the birth of chirst: matthew

The first Gospel presented in the New Testament of the Christian Bible is the Gospel of Matthew. Said to have been written in Syria during the last third of the first century, it is most likely the third of the four Gospels created (Brown: Messiah 45). Like that of Luke’s, Matthew’s Gospel draws its content from the Gospel of Mark, the elusive “Q” source, and from stories and other preexisting information from Pagan, Jewish and Christian sources (Wilkinson: 165). In Matthew’s description of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, this diverse inclusion of sources is noticed.

Having been created in Syria, Matthew’s Gospel is centered around references to aspects of the religious beliefs of the people of his community. During the latter half of the first century in Syria, there was a mainly Jewish and Gentile population present there (Brown: Messiah 45). Because both these groups inhabited the Serian area, the author of Matthew constructed the material presented in the infancy narrative with details that favored many aspects present in the beliefs of the majority of the community. Intended for an audience of Jews and Gentile, Matthews Gospel was organized in a way that

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