Writer: Matthew

4. What is known of the writer of the first Gospel?

⁴ The first to put the good news about the Christ into writing was Matthew. His name is probably a shortened form of the Hebrew “Mattithiah,” meaning “Gift of Jehovah.” He was one of the 12 apostles chosen by Jesus. During the time the Master traveled throughout the land of Palestine preaching and teaching about God’s Kingdom, Matthew had a close, intimate relationship with him. Before becoming a disciple of Jesus, Matthew was a tax collector, an occupation the Jews thoroughly loathed, since it was a constant reminder to them that they were not free but under the domination of imperial Rome. Matthew was otherwise known as Levi and was the son of Alphaeus. He readily responded to Jesus’ invitation to follow him.​—Matt. 9:9; Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27-32.

5. How is Matthew established as the writer of the first Gospel?

⁵ While the Gospel credited to Matthew does not name him as the writer, the overwhelming testimony of early church historians stamps him as such. Perhaps no ancient book has its writer more clearly and unanimously established than the book of Matthew. From as far back as Papias of Hierapolis (early second century C.E.) onward, we have a line of early witnesses to the fact that Matthew wrote this Gospel and that it is an authentic part of the Word of God. McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia states: “Passages from Matthew are quoted by Justin Martyr, by the author of the letter to Diognetus (see in Otto’s Justin Martyr, vol. ii), by Hegesippus, Irenæus, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement, Tertullian, and Origen. It is not merely from the matter, but the manner of the quotations, from the calm appeal as to a settled authority, from the absence of all hints of doubt, that we regard it as proved that the book we possess had not been the subject of any sudden change.”a The fact that Matthew was an apostle and, as such, had God’s spirit upon him assures that what he wrote would be a faithful record.

6, 7. (a) When and in what language was Matthew’s Gospel first written? (b) What indicates it was written primarily for the Jews? (c) How many times does the New World Translation contain the name Jehovah in this Gospel, and why?

⁶ Matthew wrote his account in Palestine. The exact year is not known, but subscriptions at the end of some manuscripts (all later than the tenth century C.E.) say that it was 41 C.E. There is evidence to indicate that Matthew originally wrote his Gospel in the popular Hebrew of the time and later translated it into Greek. In his work De viris inlustribus (Concerning Illustrious Men), chapter III, Jerome says: “Matthew, who is also Levi, and who from a publican came to be an apostle, first of all composed a Gospel of Christ in Judaea in the Hebrew language and characters for the benefit of those of the circumcision who had believed.”b Jerome adds that the Hebrew text of this Gospel was preserved in his day (fourth and fifth centuries C.E.) in the library that Pamphilus had collected in Caesarea.

⁷ Early in the third century, Origen, in discussing the Gospels, is quoted by Eusebius as saying that the “first was written . . . according to Matthew, . . . who published it for those who from Judaism came to believe, composed as it was in the Hebrew language.”c That it was written primarily with the Jews in mind is indicated by its genealogy, which shows Jesus’ legal descent starting from Abraham, and by its many references to the Hebrew Scriptures, showing that they pointed forward to the coming Messiah.