INTRODUCTION: This year our Lenten Bible study
is “Holy Week, According to Matthew.”
Before we get started, we need to know some background about the Gospel
of Matthew. Matthew’s gospel was written
around the year 80 CE and was the second of our gospels to be written. The author was an anonymous second- or third-
generation Christian; the name “Matthew” became associated with the gospel
sometime in the 2nd or 3rd century.
The writer of Matthew had a copy of the
Gospel of Mark, which had been written around 70 CE. The entire Gospel of Mark is included in
Matthew. The writer also had a written
source we call “Q,” which the writer of Luke had as well. Because of the shared sources, Matthew, Mark,
and Luke are very similar and are, therefore, called the “synoptic gospels.”
However, there are passages in Matthew
which are not contained in any of the other gospels. These passages either came from another
written source or from oral tradition.
(All the scriptures were passed along orally for generations before they
were written down.) The writer of Matthew
wove the different stories together and shaped them for his audience. Catholics believe that the scriptures were
both inspired by the Holy Spirit and underwent a very human writing process
with the author’s location and personality making imprints on the text. Matthew wrote to a Jewish-Christian audience
and was concerned with making connections between Jesus and the Hebrew
Scriptures. There are many quotes from
the Old Testament in the Gospel of Matthew.
We will be studying Matthew
21:1-28:20. Today, read as much of these
passages as possible to get an overview of the text. Don’t worry about studying any passage in
detail. We will come back to all of it.
Any questions or comments so far?
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