The Gospel According to St. Matthew
Today, 21st September 2012, is the feast of St. Matthew. In honour of one of my favourite Evangelists (I have four favourites all together), I thought I would post some detail about the Gospel he authored, including my opinion about its origins, audience, characteristics and its context within the Synoptic problem.
Before I began studying, I thought I knew that all the Gospels were written by people other than Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, hundreds of years after Jesus' death and Resurrection. It was inspiring to embark on a detailed study of all the sources which led me to a position where I now am sure that this is not the case. Matthew’s Gospel, the first book of the New Testament, is held by the Church’s tradition (dating from the second century) to be the first of the Gospels:
"...let us remember that the tradition of the ancient Church agrees in attributing to Matthew the paternity of the First Gospel. This had already begun with Bishop Papias of Hierapolis in Frisia, in…
Before I began studying, I thought I knew that all the Gospels were written by people other than Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, hundreds of years after Jesus' death and Resurrection. It was inspiring to embark on a detailed study of all the sources which led me to a position where I now am sure that this is not the case. Matthew’s Gospel, the first book of the New Testament, is held by the Church’s tradition (dating from the second century) to be the first of the Gospels:
"...let us remember that the tradition of the ancient Church agrees in attributing to Matthew the paternity of the First Gospel. This had already begun with Bishop Papias of Hierapolis in Frisia, in…