Swindoll's Living Insights Commentary Matthew 1a - Flipbook - Page 16
THE BOOK OF MATTHEW
doing their job to keep taxpayers honest, or
a matter-of-fact customs officer reviewing
QUICK FACTS ON MATTHEW
goods to make sure nobody exceeds d
uty-
When was it written? Around
free limits. Matthew was not some hourly
ad 65
cashier collecting coins for local officials.
Where was it written? Possibly
Antioch
The Greek term telōnēs [5057], translated
Who wrote it? Matthew (also
“tax collector,” is used quite negatively
called Levi), son of Alphaeus
in the New Testament—often associated
Why was it written? To demonwith such terms as “sinners” and “prostistrate to Jewish readers that
Jesus is the King, Israel’s
tutes.”2 Involved in the collection of money
long-awaited Messiah
for an oppressive government, tax collectors were regarded as unpatriotic . . . and
they were known to engage in extortion
for personal gain.3 If we picture a low-ranking mobster fleecing honest,
hardworking citizens for a local cartel, we probably wouldn’t be far from
the truth. Michael Green notes that tax collectors, known in Latin as publicani, “were much hated as social pariahs, and the Jews classed them with
murderers. They were not even tolerated in the synagogues.”4
Who else but God would choose a hated, greedy tax collector not
only to become one of Jesus’ twelve disciples but also to pen what
would become the first book of the New Testament canon? What a surprising example of the mercy and grace of God! When the presumably
dishonest tax collector named Levi (Matthew) met the Lord Jesus and
recognized Him as the l ong-awaited King of Israel, everything changed.
His whole life would now be about proclaiming the Messiah to his fellow Jews—both through his living testimony and through his written
words. I love what one man writes about Matthew: “When Jesus called
Matthew, as he sat in the office where he collected the customs duty,
Matthew rose up and followed him and left everything behind him except one thing—his pen.”5
MATTHEW AMONG THE FOUR GOSPELS
God chose to reveal the life, works, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ through four written a
ccounts—those of Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John. Why four Gospels? Why not just one? Or seven?
Because God has seen fit to reveal Himself in this way. His Spirit has
told us the pivotal story of Jesus, the G
od-man, through the eyes of
four unique writers with four distinct but complementary perspectives.
The following chart summarizes these four Gospels, demonstrating the
various contributions of their writers.
6