of when Jesus had finished these sayings. The first is the Sermon on the Mount — the Beatitudes, salt and light, the Lord’s Prayer, do not be anxious, the narrow gate — and it is the most concentrated body of Jesus’ teaching anywhere. The others cover mission, the kingdom in parables, life together in the church, and the end of the age. Many readers have noticed the parallel with the five books of Moses, and Matthew appears to intend it.

Matthew quotes the Old Testament constantly, with a recurring formula: this took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet. His concern throughout is continuity. Jesus does not arrive as an interruption of Israel’s story but as its point.

The book ends on a mountain in Galilee with the commission that sent the church out — make disciples of all nations — and a promise: I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Where it sits in the story

Matthew stands first in the New Testament, and its position is well chosen: it is the bridge from Malachi’s waiting to the Gospels’ arrival. It shares much of its material with Mark and Luke — the three are called the Synoptics, seen together — while pursuing its own emphases.

How to read it

Read it straight through once before comparing it to the others. Then read the Sermon on the Mount slowly, a paragraph at a time; it has more in it than any single reading will hold, and it has shaped Christian ethics more than any other passage in scripture.