Matthew

The special emphasis of the Gospel of Matthew is that Jesus is the Messiah foretold by Old Testament prophets. As such, Matthew quotes repeatedly from the Old Testament. He also speaks often of the "Kingdom of Heaven", and his gospel is frequently referred to as the "Gospel of the Kingdom". He presents Jesus of Nazareth as Israel’s promised Messiah and rightful King. With a King, comes His kingdom, and it will be occupied by those who acknowledge and obey this King.

We know very little about Matthew, also known as Levi. We do know that he was a tax collector, or "Publican". Publicans were collectors of Roman taxes, usually extortioners, and were generally despised by their Jewish brethren. Nevertheless, his tax-collector background accustomed him to keeping records and accounts, and he was a personal companion of Jesus throughout most of Jesus’ public ministry

Matthew is believed to have preached in Palestine for a good number of years, before travelling to foreign lands to preach the gospel. Matthew quotes repeatedly from the Old Testament, and he seems to have been especially interested in speaking to Jewish readers. At the time of his writing, Jewish Christians were starting to be persecuted, and he no doubt wanted to strengthen their faith and provide them tools for evangelizing to the Jewish communities dispersed throughout the Roman world.

Tradition says that he wrote his Gospel originally in Hebrew. Some years later, he wrote a more complete edition in Greek, most likely in 60 AD.