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 The author of the Gospel of Matthew is anonymous.  Matthew is most likely a Jewish-Christian scribe, who most likely knew Hebrew and Aramaic.  The most we can say is that the author might have known the apostle Matthew, or used a source of sayings originally written in Aramaic.

 The Gospel of Matthew was written in the 80s, perhaps A.D. 85.  If the Gospel of Matthew was written first then the Gospel of Mark must have a later date.  Many Scholars conclude that the Gospel of Matthew was written in Palestine or Syria due to its Jewish nature.

 The majority of scholars believe that Matthew was written in Greek for a predominately Greek speaking Jewish- Christian Church.  He focused mainly on the Old Testament, he even quoted it 62 times throughout the Gospel.  One key that it was directed at Jewish people was that he explains the Jewish culture in his own way, unlike other Evangelists in the Bible.

 He is portrayed as the one to fulfill the Old Testament.  Ex: 4:4 But He answered and said, It is written, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.”  In other words people should speak the word of God and live by it.

 It symbolizes Jesus as the messiah.  At the end of Gospel of Matthew the disciples are sent to foreign lands to spread the word of Jesus and what the has taught them.  The Gospel of Matthew symbolizes a divine man (Jesus).

 The importance of this Gospel is it was written for Jewish people.  The number 7 appears many times in the Gospel; 7 petitions in the Our Father, 7 parables in Matthew 13, 7 loaves and 7 baskets, a story about 7 spirits, the question about forgiving 7 times, and the question posed to Jesus about seven brothers marrying 7 women.