New Testament
Matthew
28 chapters · World English Bible
Book context
Matthew opens by presenting Jesus as “the son of David, the son of Abraham” (1:1) and keeps connecting his life to the Hebrew Scriptures. Its teaching centres on the Kingdom of Heaven (4:17), gathers long blocks of Jesus’ teaching such as the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5 to 7), and closes with the commission to make disciples of all nations (28:19). The book does not name its author; early church tradition attributes it to the apostle Matthew. Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897) dates it around AD 60 to 65 and holds that it was the first Gospel written. Many later scholars think Mark came first, so the order of the Gospels is debated.
Why we say this
HisFullGlory editorial · debated · not yet reviewed by a theological reader
From the text itself
Sources
Notes summarise their sources in our own words. Where Christians or scholars disagree, the note says so. Notes are not original-language evidence and do not replace the text.
AI explanation
About Matthew as a whole · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader
This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.
What this book is about
It opens with a list of names. “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Before a single story is told, Matthew has made his claim: the Messiah promised to Israel has a family line, and it leads here.
From that line and a birth, the book follows Jesus through teaching, healings and conflict to his death and resurrection in Jerusalem. Five times it slows down for a long block of teaching. The first is the Sermon on the Mount, in chapters 5 to 7, and when it ends the crowds are astonished, “for he taught them with authority, and not like the scribes.” Again and again Matthew stops to say that something happened to fulfill what the prophets had said.
The last scene is a mountain in Galilee. Eleven disciples bow down, “but some doubted.” To that group, doubters included, the risen Jesus gives a task as wide as the world: make disciples of all nations. His last words in the book are a promise: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Background
There is a tax collector in this book. Jesus passes the tax collection office, sees him sitting there and says, “Follow me.” The man gets up and follows. His name is Matthew, he becomes one of the twelve, and early tradition names him as the author of this Gospel.
Most scholars date the book to the 70s or 80s of the first century and think its writer drew on Mark; some date it earlier. It seems to have been written with Jewish Christians especially in mind, which fits a book that returns so often to the law and the prophets.
How Christians read it
On the mountain Jesus says something readers have weighed ever since: “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.” What it means that he fulfills the law of Moses, Christians explain in different ways.
They also differ over one sentence spoken to Peter, about the rock on which the church is built (16:18). Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants each read it in their own way. The parables of judgment in chapters 24 and 25 are read in several ways too.
These are old conversations among Christians who read the same pages with the same care.
About this explanation
Written by Claude Opus 5.5, an AI model, on 13 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.