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Who wrote the Gospel of Matthew?
The Gospel of Matthew is anonymous: there is no internal, direct evidence for authorship. Sometime early in the second-century the Gospel of Matthew was designated as such. (This at least offers prima facie evidence that the apostle Matthew wrote this work.) As far as internal, indirect evidence is concerned, three data should be noted. It suggests that he was a Jew, because a gentile would tend not to be interested in such teaching tradition. It suggests that the author was a Jew, since a Jew would be concerned to understand Jesus as such. It is possible that this was an attempt at self-depreciating sort of self-identification on the part of the author.
For whom was the Gospel of Matthew written?
From the data covered when considering the question of the authorship of the Gospel of Matthew, who do you think the intended readers were?
Internal, indirect evidence for the intended readership of the Gospel of Matthew is the concern of the author to present the fulfillment nature of Jesus' ministry. This implies that the intended readers were Jews. In addition, much of the teaching material unique to the Gospel of Matthew is only fully understandable by and of interest to a Jewish readership:
That the author wrote for a Jewish readership is confirmed, if the external, direct evidence that Matthew wrote a gospel in Hebrew/Aramaic for Jews is correct and if this original text has some connection to the canonical Gospel of Matthew, written in Greek.
When was the Gospel of Matthew written?
There is no internal, direct evidence for the date of the composition of the Gospel of Matthew. There is, however, a piece ...