While Mark's Gospel appears to have been prepared primarily for the members of the church at Rome, that of Matthew, composed several years later, betrays a definitely Jewish background. Moreover, Matthew, himself a Jew, may be said to have written his book to explain the Master's life and teaching to men of Jewish nationality, whether they still clung to Judaism, or had been converted to Christianity. He depicts Christ Jesus as the Messiah for whom the Hebrew prophets longed. It is he who records Peter's famous declaration at Caesarea Philippi, "Thou art the Christ [or 'the Messiah'], the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16); he who tells of the quest of the Wisemen from the East who sought for and found the "King of the Jews" (Matt. 2:2); while his special interest in the Master's Hebrew descent is shown by the recurring references to him as "son of David."
It would appear that in recording Jesus' parable of the "scribe ... instructed unto the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 13:52), which is found in no other Gospel, the first evangelist, whether consciously or unconsciously, is portraying himself, for in his book he brings "forth out of his treasure things new and old," commencing from the older ideas of Judaism, so beloved by the scribes, and showing their relation to and fulfillment in Christianity.
It is entirely typical of Matthew that in tracing the pedigree of the Master's foster father, Joseph, he should stress the fact that it began with Abraham, revered as the founder of the Hebrew nation (1:1, 2). Equally typical is his announcement of the fact that Christ Jesus came not to "destroy the law, or the prophets, . . . but to fulfil" them (5:17); while evidence of the breadth and scope of this fulfillment of the Mosaic Law is recorded as the Sermon on the Mount proceeds. The sixth commandment is explained as going behind the act of murder to the angry thought motivating it; while the seventh is seen as forbidding impurity, whether in thought or deed (5:21, 22, 27, 28).
