Introduction to Matthew

This post is to outline my journey into Matthew.  I am going about this study completely objectively to see what I can REALLY extract out of the scriptures to help me grow in my relationship with God.

Very Important Things that I learned here that are not taught in church:

• There is no proof that the book was written by Matthew.  There is no proof to fight it, however from an objective standpoint, it is safe to say the author is "anonymous".  For the sake of my studies, I am still going to call the author Matthew.  I will be presenting enough challenging things in these studies and I don't want people who struggle with content to also struggle with possible author inconsistencies. 
•  The book of Mathew (See?  That is easier to read than "The book of an unproven anonymous author) drew it's information from 3 sources:
• The Gospel of Mark
• The Q Source (see below)
• "Matthews" recollection

The Q Source is the name that they give to a collection of stories of Jesus.  Since several of the gospels have similar stories of Jesus that are narrated in such a similar fashion, it is assumed that the stories were extracted from a pool of stories.  

Both Matthew and Luke create their gospels from the Book of Mark, the Q Source, and personal interaction.  I point this out because it may be found more beneficial to have new followers directed to the Book of Mark or the Book of John to get information on Jesus' life.