Matthew
About Matthew's Gospel
A man called Matthew wrote this book at some time between the years AD 59 and AD 70. He was also called Levi. Matthew was a Jew. His job was to take taxes from people. Then he became a disciple of Jesus. Matthew wrote the book in the Greek language. He wrote it for Jews who understood Greek. In his book, Matthew wrote many things about the messages that God's prophets had written a long time ago. He showed that they had now become true. The Jews who read Matthew's book would know all about these things.
Matthew tells us the good news about the kingdom of God. He tells us about the birth of Jesus and how he lived in Israel. He tells us how Jesus died. He tells us how he rose up after death and he went to live with God again. He also tells us why Jesus came to live in the world. Matthew explains the things that Jesus taught the people. He tells us about many things that Jesus did.
The Jews were waiting for God to send a special person to them. They called this person the Messiah. It means the person whom God had chosen to be king. ‘Christ’ in the Greek language is the same as ‘Messiah’ in the Hebrew language.
The Gospel of Matthew is in eight parts:
1. What happened when Jesus was born (Matthew 1:1-2:23).2. What happened when Jesus began his work (Matthew 3:1-4:11).3. What happened when Jesus was working in Galilee (Matthew 4:12-14:12).4. What happened when Jesus went to other places in the north of Israel (Matthew 14:13-17:21).5. What happened when Jesus returned to Galilee (Matthew 17:22-18:35).6. What happened when Jesus taught the people in Judea and Perea (Matthew 19:1-20:34).7. What happened in the city of Jerusalem in the last week of Jesus' life (Matthew 21:1-27:66).8. People see Jesus alive again after he died (Matthew 28:1-20).(Galilee, Judea and Perea were regions of the country of Israel.)