THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, THE FIRST WRITING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON
THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, THE FIRST WRITING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON

Summary/Abstract: In this article we examine the place of the Gospel of Matthew in the concerns of contemporary theologians. The synoptic problem has most affected the traditional approach to the Gospel of Matthew, which has been downgraded from the top of scholars’ preferences on the grounds that it is written later than Mark. Another view is that it belongs to an anonymous assembler of existing sources, of which the famous Q must have been the most important. The tradition of the Orthodox Church has used the criteria of antiquity and apostolicity to keep the books in the canon. The first writing in the New Testament canon, the Gospel of Matthew, was considered until the 19th century to be the first to be written in the canon. Attempts to resolve the Synoptic problem led to conclusions that contradicted Church Tradition. Thus, Matthew has been regarded as an expansion of Mark or a redaction based on existing sources. The voice of Orthodox theologians was not heard; most considered these theories as unquestionable truths and neglected their consequences for the spiritual progress of the Orthodox faithful. That is why I have shown I have analysed the general character of the ancient papyri, the canons of the first four Christian centuries, the contents of the codices of the 4th-5th century, the quotations from the most preserved Christian writings. All this shows that the Gospel of Matthew was the most important book of the New Testament, the earliest and first Christian writing to appear.

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