Gospel Of Matthew: A Brief Analysis

Based on the assumption that Antioch is the place where the gospel of Matthew was written and relying on the internal and historical evidence that it was probably written after the destruction of the temple, and not later than 117 CE, then it is now possible to investigate how the history of the period might have contributed to the writing. This history is traced as far back to Jerusalem as the cradle of Christianity. The events as presented in the book of Acts gives a glimpse of how the early Christians lived as a group. In any society when people from different backgrounds come together, there is usually friction among the group due to the social dynamics within the group. This is also the case in Jerusalem after Jews of different background who were not originally living in the land returned during the first century.

With this, the socio-religious dynamics of life in Jerusalem changed, because some of these returnees converted to Judaism and those who did not convert at least observed some Jewish laws, whilst others also followed the new movement of believers in Jesus and still some became associated with Judaism in some other way. The influx of people from different backgrounds and cultures who have returned to the father land and the daily interaction within this new social group gave rise to a new category of people who are Jews but because they do not speak Aramaic as their first language were referred to as Proselyte Jews or Hellenists. Their conversion to Judaism would mean that although they were Jews they did not practice the Jewish religion probably due to their foreign upbringing . In our approach to viewing the followers of Jesus then, space should be given to accommodate the high probability that, there were Hellenists among his early disciples of