QUESTION
Who wrote the book of Matthew?
I was asked to look into this because of arguments that it was not written by the apostle Matthew. I checked out what my Bible Encyclopedia said and found a long account from different sources about even the genuineness of the gospel by Matthew. I found nothing that led me to believe that Matthew did not write the book. In fact it wearied me to read all those opinions of men. There was a lot of mere conjecture, supposing this or that, comparing what one man wrote on the subject to what another had written.
The problem is approaching God’s Word not in faith, but with man’s intellect. Critics abound against all the Word of God. Let us look to see what does the Bible say? II Tim. 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God…”. II Pet. 1:20-21, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
Yes, men do make mistakes, but not God. Is He not able to protect that which He has inspired to be written? Psalm 119:89, “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.”
Jesus sovereignly called Matthew (a despised publican that gathered taxes from the Jewish people, for the Roman government) to be His Disciple – Mt. 9:9; 10:3. He also was with the 120 when they were filled with the Holy Ghost – Acts 1:13. Matthew’s book was primarily written to the Jews. In it there are 60 references to Jewish prophecies and about 40 quotations from the Old Testament, showing that they were fulfilled in Christ, presenting Jesus as their promised kingly Messiah. To me this is proof that Matthew is truly a book inspired by the Holy Ghost. For the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) give a full well rounded portrait of our Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew plainly pictures Christ as King. Mark tells of Jesus, the perfect Servant, in Luke we find the manhood of Christ, John gives Jesus Christ as the heavenly One (God).
Revelation 4:7 has these characteristics of our Lord as being worked in the lives of the four living creatures (overcoming saints) of the highest order. Scripture confirms scripture, Apostle Paul wrote in I Corinthians 2:13, “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth: comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
