DAY 347
CHALLENGE
“Matthew’s Gospel isn’t reliable. It was written long after the events by a non-eyewitness.”
DEFENSE
Matthew was written by an eyewitness within living memory of the events it records.
We elsewhere cover that the names of the evangelists were not made up at a later date and that they indicate actual authors of the Gospels (see Days 109 and 146). Matthew’s Gospel was already called by that name in the first century, as shown by the testimony of the first-cen- tury figure John the Presbyter (Eusebius, Church History 3:39:16). The evidence thus points to Matthew the apostle, one of the eyewitnesses, as the author of the Gospel.
There is a literary relationship between Matthew and Mark that can help us determine when Matthew was written. Ninety percent of the material in Mark is paralleled in Matthew, often with the same wording. It is very probable that either Matthew used Mark or Mark used Matthew.
From the second century until the nineteenth century, the standard view was that Matthew wrote first and Mark abridged Matthew. If so, then since Mark was written in the A.D. 50s (see Day 300), Matthew would have written sometime between A.D. 33 (the year of the Crucifixion) and the A.D. 50s.
However, today almost all scholars conclude that Mark wrote first and Matthew used Mark in composing his own Gospel. One thing supporting this is the first-century statement from John the Presbyter that Mark’s Gospel was based on his memories of Peter’s preaching (i.e., not on the Gospel of Matthew). Also, while abridgments were common in the ancient world, the evidence does not fit the hypothesis that Mark is an abridgment of either Matthew or of Matthew and Luke (see Jimmy Akin, “Did Mark Abridge Matthew’s Gospel?” and “Did Mark Base His Gospel on Matthew and Luke?” at JimmyAkin.com).
On this view, Matthew would have been written some time after Mark. Raymond Brown proposed a late date for Matthew of “80–90, give or take a decade” (An Introduction to the New Testament, 172). However, this is too late.
Each of the Gospels refers to Jesus’ prediction that the temple would be destroyed in A.D. 70, but none records its fulfillment, suggesting they were written before this date. This would point to Matthew being written between A.D. 50 and 70.