1. An Overview of the Gospel By Timothy Thiem

2.  Date Written: 80-90  (give or take a decade)  Locale: Antioch region  Author  Traditional:  Matthew, a tax-collector, wrote either the Gospel or a collection of the Lord’s sayings in Aramaic.

3.  Author Detectable from Contents  A Greek-speaker, who knew Aramaic and/or Hebrew and was not an eyewitness of Jesus’ ministry, drew on Mark and a collection of the sayings of the Lord (Q), as well as other available traditions, oral or written. Probably a Jewish Christian.

4.  Purpose:  To instruct and encourage members of his community  To provide liturgical reading and sermon material  To offer a missionary address to outsiders of good will  As well as attacks on hostile critics and rivals  Compared to Mark, restores dignity of Apostles

5. 1. The Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7) 2. The Missionary Discourse (10) 3. The Parable Discourse (13) 4. The Community Discourse (18) 5. The Apocalyptic Judgment Discourse (23-25)

6.  Primary Intention:  To write a handbook for church leaders to assist them in preaching, teaching, worship, mission, and argument.

7. a) Introduction b) The Kingdom c) The Church d) Use of the Old Testament

8.  Focus:  Jesus as the Christ  The coming of the kingdom of God  Son of God-key occurrences  The Baptism  Peter’s Confession  The Transfiguration  The Trial  The Cross

9.  Kingdom of Heaven  Object of  Hope  Prayer  Proclamation  Unifies entire Gospel  The Five Discourses  Provides eschatological goal

10.  Kingdom of Heaven  God’s Promise of Salvation  Redeem humanity  Earth & Heaven  In Time & Eternity  Socially & Politically  Personally  Entails  Justice  Peace  Joy

11.  Other themes  Justice  Special emphasis in Matthew  Refers to the human response of obedience to the Father’s will  The Law  Abiding significance  Pharisees interpretation rejected in favor of Jesus’.  Jesus speaks mainly about  Ethical Precepts  The Ten Commandments  The “Great Commandments”  The love of God and neighbor

12.  Apostles  Peter at head  Share the authority of Christ himself  Prophets  Scribes  Sages  Humility is emphasized as a necessity for leadership  “Anyone can fall”  Prophets may be false  Church is mixture of saint and sinner until the end

13.  Worldwide mission  Apostolic Life  Missionary Life  God united with us through Jesus Christ  The new people of God  Outcasts of old Israel  Gentile converts

14.  10-12 Old Testament quotations  Formulated:  “This happened to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet”  Half occur in infancy story  Others relate to Jesus’  Public ministry  Entry into Jerusalem  Passion  Death

15.  Old Testament quotations  Reflect Matthew’s conviction that Jesus came “not to destroy but to fulfill” the promises of the past  Suggest Matthew’s conviction that one could find explanations of the puzzling or shocking aspects of Jesus’ story through the Old Testament  Death on cross  Rejection of his mission by Jewish leaders and their followers

16.  Brown, Raymond E., An Introduction to the New Testament (New York: DoubleDay, 1997).  Brown, R., eds, The New Jerome Bible Handbook (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1992).