Gospel of Matthew Question?

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Matthew wrote his account in Palestine. The exact year is not known, but subscriptions at the end of some manuscripts (all later than the tenth century C.E.) say that it was 41 C.E. There is evidence to indicate that Matthew originally wrote his Gospel in the popular Hebrew of the time and later translated it into Greek. In his work De viris inlustribus ("Concerning Illustrious Men"), chapter III, Jerome says: “Matthew, who is also Levi, and who from a publican came to be an apostle, first of all composed a Gospel of Christ in Judaea in the Hebrew language and characters for the benefit of those of the circumcision who had believed.” Jerome adds that the Hebrew text of this Gospel was preserved in his day (fourth and fifth centuries C.E.) in the library that Pamphilus had collected in Caesarea.

Early in the third century, Origen, in discussing the Gospels, is quoted by Eusebius as saying that the “first was written . . . according to Matthew, . . . who published it for those who from Judaism came to believe, composed as it was in the Hebrew language.” That it was written primarily with the Jews in mind is indicated by its genealogy, which shows Jesus’ legal descent starting from Abraham, and by its many references to the Hebrew Scriptures, showing that they pointed forward to the coming Messiah. It is reasonable to believe that Matthew used the divine name Jehovah in the form of the Tetragrammaton when he quoted from parts of the Hebrew Scriptures that contained the name. That is why the book of Matthew contains the name Jehovah 18 times, as does the Hebrew version of Matthew originally produced by F. Delitzsch in the 19th century. Matthew would have had the same attitude as Jesus toward the divine name and would not have been restrained by a prevailing Jewish superstition about not using that name.—Matthew 6:9; John 17:6, 26.

Such early figures as Eusebius, Origen, and Jerome all stated this in their writings.

In fact, Jerome states that in his day, there was a copy of Matthew's manuscript in Hebrew in the library at Caesarea which the martyr Pamphilus had collected.

You might want to refer to The Ecclesiastical History, Volume 3, pg 39 and also volume 6 pg 25.

Matthew first wrote his gospel to the Jews, for which Hebrew or Aramaic was the mother tongue. But his information had a necessity to reach others and therefore it seems he took the additional step of translating into Greek as more and more Gentiles became Christians.

We really don't know but the possibility that it was first written in Aramaic comes from the fact that the Gospel of Matthew comes from a tradition where Christianity was in conflict with Judaism (the Pharisees to be precise) & the said Gospel is trying to speak to Jewish people in general. Although there exists copies of Matthew's Gospel in Aramaic, they don't date from the first century when Matthew was first written. No such copies exists... or hasn't been discovered yet.

Edit: I should mention that the four Gospels of the New Testament were originally circulating without any "author's name" attached to them. It was Papias of Hierapolis who first attributed the Gospels to Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John in the mid second century. This is important to know as it's believed that "Matthew" himself wrote his Gospel in Aramaic but we really don't know if it was indeed Matthew who wrote it.

That is a good question,

The traditional view is that the Gospel of Matthew was composed by Matthew, a disciple of Jesus. However, 18th Century scholars increasingly questioned the traditional view of composition, and today most[who?] of modern critical scholarship hesitates to say that Matthew wrote this Gospel which bears his name, preferring instead to describe the author as an anonymous Jewish Christian, writing towards the end of the first century. They also believe that the Gospel was originally composed in Greek

PART of the Gospels WERE written in Aramaic, and translated to Greek. Whether Matthew is included in that I don;t know. Aramaic is thought to be the language that Jesus actually spoke.

The Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) was written in Hebrew and Aramaic, and translated to Greek, too.

One of the best biblical historians of our time is John MacArthur. You might find more information on this at his website.

www.gty.org

I think, "Yes."

I would like to recommend that you read

Evidence for Christianity - Josh McDowell

He answers questions such as this and the book is only about $16.95 at Borders.