Author

The Gospel of Matthew is anonymous; the original composition would not have included the title “The Gospel According to Matthew.” Instead, the opening verse functioned as the title, although it is unclear whether 1:1 was intended to introduce the genealogy alone (1:1–17), the infancy narrative as a prologue (1:1–2:23), or the entire book. In Greek, the opening phrase could mean “a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah,” “an account of the origins of Jesus the Messiah,” or “the book of the beginning of Jesus the Messiah.”

After the four Gospels were collected as a group in the second century ad, titles were added to distinguish them from each other. Church tradition supplied these names, since the authors are not named in the texts. There are slight variations in the form of the Gospel titles in the Greek manuscripts, but the same names and the same Greek preposition “according to” (κατά, kata) are used consistently. The precise function of the preposition is unclear, however, and the named individual could be the work’s author or its primary source.

The text of Matthew provides few autobiographical insights about Matthew as a person or an implied author. The name “Matthew” occurs only twice in the narrative, and neither occurrence identifies him as the author. The first reference comes when Jesus calls Matthew the tax collector to follow Him (9:9). This passage is largely dependent on Mark 2:13–17, except Mark identifies the tax collector as “Levi, son of Alphaeus” (Mark 2:14; compare Luke 5:27). The second reference to “Matthew” (10:3) is in a list of the 12 disciples. The list in Matthew differs from parallel lists in Mark 3:16 and Luke 6:15 (compare Acts 1:13) in its identification of Matthew as “the tax collector” (Matt 10:3).

The earliest church tradition about the authorship of Matthew comes from Papias, bishop of Hierapolis (ca. ad 130), whom Eusebius quotes in the fourth century ad (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.39.16). Eusebius records Papias as having stated, “So then Matthew arranged (συνετάξατο, synetaxato) the oracles (τὰ λόγια, ta logia) in the Hebrew language and everyone interpreted them as he was able.” Papias’ statement raises several questions: What did he mean by “oracles”? Was he referring to an entire gospel written by Matthew, or to smaller literary components (e.g., episodes about Jesus that circulated orally in the early church; the teachings of Jesus; Old Testament passages that Jesus fulfilled). Also, was Papias referring to the text known as the Gospel of Matthew, or to some other document? Despite such questions, church tradition after Papias consistently asserted (1) that Matthew was written before Mark, Luke, and John, (2) that it was written in Hebrew, and (3) that it was written by the Apostle Matthew.

However, scholarship has found that the Gospel of Matthew does not seem to match up with these traditions. First, the text of Matthew appears to depend heavily on the Gospel of Mark, which suggests that Matthew could not have been written first (see below: “Sources”). Second, it is not certain that Matthew was composed in Hebrew. The Greek used in Matthew is of good quality and gives little evidence of the awkwardness caused by translation. In addition, the Old Testament quotations in Matthew come from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament), not from the Hebrew text (see below: “Use of the Old Testament”). Third, there are questions about how the Apostle Matthew became associated with the Gospel that bears his name. Why would Matthew, an eyewitness and apostle, rely so heavily on the account of Mark, who was neither? Did Matthew write a collection of Jesus’ teachings or oracles that was used as a primary source for this Gospel (in addition to Mark)? Was Matthew an early Christian leader whose followers later compiled information from him and other sources to form this Gospel? Was there an early tradition about Matthew composing a gospel account—which was assumed to be this text because of its references to Matthew (9:9; 10:3)? Apart from Papias’ remark, there are no traces of the Gospel’s author, and “Matthew” is the only name ever associated with it.