Matthew 5: 38-42

Christianity was born and flourished in an empire where the common language was Latin and Greek. Two important people like Paul and Constantine further influenced and were a major part of the development of Christianity. The history of the Jews leading up to the time of Jesus had a major impact on the development of Christianity. “When Christianity was clearly identified as a distant religion, the new religion was considered by its members to be the fulfillment of Judaism rather than a new religion.” “Since Jesus was a Jew and preached to the Jews, Christianity was closely linked to Judaism.” The development of Christianity was due to several historical, political, and social circumstances.

During Christianity’s beginning in the Apostolic/Ante-Nicene Period, the most obvious changes took place while it also maintained some aspects of its Jewish heritage. Of course the first change away from Christianity’s Jewish past was the converting of Jesus’s followers to the Christian faith. This happened abruptly after Jesus’s death in 30A.D. Jesus’s teachings were accepted by many Jews and even some Gentiles, which led to

Matthew’s Gospel has been understood as Jewish-Christian in outlook. Matthew had a number of purposes for writing the Gospel. One was “to instruct and exhort members of his community.” He has two broad categories of material: narrative and discourse. Many scholars conclude “Matthew’s primary intent was to write a handbook for church leaders to assist them in preaching, teaching, worship, mission, and polemic.” In his Gospel, Matthew focused clearly on

The Gospel of Matthew was written in various cultures’ books, it would be introduced in a different approach depending on the time period and influences from the cultures tradition. Saint Matthew was an evangelist that was one of the four books that tells the story of Jesus. The early Book of

When studying the Gospel of Matthew, Scholars have dated the book to be written sometime between the ages of 80 and 90 CE. Scholars have also estimated the book to have been written somewhere outside of Palestine, potentially in Antioch, Syria. Antioch was a very wealthy and educated area with a large Jewish community (Study Bible, 1665-1667). From what evidence permits, it’s estimated that the whole purpose of the gospel was meant as a means of correcting the Gospel of Mark by emphasizing the Jewishness of Jesus as the glorious Messiah of the Jews. There is also a stress to all the followers

The Gospel according to Matthew is the first book in the New Testament, and also serves as a bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The gospel tells us of Jesus and his teachings. It is believed that the Gospel originated with Matthew, one of Jesus' disciples, and it circulated anonymously (Harris 149). The message in this gospel was compiled to minister to a Jewish and Jewish-Christian community when tensions between early Christians and postwar Jewish leaders aggravated bitter controversy. The Gospel of Matthew was written as an encouragement to the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians and Gentiles who were, at least partly, Torah observant during the 80s C.E. probably at Antioch in Syria

important and who are wondering how Jesus fits into history of the Jewish people. This problems means that Matthew’s community was largely Jewish Christian and needed to be reassured that being a Christian did not separate then from the Jewish heritage.

The author of Matthew’s Gospel was first thought to have been the same tax collector who was appointed by jesus to be one of his apostles. It is possible that the apostle was responsible for a prior account of this or he might have been a missionary in the area in which the gospel was written. Most scholars are a bit hesitant of the belief that the apostle Mark is the actual author and are rather more accepting that he was not the writer of this gospel. It had become pretty clear that whoever wrote this gospel had taken a lot of material from Mark which would make it hard to believe that the apostle Matthew had written it being that he lived way before Mark did. It is also hard to believe that a tax collector like the apostle Mark had the religious and literary education required to compose the gospel. The evangelist writing here was probably jewish writing for a predominately  jewish christian audience. He was very knowledgeable of the Hebrew Scriptures and and the law, Torah. With all of this known it seems that Matthew’s gospel portrays the theological concerns of those of second generation christians. Location of the actual Matthean community which was believed to be made up of these second generation christians is a little bit of a mystery. Matthew constantly mentions the word “polis” pointing toward the high likelihood that this was an urban area. The oldest,

So when Herod was king of Judah and his position was in jeopardy, he wanted to kill Jesus, who was born king of Judah. The Gospel of Matthew says, "The real king of Judah is not Herod, but Jesus." On the other hand, all the events reported by John are events of Jewish Jesus and his Jewish disciples in Galilee and Judea. Especially the events in the southern Jewish land. Above all, the interplay with Judaism in the Gospel of John is prominent, and it shows the richness of Judaism's institutions, customs, theological categories, and concepts.

Matthew’s Gospel was written for a Jewish Christian community. This is evident because Matthew never explains Jewish tradition. Matthew’s Gospel was written in about 85-90 AD. Matthew was writing to a community in Northern Palestine or Southern Israel. The community that Matthew was writing the gospel for was in crisis.

Jesus' decision to physically cast out the moneylenders from the temple stands as one of the most interesting events of his life, because it represents what seems to be the only moment in the Gospel narratives where he becomes visibly angry to the point of physical action. While one could argue that Jesus is frequently (and justifiably) angry with the disciples from time to time, this is the only moment that Jesus' anger moves him to physical force. Although the event is recorded in all four of the Gospels, this study will focus specifically on its rendering in Matthew, because when considered in the context of Matthew's larger narrative, one can see how Jesus' decision to cleanse the temple does not represent an aberration in either his character or theological message, but rather the natural culmination of Jesus' life and works prior to that point, and demonstrates a kind of revolutionary, anti-authoritarian element of Jesus' message of salvation that is all too often overlooked by Christians and critics alike.

The Gospel of Matthew was written around the year 90 AD by Saint Matthew. It is one of four gospels that has been accepted into the Christian Bible. This gospel is written from the Jesus’s sayings and teachings while showing the similarities between Jewish law and Jesus’s teachings. Jesus first preaches to his people that the poor, mourning, meek, hungry, merciful, pure, and peacemakers shall see god and inherit the kingdom of heaven. God came to not destroy but fulfil, whoever breaks the commandments will be called last to the kingdom of heaven, while the ones uphold the commandments and teaches them will be called into the kingdom of god. The Ten Commandments tell the followers of god you shall not worship other gods, you shall not make

For this Bible study, my passage comes from Matthew 8:5-13. It is the story of the Roman Centurion with the servant who was very sick. This is the Centurion whom Jesus said had the greatest faith in all of Israel.

The Book of Matthew, he said, is the most complete account of Jesus’ life on earth, and of His message to the world. The professor says that Gospel of Matthew was written for the conversion of the Jews. He further stated that the writer of this book was obviously interested in the establishment and maintenance of the Church, and the coming of Christ. Hence, the presenter was quite adamant about his

Judaism, which is made up of a few separate groups, was very common at the originating of Christianity. The common ground (shared beliefs) for these sects was the belief in One God and that this One God had made a covenant with the people of Israel. The foundation of this covenant was called “The Torah.” The Pharisees and Sadducees were the two main groups the Bible focuses on around the time of Jesus, along with the Zealots, the Hellenists, the Lawyers, and the Essenes, who we only read about in sources outside of the New Testament.