Matthew is the first of four books called gospels (“good news”) that start the New Testament. These gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, tell the story of the life of Jesus, the central figure of all 27 New Testament books. The stories and teachings of Jesus first circulated orally, which make modern readers, with limited memorization skills, wonder how accurate the disciples were in what they remembered. We fail to realize that Jewish disciples were expected to memorize enormous amounts of information passed to them by the rabbi they sat under. These four accounts were probably written down within one or two generations after Jesus’ lifetime.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic gospels, a term meaning “seeing together,” a reference to their similarities. They share related language, stories, and order of presentation. Critics are not sure of how this came about. Many believe Mark was the original source used by the other two, some say they all used a common oral source, others think they depended on a missing early gospel, others argue for a mutual dependence, some say there was a mutual dependence, while still others are convinced Matthew was the original source.

Matthew, for whom the book is named, was one of Jesus’ disciples, but the gospel itself doesn’t say who the author was. It appears to be written for  Jews for several reasons. Jewish laws and customs are not explained, there are many quotations from the Old Testament, and there are a great deal of references to messianic claims (“king” and “kingdom of heaven” are used throughout the book). The book is not as concerned with presenting Jesus chronologically; instead, it is arranged around five great discourses of Jesus. There is more space devoted to the teachings of Jesus than in any other gospel. Matthew has been called the “teacher’s gospel”—it was the most widely used gospel in the early church because much of the book’s collected sayings and stories had to do with church teachings. In fact, Matthew is the only gospel to use the word “church.” With its details of his teachings, Matthew makes a good introduction to the life of Jesus.