The Book of Matthew

Mike Johnson

The book of Matthew is probably the best known of all of the gospel accounts.  When people want to find the teaching of Jesus on any Bible subject, they will often start by turning to this book.  This popularity may be due to it being the first book of the New Testament. Still, another reason may be that the teaching of Matthew is often carefully grouped together and thus easier to find.  Whatever the case, Matthew is a very popular and widely read book of the Bible.

The author of the book is, of course, Matthew.  We do not know a great deal about him, but we do know he was an apostle.  His name appears in all of the lists of the apostles.  Matthew was, no doubt, a Jew.  He was also known by the name Levi, and he was a publican (tax collector) when Jesus called him.   Matthew writes in a very systematic manner, which might characterize the writing style of a person doing the work of collecting taxes.

The book of Matthew says a lot about the king and the kingdom of heaven.  It presents clear proof of the nature of Christ’s teaching and offers a refutation of the objections of unbelieving Jews.

Matthew is the only gospel account in which the word “church” appears.  It has many great addresses such as “The Sermon on the Mount” (CHS. 5-7), and it has the denunciations of the scribes and Pharisees (CH. 23).  It also has recorded in it 15 parables and 20 miracles.

Have you read a good book lately?  Why not read the book of Matthew?  It tells us about the life of our Savior.