Blog (3) Bria Brown

What I found most interesting about the Gospel of Matthew was the heavy emphasis on Jesus in regards to the Jewish community. Matthew traces Jesus ancestry to Abraham the father of Jewish people and portrays Jesus as the second Moses. The connections in the Gospel of Matthew are what shocked me the most. Matthew also had a heavy emphasis and connection with numbers. For example, in comparison with Moses, Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights. Moses and his people wandered the wilderness for forty years.

In comparison to reading Mark, I prefer how Matthew gospels were constructed. They
seemed to be carefully constructed and the craftsmanship left me feeling moved.
The fascination with numbers is another element with Matthew that I admired. There
is something more intriguing about the Gospel of Matthew that was not in the Gospel
of Mark. For me personally the numbers, connections, and family tree make the
Gospel of Matthew unique and interesting. Another element that I found different
in Matthew was how he did not talk about Mary the mother of Jesus too much. In
the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph is respected more than Mary. Like discussed in
class, Joseph does not abandon Mary even though she is carrying a child that is
not his and they are not married.

One of the quotes from Matthew that I have heard the most in life, whether from my
grandmother or even in movies, is in 5:43-44 where Jesus states, “You have heard that it was said ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” [1] I noticed in the footnote of my bible that the hatred of a
person is right amongst Hebrew teachings and also the Old Testament. With this in mind, I realized that this was showing how Jesus was possibly reinterpreting the Jewish law. Instead of being obedient to the rules, Jesus was simply being spiritual. It means more to actually do the right thing instead of appearing to do the right thing.

[1] Matthew5:43-44 (NAB)