Matthew

We step out of the Old Testament and break the 400 years of silence with this book. Matthew is placed first for a specific reason: it is the perfect bridge. Written by a former tax collector for a Jewish audience, it is obsessed with proving that Jesus is the Messiah promised in the Hebrew Scriptures. You will constantly hear the phrase, "This was done to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet."

Matthew presents Jesus as the new Moses—a teacher who climbs a mountain not to bring a new law of stone, but to deliver the Sermon on the Mount, which outlines the ethics of the Kingdom of Heaven. While Matthew focuses heavily on Jesus' teachings and his royal lineage, the next account strips away the long sermons to focus on pure action in the Gospel of Mark.