Matthew — who's who

Born in Bethlehem in the days of Herod the king, son of Mary, of the line of David through Joseph. The Matthean Jesus is presented as the new Moses — going up the mountain to give the law, speaking with an authority not as the scribes, fulfilling the Hebrew Scriptures at every step. He is the teacher of the five great discourses, the worker of the healings in chapters 8–9, the conflictual figure of chapters 11–22, and the resurrected figure on the mountain in Galilee who claims all authority in heaven and on earth.

Mother of Jesus. Matthew’s portrait is briefer than Luke’s — no Magnificat, no visitation. What he gives is the genealogy that ends with her name (1:16), the account of Joseph’s discovery of her pregnancy, the birth, the visit of the Magi, the flight to Egypt, the return to Nazareth. She appears in 12:46 and 13:55. She is present at the resurrection encounter in chapter 28.

Husband of Mary, of the line of David. He receives instruction in four dreams and obeys each without recorded speech. He is the figure through whom Jesus is adopted into the Davidic line and whose obedience preserves the child through Herod’s slaughter. He disappears from the gospel after the infancy narratives.

Astrologers — almost certainly Persian or Babylonian — who follow a star to Jerusalem asking where the child born king of the Jews is to be found. They find the child in Bethlehem, offer gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and return home by another way after being warned in a dream not to return to Herod. They are the first Gentiles in Matthew’s gospel to recognize the child. The number three is later tradition; the gospel does not specify.

The first disciple called (4:18–20). He walks on water and sinks (14:28–31). He confesses Jesus as the Christ at Caesarea Philippi (16:13–20) and receives the rock saying — you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church — and the keys of the kingdom. He denies Jesus three times in the courtyard during the Passion (26:69–75) and weeps bitterly. He is on the mountain in Galilee at the close with the eleven.

The prophet who prepares the way. Dressed in camel hair with a leather belt, eating locusts and wild honey, preaching at the Jordan, baptizing with a baptism of repentance. He baptizes Jesus over his own protest. He is arrested in chapter 4, which triggers Jesus’ Galilean ministry. He sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the one to come (11). He is beheaded at Herod’s banquet in chapter 14. Jesus identifies him as the Elijah who was to come (11:14, 17:12).

One of the Twelve who agrees to betray Jesus to the chief priests for thirty pieces of silver (26:14–16). He leads the arresting party to Gethsemane and identifies Jesus with a kiss (26:47–50). When Jesus is condemned, Judas repents, returns the thirty pieces of silver, and hangs himself (27:3–10). Matthew’s account of his death and the potter’s field is the fullest of the gospel accounts and quotes Zechariah 11. The thirty pieces of silver as the price of the betrayal are unique to Matthew.

The primary institutional opposition in the gospel, appearing throughout. They challenge Jesus’ authority to forgive sins (9:3), his fellowship with sinners (9:11), his disciples’ plucking grain on the Sabbath (12:2), his healing on the Sabbath (12:10), and his refusal to produce a sign (12:38, 16:1). Chapter 23 is the sustained polemic: seven woes, whitewashed tombs, blind guides, brood of vipers. They collaborate in the plot against Jesus’ life (12:14, 26:3–5) and in the posting of guards at the tomb (27:62–66).

Two Herods appear in Matthew. Herod the Great, king at the time of Jesus’ birth, who orders the slaughter of the male infants of Bethlehem and whose death allows the holy family’s return from Egypt (chapters 1–2). His son Herod Antipas, the tetrarch, who arrests and beheads John the Baptist at the request of his step-daughter after a banquet oath (chapter 14). The two Herods bookend the infancy and the Galilean ministry.

The Roman governor who presides over the trial and sentencing of Jesus in chapter 27. In Matthew’s account he declares himself innocent of the blood of this righteous man and washes his hands while the crowd calls down the blood on themselves and their children (27:24–25). The washing-of-hands gesture and the crowd’s response are unique to Matthew and have had an enormous and sometimes tragic history of interpretation. His wife warns him not to have anything to do with that righteous man because of a dream she has had (27:19).

One of the women who watch the crucifixion from afar (27:55–56), who are present at the burial (27:61), and who come to the tomb at dawn on the first day of the week (28:1). In Matthew’s account she and “the other Mary” encounter the angel, are told Jesus has risen, and meet the risen Jesus himself on their way to tell the disciples. They grasp his feet and worship him. Mary Magdalene is the first named witness of the resurrection in Matthew’s gospel.

The high priest at the time of the Passion, in whose palace the council meets that decides Jesus must die (26:3, 26:57–68). He presides over the night trial where Jesus is condemned for blasphemy after claiming he is the Christ, the Son of God, and predicting that the chief priests will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven. He tears his robes and declares the blasphemy established. Named only by Matthew and John among the gospel writers.