The Bible In A Year 
Matthew/Hebrews – Week 1 of 2
January 7-12. 2019
Readings for the Week
Theme of the week: We will use this week and a half of next week on the book of Matthew; concluding next weeks’ readings with the book of Hebrews.
Monday -Matthew chapter 3 & 4
Today’s reading is a little shorter because tomorrow’s is a little longer – the Sermon on the Mount, which needs to be read all in one go.
Tuesday -Leviticus chapter 24, Matthew chapters 5, 6 & 7
Wednesday-Matthew chapters 8, 9 & 10
Thursday -Matthew chapters 11, 12 & 13
Friday -Leviticus chapter 18, Matthew chapters 14, 15, 16 & 17
Saturday- Deuteronomy chapters 24 & 25, Matthew chapters 18, 19 & 20
The Bible In A Year
Matthew/Hebrews – Week 1 of 2
A Framework for Understanding
Matthew’s Gospel
The authorship of this gospel is unknown. The earliest manuscripts have no title at all, and the book itself gives no real clues. Tradition holds that the gospel was written by the disciple Matthew, but there is nothing in the book to suggest this is true. There are no first person accounts, no details to suggest an “eyewitness” viewpoint.
The gospel was written originally in Greek, using the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures (Septuagint) as its reference source. This information points away from any of the Aramaic speaking disciples as the original author. It seems likely that the disciple Matthew had influence in founding the religious community from which the author gained his/her understanding of the stories.
The gospel is placed first in the New Testament because at the time the books of the Bible were canonized it was thought to have been the first gospel written. Later scholarship proposes that Mark was the first gospel written and that both Matthew and Luke used it as a primary source for their gospel narratives. Mark’s gospel has 662 verses, over 600 of them are also found in Matthew – almost word for word. Stories that are unique to Matthew most notably are included in the birth narrative: the visit of the Magi, the slaughter of the innocents and the flight into Egypt. The account in Matthew of “The Sermon on the Mount” is well known, even beyond the Christian tradition.
This gospel telling pays more attention to Jewish expectations and anticipations than do the other three. In it we find more references to fulfilling Hebrew scripture and more occasions in which Jesus debates the scriptures’ meaning with the Jewish leaders than in the other gospels.