The first reference to a text written by the disciple Matthew comes from Papias (bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor during the first half of the second century) around 120-130 AD. Papias discusses the origin of the gospel of Mark, and further remarks that “Matthew composed the logia in the Hebrew tongue and each one interpreted them as he was able”. According to Ehrman this is not a reference to the gospel we have since the Gospel of Matthew was originally written in Greek and not Hebrew. The interpretation of the above quote from Papias depends on the meaning of the term logia. The term literally means “oracles”, but the intended meaning by Papias has been controversial. Traditionally this was taken as a reference to the gospel according to Matthew. Another view uses the fact that the early Church fathers also used “oracles” to refer to the words of the Old Testament, to argue that Matthew composed a list of prophesies or prooftexts from OT. Others say that this refers to a list of saying of Jesus (perhaps Q or something like Q). Adopting the latter translation, Ehrman argues that Papias is not referring to our Matthew since it contains much more than sayings.

The Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke (known as Synoptic Gospels) include many of the same episodes, often in the same sequence, and often even in the same wording. The relationship of Matthew to the Gospels of Mark and Luke is an open question known as the synoptic problem. Out of a total of 1,071 verses, Matthew has 387 in common with Mark and the Gospel of Luke, 130 with Mark alone, 184 with Luke alone; only 370 being unique to itself. The great amount of overlap in sentence structure and word choice of the three Gospels has been explained by arguing that the Gospel writers either copied from each other, or they all copied from another common source.

Whatever the case the Gospel of Matthew is also unique in a few ways. There is a pervasive Jewish-Christian dimension in the Gospel of Matthew, suggesting that the author was of Jewish-Christian background and was writing for Christians of similar background: Christ’s fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies are emphasized. Jesus is represented as a new lawgiver whose miracles are a confirmation of his divine mission. Some scholars have suggested that Papias’ statement about Matthew’s collection of Jesus’ sayings is a reference to an earlier version of the Gospel in Aramaic that was used by the author of the Gospel of Matthew.

According to W. R. F. Browning (who adopts the more common view that the author of Matthew was a Jewish-Christian), due to author’s rabbinical background, he avoids using the holy word God in the expression “Kingdom of God”, and instead prefers the term “Kingdom of heaven”. He also divides his work into great blocks each ending with the phrase: “When Jesus had finished these sayings …” This narrative framework echoes that of the Hexateuch “the birth narratives/Genesis; the baptism in the Jordon and Jesus’ temptations/Exodus; healing of a leper and an untouchable woman/Leviticus; callings of disciples/Numbers; the Passion and Death of Jesus/Deuteronomy; the Resurrection/Joshua (the entry into promised land)”.

Much of the teaching material unique to the Gospel of Matthew is only fully understandable by and of interest to a Jewish readership:
· Matt 5:17-20: Sayings relating to Jesus’ view of the Law in relation to the Kingdom of Heaven
· Matt 5:33-37: Jesus’ teaching about the taking of oaths
· Matt 6:1-4: Jesus’ teaching about almsgiving
· Matt 6:16-18: Jesus’ teaching about fasting
· Matt 22:1-14: Jesus’ parable speaking to Israel’s status upon its rejection of Jesus
· Matt 23: An extended version of Jesus’ evaluation of the Pharisees.
In Matthew, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “think not that I’ve come to destroy the law and the prophets – I’ve come not to destroy them but to fulfill them.” In Matthew, Jesus is a proponent of Torah piety, just like the Pharisees
Since the Gospel was translated, had Jewish characteristics, used prophesies of the Old Testament, refers to Jewish law on the one side, while at the same time copies from the other Gospels, some say as much as 90% of Mark. This seems to suggest, that there is a copy in Hebrew written and translated, however, the other Gospels also found there way into the Gospel of Matthew. If it is true that the Gospel of Matthew is “sayings” from the disciple of Jesus known as Matthew. The title (Gospel of Matthew) may come out of the Gospel of its link and spiritual relationship with the disciple of Jesus. This seems particularly true to the Muslim mind since the Gospel of Matthew is the only Gospel that refers to Jesus’ miraculous birth (Since The Quran also affirms this).

Then it would be interesting to see what other aspects of this Gospel our unique to it. For example this Gospel emphasizes the Christ aspect of Jesus, not a divine aspect of Jesus, which again is something Muslims would agree with.

The way Matthew then tells the story of Jesus draws on a lot of symbols from Jewish tradition that really convey a picture of Jesus. Jesus goes up on to a mountain to teach and their talks about the law. He looks like Moses. Jesus delivers five different sermons of this sort, just like the five books of Torah. There are a lot of elements in this story that resemble Moses’ traditions, from the killing of the babies, in the birth narrative, to the Sermon on the Mount, to even to the way that Jesus dies, just like some of the prophets died, as martyrs to their prophetic calling. His main concern is to present Jesus as a teacher even greater than Moses. Accordingly, Matthew uses his sources to create a somewhat different narrative in which Jesus repeated instructs the people. One of the intriguing characteristics of this address is Jesus’ repetition of the words, “you have heard it said . . . But I say to you.”

Matthew’s community subscribed to the Law, but they saw Jesus — not the Pharisees– as the rightful interpreter of the Law. This conviction tended to undermine the legitimacy and authority of the Pharisees who criticized the followers of Jesus. Now Matthew makes the Pharisees the “hypocrites”: “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you are like white washed tombs which on the outside look beautiful but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and all kinds of filth.” (MATT 23:27)

As a Muslim, I would suggest, we study the Gospel of Matthew very careful, since it does seem to have links to the original community and language. It seems to suggest that the Jesus of Matthew and the Jesus of Quran are very similar.

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