Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people (the Jews) but is rejected by them and how, after his resurrection, he sends the disciples to the gentiles instead. Matthew wishes to emphasize that the Jewish tradition should not be lost in a church that was increasingly becoming gentile. The gospel reflects the struggles and conflicts between the evangelist's community and the other Jews, particularly with its sharp criticism of the scribes and Pharisees with the position that through their rejection of Christ, the Kingdom of God has been taken away from them and given instead to the church.Traditionally, the gospel has been attributed to the Apostle Matthew, who is described as a tax collector within the text. Most modern scholars hold the gospel was written anonymously by a male Jew in the last quarter of the first century who was familiar with technical legal aspects of scripture. The authorship has been variously dated between AD 40 and AD 85, with most modern scholars favoring the latter date of AD 85. A minority of scholars hold to a pre-70 date.