19. Matthew's Gospel Late and Spurious.

The gospel of Matthew is in the sights of BORN IN THE SECOND CENTURY's Brighten the Corners miniseries on the late dates and spurious authorship of the New Testament books. Host Chris Palmero discusses the limits of the conventional ways of assigning a date to Matthew's gospel.

Anyone who listens to this episode can learn about how both fundamentalists and mainstream theologians have determined the date of Matthew's gospel, about the likely origin and background of this book, about some honking big anachronisms that are found in it, and about its parallels with Talmudic texts created by the early rabbis - Matthew's true opponents in the creation of this famous second century gospel. 

Opening reading: Matthew's story of the disciples plucking the heads of grain is revealed to be one of the best guides to the way he approached Mark's material.