Sources: Matthew 1–28; Papias (~130 AD) in Eusebius; Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans (~107 AD, the earliest clear quotation of Matthew).

The Gospel of Matthew (~80–90 AD) is the most Jewish Gospel and the most ecclesiastically influential — “the church’s Gospel” that stood first in the New Testament canon for most of Christian history, generating more patristic commentary than any other. Its distinctives: (1) Five great discourses (Sermon on the Mount, ch. 5–7; Mission discourse, ch. 10; Parables discourse, ch. 13; Community discourse, ch. 18; Apocalyptic discourse, ch. 24–25) — structuring the Gospel around five blocks of teaching, paralleling the Torah’s five books; (2) Fulfillment formula — “this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet…” appears ~10 times, presenting Jesus’s life as the fulfillment of Hebrew scripture; (3) The Sermon on the Mount (ch. 5–7) — the most influential ethical teaching in history, including the Beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer, and the antitheses (“You have heard… but I say to you”); (4) Binding and loosing (16:19, 18:18) — the authority to interpret and apply Torah, transferred to the disciples; (5) The Great Commission (28:18–20) — the mandate for universal mission. Matthew’s community appears to be in intense polemic with Pharisaic Judaism — the “woes” of chapter 23 (“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!”) reflect a community of Jewish Christians in painful separation from the synagogue.