Matthew for Skeptics

The New Testament gets off to a slow start with the gospel of Matthew, whose first words are: "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ." It then lists 39 straight begats, such as "And Naasson begat Salmon; And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab." Believers must be bored silly by chapter one, but skeptics shouldn't be. Because the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew directly and completely contradicts the one given in Luke. The two don't agree on anything, not even the name of Joseph's father.

But then Matthew is a very contentious book. If you have an opinion about anything, Mathew is likely to disagree with you. The SAB lists 122 contradictions in Matthew, more than any other book of the Bible.

But there's more than just contradictions in Matthew. In it you'll also find that:

• Jesus strongly approves of the law and the prophets. He hasn't the slightest objection to the cruelties of the Old Testament and insists that its laws will be binding forever. 5:17

• To avoid sin, Jesus recommends that we cut off our hands and pluck out our eyes. This advice is given immediately after he says that anyone who looks with lust at a women commits adultery. 5:29, 18:8

• Jesus tells his disciples not to pray in public. 6:5-6

• He says that most people are going to hell. 7:13-14

• He sends some devils into a herd of pigs, causing them to run off a cliff and drown in the waters below. 8:32

• Families will be torn apart because of Jesus (this is one of the few "prophecies" in the Bible that has actually come true). "Brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death." 10:21

• Jesus says that he has come to destroy families by making family members hate each other. He has "come not to send peace, but a sword." 10:34

• John the Baptist is still not sure about Jesus (he's in prison and is soon to die). He sends his disciples to ask, "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" Well, if he isn't sure after seeing and hearing the events at Jesus' baptism, then how can anyone else be? 11:3

• Jesus condemns entire cities to dreadful deaths and to the eternal torment of hell because they didn't care for his preaching. 11:20-24

• He explains that the reason he speaks in parables is so that no one will understand him, "lest ... they ... should understand ... and should be converted, and I should heal them." 13:10-15

• "For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath." Isn't this from the Republican Party platform? 13:12, 25:29

• Jesus is rejected by those who know him the best -- the people of his home town of Nazareth. 13:55-57

• Herod thought Jesus was a resurrected John the Baptist. Apparently, it was a common opinion at the time. If so many of Jesus' contemporaries could be so easily fooled regarding John the Baptist, what does this do to the credibility of Jesus' resurrection? 14:2, 16:13-14

• Jesus mistakenly tells his followers that he will return and establish his kingdom within their lifetime. 16:28, 23:36, 24:34

• Abandon your wife and children for Jesus and he'll give your a big reward. 19:29

• Matthew has Jesus ride into Jerusalem sitting on both an ass and a colt (must have taken some practice!). 21:2-7

• "His blood be on us, and on our children." This verse blames the Jews for the death of Jesus and has been used to justify their persecution for twenty centuries. 27:25

Christian Response

Waterrock's Introduction to Matthew