“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”Read the surrounding chapter
Time, place, and setting
- Time
- First century ministry. Composition before or after AD 70 remains debated. 8
- Place
- Galilee and Judaea, with Jerusalem central to the passion and resurrection narratives. The final commission takes place on a Galilean mountain. 1
- Setting
- Jesus teaches, heals and gathers disciples amid Jewish scriptural hope, religious controversy and Roman authority. His death and resurrection lead to a mission to all nations. 1
Matthew 1:1 to 2:23: name, genealogy and homage
The opening identifies Jesus as Christ, son of David and son of Abraham. The genealogy’s annotations carry family history through the exile toward the birth. 6 Its selection serves the presentation of Jesus within Israel’s hope. 9 In 1:21, the angel connects his name to saving his people from sins. Ezekiel’s cleansing and restoration language offers a proposed background to that promise. 16 Matthew explicitly quotes Isaiah 7 for Emmanuel, then joins Bethlehem to Micah 5 and the return from Egypt to Hosea 11. These connections begin within texts concerning Israel and Judah before receiving their Christian fulfilment in Jesus. 1
The Magi’s homage contrasts with Herod’s threatened rule and concealed violence. 22 Joseph’s protective obedience moves the family through Egypt and back into Galilee. Matthew 2:18 quotes Jeremiah 31’s Rachel lament in response to the children’s deaths. Jeremiah’s chapter also contains return and new covenant hope, but the quoted lament names real grief in Matthew’s scene. The women in the genealogy, Mary’s conception, Joseph’s care and the visitors’ worship give the beginning a human texture that complements its royal claims. A biographical frame helps explain the concentration on Jesus’ identity and life. 18
Matthew 3:13 to 4:25: baptism and wilderness
At Jesus’ baptism, the heavens open, the Spirit descends and a heavenly voice identifies the beloved Son. The next scene places Jesus in the wilderness under temptation. His answers quote Deuteronomy 6 and 8, where Israel is taught dependence, faithful worship and remembrance of the Lord. Stones, the temple and the offered kingdoms become tests of allegiance within the narrative. Jesus answers through Scripture rather than accepting the tempter’s way of defining sonship. The scene then gives way to his proclamation of the kingdom and the calling of disciples. 1
Matthew 4:12 to 16 locates the Galilean beginning through Isaiah 9’s promised light. The move to Capernaum is connected to named regions rather than a vague spiritual landscape. The narrative thereafter joins speech and action in developing discipleship. 5 Crowds gather because Jesus teaches, proclaims the gospel of the kingdom and heals. Reading the baptism, temptation and public ministry together makes the sequence intelligible: the Son identified at the Jordan lives in faithful allegiance to the Father and brings the kingdom’s message among people with concrete needs. 1
Matthew 5:1 to 7:29: righteousness, prayer and action
The Beatitudes name the poor in spirit, mourners, the meek, those hungering for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, peacemakers and the persecuted. Their blessings begin a sustained discourse about life before the Father. Fulfilment in 5:17 belongs within the kingdom proclaimed by Jesus and his authority. 10 Hearing and doing the Father’s will is connected with following him. 11 Matthew 5:21 onward brings commandments into questions of anger, reconciliation, desire and truthful speech. The movement culminates in a comparison between hearers who build on rock and those who build on sand. 1
The beam, the cutting images and the extraordinary responses in 5:38 to 42 use forceful language to expose failures of conduct. Contextual tests help identify exaggeration while retaining the command’s ethical force. 20 Figurative intensity needs to be interpreted through the actual saying and its setting. 21 In 6:9 to 13, prayer joins God’s name and kingdom to bread, forgiveness and deliverance. Generosity, prayer and fasting are addressed to the Father who sees in secret. The discourse therefore gathers inward intention, public relationships and ordinary dependence into one account of faithful life. 1
Matthew 8:1 to 9:38: authority and mercy
The centurion asks Jesus to speak a word because he recognises the authority expressed in his ministry. Jesus responds with amazement and speaks of many joining Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom. The banquet imagery pictures joyful belonging among the patriarchs. 3 Healing scenes follow different people rather than a single repeated situation. Matthew 8:17 explicitly quotes Isaiah 53:4 in connection with Jesus’ care for the sick. The quotation belongs within a Gospel narrative of compassion and within Isaiah’s servant passage, whose surrounding suffering must also be heard. 1
In chapter 9, the paralysed man’s healing accompanies the declaration of forgiveness. Matthew is called from the receipt of custom, and a meal with publicans and sinners brings an objection. Jesus answers with Hosea 6:6 and his purpose of calling sinners. Scriptural fulfilment and teaching authority meet within such encounters. 12 The chapter ends with compassion for crowds described as shepherdless sheep. Jesus tells disciples to pray for labourers, and chapter 10 immediately turns to their sending. Prayer thus arises from noticing actual people and their need for care. 1
Matthew 10 to 13: sending, resistance and reception
The Twelve initially receive a mission to Israel’s lost sheep. Proclamation, healing, generosity and hospitality belong together in chapter 10, while persecution introduces the promise that the Spirit of the Father will speak through them. Chapter 11 includes John’s question and Jesus’ invitation to the weary. Chapter 12 places Sabbath disputes, Isaiah 42’s servant and controversy over spiritual power beside one another. In 12:28, Jesus relates the Spirit of God to the kingdom’s arrival. The initial Israel mission and later universal sending remain related within this developing story. 15
Chapter 13 pictures the reception of the word through soil, growth, value and separation. The public and private settings distinguish the crowd’s hearing from the disciples’ explanations. 23 The sower names pressure and the deceitfulness of riches as impediments to fruitfulness. Wheat and tares portray waiting followed by judgment, while treasure and pearl describe the kingdom’s extraordinary value. The Canaanite appeal in chapter 15 continues the narrative’s questions about belonging. Its scriptural terminology may suggest associations, though particular allusion proposals need testing. 7 The narrative keeps readers attentive to actual responses to Jesus. 1
Matthew 16:13 to 18:35: confession, cross and forgiveness
Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ is followed by Jesus’ announcement of suffering, death and resurrection. Peter objects, revealing the distance between recognising Jesus’ title and receiving the way he will fulfil his mission. The call to take up the cross answers that resistance. The transfiguration then reveals glory, yet the descent from the mountain returns the disciples to need and misunderstanding. Chapter 18 addresses greatness through a child and care for little ones. These scenes make humility and dependence central to the disciples’ learning. 1
Matthew 18:15 to 20 places correction, witnesses, communal discernment and prayer within the effort to recover a brother. 4 The debt parable then connects mercy received with mercy extended. 13 Its unequal debts make the servant’s refusal of compassion visible. The surrounding teaching about little ones and the lost sheep is essential: the community seeks restoration while attending to vulnerability. The promised presence of Jesus among those gathered in his name belongs to this account of communal life. Truthful accountability and mercy are consequently related concerns, rather than competing slogans detached from the discourse. 1
Matthew 21 to 23: arriving king and contested authority
The donkey, the crowd’s blessing and the temple scenes present Jesus’ arrival through Zechariah 9 and Psalm 118. The psalm’s humble deliverance and royal hope help frame Matthew’s use of its words. 17 The rejected stone then enters the confrontation over authority. In 22:15 to 22, Jesus requests a coin before answering the tribute trap. Its image and inscription limit the claim being made for Caesar. 19 Questions about resurrection and love of God and neighbour follow. Public challenge is thus answered through both Scripture and the details of the immediate encounter. 1
Chapter 23 denounces burdens, ostentation, neglected justice, mercy and faith. Its temple oath discussion also enters scholarly debates about the Gospel’s date. 8 The narrative’s actual ethical concern is evasion and hypocrisy before God. The chapter ends with grief over Jerusalem and the desire to gather its children. That lament prepares the discourse on the temple and coming trouble. Reading the denunciations together with the lament preserves the movement from confrontation to sorrow, rather than converting particular accusations into contempt for an entire people. 1
Matthew 24 to 28: readiness, suffering and new life
Chapters 24 and 25 connect coming trouble, endurance and the Son of man with faithful responsibility during delay. The parables concern servants, readiness and what people do with entrusted resources. The judgment scene includes actual care for hunger, thirst, exclusion, nakedness, sickness and imprisonment. The passion then reveals the suffering of Jesus himself through betrayal, prayer, trial and crucifixion. His cry from Psalm 22 is spoken in distress. The psalm’s larger movement toward praise can accompany Christian reflection without silencing the pain of the immediate scene. 1
The risen Jesus’ commission joins authority, baptism, teaching and promised presence. 14 Matthew 28:19 uses the command to make disciples; verse 20 explains that teaching includes observing what Jesus commanded. Acts 1 and 2 explicitly connect the risen Lord’s sending to the Spirit’s power for witness. First Corinthians 12 to 14 relates healing, prophecy and tongues to the common good and love. James 5 locates prayer for sick people within a caring congregation. These actual contexts support Pentecostal Church of God witness and active gifts as a life of service to the crucified and risen Lord. 1
Sources
Numbered references support the material above. Scripture quotations use the KJV.
- The Holy Bible, King James VersionKing James translators · 1611
Matthew 1 to 28; Genesis 12; Exodus 4 and 24; Deuteronomy 6 and 8; Isaiah 7, 42 and 53; Jeremiah 31; Hosea 6 and 11; Micah 5; Zechariah 9 and 13; Psalms 22 and 118; Ezekiel 36 and 37; Daniel 7; Luke 3 and 24; John 20; Acts 1, 2 and 15; 1 Corinthians 12 to 14; James 5; Greek Matthew 28:16 to 20
View the source - A Greek English Lexicon of the New TestamentJoseph Henry Thayer
Historical entry 3100, complete senses 1 and 2, especially Matthew 28:19
View the source - The Gospel according to St Matthew, Cambridge Bible for Schools and CollegesA. Carr · 1893
Matthew 8:1 to 15; introduction, Authorship of the Gospel
View the source - Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, MatthewHeinrich August Wilhelm Meyer
Matthew 18:15 to 20
View the source - The Structure of the Gospel of Matthew as NarrativeH. J. Bernard Combrink · 1983
Pages 66 to 70 and 87 to 90
View the source - Genealogical Annotation in Genesis as Background for the Matthean Genealogy of JesusJohn Nolland · 1996
Pages 115 to 122
View the source - Exodus Allusions in the Midsection of the Gospel of MatthewCedric E. W. Vine · 2023
Pages 3 to 8 and 21 to 23
View the source - The Oath Formulas of Matthew 23:16 to 22 as Evidence for a Pre 70 Date of Composition for Matthew’s GospelCharles L. Quarles · 2021
Pages 1 to 5 and 20 to 22
View the source - Matthew, Tyndale New Testament CommentaryR. T. France · 1985
Commentary opening and Matthew 1:1 to 17, genealogy
View the source - The nature of the law’s fulfilment in Matthew 5:17: An exegetical and theological studyBradley M. Trout · 2015
Contextual consideration: Literary context, The antitheses, The kingdom of heaven and Fulfilment of the Old Testament
View the source - The fulfilment of the law according to Matthew 5:17: A dialectical approachP. la G. du Toit · 2018
Sections 3 and 4, following Jesus and righteousness
View the source - Fulfilment of Scripture and Jesus’ Teachings in MatthewR. Alan Culpepper · 2015
Fulfilment of Scripture and Jesus’ teaching and narrative authority
View the source - The motive of forgiveness in the Gospel according to MatthewMarius J. Nel · 2015
Narrative, epilogue, historical and internal conflict discussion; conclusion
View the source - The Resurrection Narratives in Matthew’s GospelDavid Wenham · 1973
Pages 49 to 54
View the source - Israel and the Universal Mission in the Gospel of MatthewTae Sub Kim · 2013
Published dissertation summary, pages 153 to 155
View the source - I Will Save My People from Their Sins: The Influence of Ezekiel 36:28b to 29a; 37:23b on Matthew 1:21Nicholas G. Piotrowski · 2013
Pages 36 to 42 and 52 to 54
View the source - Psalm 118 and the Eschatological Son of DavidIan J. Vaillancourt · 2019
Pages 733 to 737
View the source - What Are the Gospels? A Comparison with Graeco Roman BiographyRichard A. Burridge · 2018
Introduction, I.4 to I.8 and I.13 to I.15; preview PDF pages 20 to 24 and 29 to 31
View the source - Show Me the Money: Jesus, Visual Aids, and the Tribute QuestionN. Clayton Croy · 2020
Pages 202 to 206
View the source - A Methodology for Detecting and Mitigating Hyperbole in Matthew 5:38 to 42Charles E. Cruise · 2018
Pages 92 to 96 and 100 to 103
View the source - Jesus’s Use of Hyperbole in the Gospel of MatthewStefanus Kristianto · 2026
Published dissertation summary, pages i to iv
View the source - Matthew, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New TestamentDavid L. Turner · 2008
Matthew 2:1 to 12, pages 77 to 79 and 85 to 86, licensed preview
View the source - Reading Matthew 13 as a prophetic discourse: The four parables presented in publicJacob J. Scholtz · 2015
Complete article, pages 1 to 7
View the source