Matthew Math
Our teaching series is out of the gospel of Matthew, which scholars think was likely written by the tax-collector-turned-disciple mentioned in Matthew 10:3. In honor of accountants everywhere, here's Matthew by the numbers.
Matthew takes less than 90 minutes to read. It has 28 chapters, 1,071 verses and 18,346 words, making it the third longest book in the New Testament (behind Luke and Acts).
Matthew is arranged into five main sections, reflecting the five-part structure of Moses’ writings (Genesis-Deuteronomy).
Matthew is the definitive case that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. He quotes the Old Testament 261 times, specifically referring to how Jesus fulfilled Hebrew prophecies about 60 times.
Matthew begins with a painstakingly researched genealogical record going back 42 generations that proves Jesus is the rightful heir to David’s throne.
Although Matthew is a biography of Jesus’ life, only 4% of it describes His childhood while 25% of it is dedicated to His last seven days!
The earliest manuscript fragment we have of Matthew dates back to around A.D. 150. It’s about the size of a credit card and is held at a library in Oxford, UK.
Matthew’s first edition was already in circulation within 30 years of Jesus’ resurrection.
Matthew is the most quoted gospel by the earliest leaders of the church.
The phrase, “kingdom of heaven” appears 32 times in Matthew and zero times in the rest of the Bible.
The title “Son of David” occurs more in Matthew than all the other gospels combined.
While Mark records Jesus calling God "father" six times, Matthew records it 53 times!
Matthew contains 23 of Jesus’ parables, 11 of which aren't found anywhere else in the Bible.
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