Matthew And Jesus Comparison

The first clear distinction noticed between the books of Matthew and Mark are the fact that Matthew gives a distinct emphasis upon the genealogy and lineage of Jesus, whereas Mark totally avoids the topic altogether. This should immediately clue the reader into the fact that the focus of these two books is going to be very different. Matthew begins in the very first verse of the book to delve into the genealogy of Jesus Christ. One of the key reasons for this type of beginning in Matthew is the audience to whom the book is focused. The book of Matthew sets forth to present Jesus as the ‘King of the Jews’. In order for this to be effective, Jesus must be shown immediately to have the proper pedigree to be considered as such. Jesus’ genealogy

Other gospels will trace him all the way back to Adam, and will trace the lineage through the line of Mary to present a totally different yet completely consistent view of Christ. Every chapter in Matthew either refers to Jesus as King, has him teaching about the Kingdom through parables, has him seeking out the lost sheep of Israel, or revealing his power and authority as king. The whole message of Matthew is to reveal Jesus to the Jew, as the promised Messiah, the anointed King. Very important to the Jew was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies. According to some sources Jesus fulfilled over 111 prophecies in Matthew alone. Renowned mathematician Prof. Peter Stoner performed some statistical calculations on the probability of one man fulfilling only 8 of the Messianic prophecies. “That probability is 1in 1017 or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. That’s one in one hundred quadrillion!” “When you get to a total of 48, the odds increase to 1 in 10157.” Matthew presents Jesus as the Lion of the tribe of Juda, whereas Mark in great contrast presents Jesus Christ as the lowly ‘Suffering Servant’. In Mark, we find many occasions after following miraculous events, Jesus tells those involved to

At this time, he wasn’t seeking for men to bow down to him, he was on a mission of humility, to serve all of humanity by dying on the cross. Mark skips all the lineage and genealogy of Jesus, because it is not relative to the viewpoint that God wanted presented in this book, and it was directed at a completely different audience. It is believed to have been the first of the gospels written, and is focused on the audience of the Romans which were the ruling Gentile power at that time. No one is interested or concerned with the genealogy or lineage of a servant, and therefore it was excluded to achieve the proper focus. The first eight chapter very clearly reveal the divinity and power of Jesus Christ, as he performed many miracles. This would be significant to the Romans because their whole mentality was geared toward authority, domination, and dominion. The Romans would be very familiar with the many Greek and Roman mythological gods. Therefore, the miracles of Jesus would immediately capture their attention. Unlike Matthew that was very focused on what Jesus said with his many discourses, Mark focused more on the deeds or acts of Jesus. The Romans were