Editing Gospel of Matthew (section)

=== Setting ===
Most scholars view the gospel of Matthew as a work of the second generation of Christians, though it draws on the memory of the first generation of Jesus's disciples.<ref>{{cite book|last= Dunn |first= James |author-link= James Dunn (theologian)|year= 2017 |title= Who Was Jesus? (Little Books of Guidance) |publisher= Church Publishing |page= 4 |isbn= 978-0898692488}}</ref> For these early Christians the defining event was the [[destruction of Jerusalem]] and the [[Second Temple|Temple]] by the Romans in 70 AD in the course of the [[First Jewish–Roman War]] (66–73 AD); from this point on, what had begun with Jesus of Nazareth as a Jewish [[messiah|messianic]] movement became an increasingly gentile phenomenon which would evolve in time into a separate religion.{{sfn|Scholtz|2009|pp=34–35}} The author appears to have written for a community of Greek-speaking Jewish Christians located probably in Syria; [[Antioch]], the largest city in Roman Syria and the third largest city in the empire, is often proposed.{{sfn|Nolland|2005|p=18}} Other scholars hold that the [[historical Jesus]] had already predicted that the Jerusalem Temple would be destroyed.{{sfn|Barber|2023|p=84}}

The community to which Matthew belonged, like many 1st-century Christians, was still part of the larger Jewish community.{{sfn|Saldarini|1994|p=4}} The relationship of Matthew to this wider world of Judaism remains a subject of study and contention, the principal question being to what extent, if any, Matthew's community had cut itself off from its Jewish roots.{{sfn|Senior|2001|pp=7–8, 72}} It is evident from the gospel that there was conflict between Matthew's group and other Jewish groups, and it is generally agreed that the root of the conflict was the Matthew community's belief in Jesus as the Messiah and authoritative interpreter of the law, as one risen from the dead and uniquely endowed with divine authority.{{sfn|Senior|2001|p=11}}

The divine nature of Jesus was a major issue for the Matthaean community, the crucial element separating the [[early Christians]] from their Jewish neighbors; while Mark begins with [[Baptism of Jesus|Jesus's baptism]] and [[Temptations of Christ|temptations]], Matthew goes back to Jesus's origins, showing him as the [[Son of God (Christianity)|Son of God]] from his birth, the fulfillment of [[Christian messianic prophecies|messianic prophecies]] of the [[Old Testament]].{{sfn|Peppard|2011|p=133}} The title [[Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament#Son of David|Son of David]], used exclusively in relation to miracles, identifies Jesus as the healing and miracle-working Messiah of Israel sent to Israel alone.{{sfn|Luz|1995|pp=86, 111}} As [[Son of Man]] he will return to judge the world, an expectation which his disciples recognize but of which his enemies are unaware.{{sfn|Luz|1995|pp=91, 97}} As [[Son of God]], God is revealing himself through his son, and Jesus proving his sonship through his obedience and example.{{sfn|Luz|1995|p=93}}

Unlike Mark, Matthew never bothers to explain Jewish customs, since his intended audience was a Jewish one; unlike Luke, who traces Jesus's ancestry back to Adam, father of the human race, he traces it only to Abraham, father of the Jews. Of his three presumed sources only "M", the material from his own community, refers to a "church" (''ecclesia''), an organized group with rules for keeping order; and the content of "M" suggests that this community was strict in keeping the [[Halakha|Jewish law]], holding that they must exceed the scribes and the Pharisees in "righteousness" (adherence to Jewish law).{{sfn|Burkett|2002|pp=180–81}} Writing from within a Jewish-Christian community growing increasingly distant from other Jews and becoming increasingly gentile in its membership and outlook, Matthew put down in his gospel his vision "of an assembly or church in which both Jew and Gentile would flourish together".{{sfn|Senior|2001|p=19}}