The Dating of Matthew

DAY 347 CHALLENGE “Matthew’s Gospel isn’t reliable. It was written long after the events by a non-eyewitness.” DEFENSE Matthew was written by an eyewitness within living memory of the events it records. We elsewhere cover that the names of the evangelists were not made up at a later date and that they indicate actual authors of the Gospels (see Days 109 and 146). Matthew’s Gospel was already called by that name in the first century, as shown by the testimony of the first-cen- tury figure John the Presbyter (Eusebius, Church History 3:39:16). The evidence thus points to Matthew the ap...