MATTHEW’S ERRORS, DISTORTIONS & MISQUOTATIONS

Hugh Fogelman

Over twenty times in the gospel of Matthew, the author goes out of his way to tell of prophecy-fulfillment. By doing so, the author of Matthew had to misquote, misinterpret verses in his favor, take verses out of context, or simply make them up to reach his goal. Comparing what the author of Matthew wrote to the Original Text―The SOURCE―the Jewish Bible; we find the following:

CONTRADICTS TANAKH (Jewish Bible)

Matthew 1:2-15 – His list of generations does not agree with l Chronicles Ch. 1-3

Matt. 1:16 – Was too busy making Jesus come from David that he forgot Jewish law. The Jewish Scriptures clearly state that a person’s genealogy and tribal membership is transmitted exclusively through one’s PHYSICAL father (Numbers 1:18 Jeremiah 33:17)

Matt.5:43 – had Jesus say, “thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.” Leviticus 19:18 does not mention any enemy, only “…love thy neighbour as thyself.”

Matt. 15:11 – “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.” Contradicted by all the dietary laws in the Tanakh.

MISQUOTING, TAKING OUT OF CONTEXT AND ALTERING ISAIAH

Matt. 1:23 – Mistakenly uses the Septuagint word for virgin instead of Hebrew “Alma”

Matt. 1:23 – Misquotes Isaiah 7:14, “they” will call Jesus Immanuel, whereas Isaiah wrote “his mother” would call him Immanuel – not “they”.

Matt. 3:3 – Misinterprets and alters Isaiah 40:3 – “Prepare the way of the Lord.” Not so.
Matt. 4:15 – Added “Galilee of the Gentiles” to Isaiah 9:1-2. Not in the Hebrew Tanakh.

Matt. 8:17 – Took Isaiah 53:4 out of context – Isaiah was relating to a leper (nagua).

Matt. 12:17-21 – Taking Isaiah 42:1-4 out of context – the Servant was Israel four times. And then changes verse 21 to read: "and in his name shall the gentiles trust" (Isaiah 42.1-4).

Matt. 13.14-15 – Took out of context Isaiah 6:9-10 of people being “blind”

MISQUOTING AND DISTORTING JEWISH PROPHETS

Matt. 2:5-6 – Misinterprets Micah 5:2 - the Messiah coming from Bethlehem. It was David a Bethlemite, born in Bethlehem and from his seed would come the messiah.

Matt. 2:15 –Taking Hosea 11:1 out of context, Jesus being called out of Egypt

Matt. 2:17-18 – Distorts meaning of Jeremiah 31:1-17 of Rachel weeping.

Matt. 11.10 – By changing the pronoun in Malachi 3.1 “before ME” or “before YOU”?

Matt. 13:35 – The Christ will speak in parables – distorting Psalm 78:2

Matt. 21:1-7 – Jesus riding on two donkeys at the same time – good trick - (Zechariah 9:9)

Matt. 22:43-44 – Capitalizes the second lord – altering the meaning of Psalm 110:1

Matt. 23:35 Mistakenly gave Zechariah’s father the wrong son. Zechariah was the son of Jehoiada, not Barachiah. II Chronicles 24:20--21

Matt. 27:9 – Quoted the wrong prophet – was not Jeremiah but Zechariah

Matt. 27:9 – Book of Zechariah was never about any “potter’s field”

CONTRADICTS OTHER GOSPELS

Matt 2.12 – Contradicts Luke about going to Egypt after Jesus’ birth.

Matt 9:9 – Becoming one of the 12 conflicts with Luke and John.

Matt 27:57-66 – Disagrees with Mark, Luke and John at the “burial scene”

MAKING UP STORIES

Matt Chapter 2 not verified by any other writer and not logical

Matt 2:16 – Got mixed up about Pharaoh & Herod’s Killing of the innocent babies (read the infanticide in Exodus 1:15-22 regarding Pharaoh being told of the Messiah)

Matt 2:23 – Jesus dwelt in a city called Nazareth that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene”. No prophet ever said this.

Matt 23:37 - [thou] that killest the prophets. Which prophets did the Jewish people kill?

Matt 27:51 - And behold the veil of the temple was rent in twain – event never happened

Matt 27:52 - The graves were opened and the dead went to Jerusalem – never happened
Matthew 9:9 -The author wrote in the third person. This was unusual as no other author wrote that way. Makes one wonder if Matthew himself wrote this book.

Christians should clearly see that the author of Matthew was not G-dly inspired. Would the Holy Spirit, as Christians claim, make such gross mistakes―that is if the Spirit were guiding the writing of such a document? Why would the Holy Spirit use such a man to write a so-called “inspired” document who does not even know his own Bible, the Tanakh?

Two things are known:

(1) Matthew, IF he was Jewish, knew very little Hebrew and did not understand the Tanakh (the Jewish Bible), and

(2) He knew very little about Jewish law, since he relied so much on the Greek Septuagint.

The author of Matthew was using the Septuagint 'LXX'―the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible compiled in the 2nd century BCE for the Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora.

The Jewish Scribes and Rabbis only translated the first 5 books of Moses in the LXX Septuagint and there is no record who wrote the rest of the Tanakh. Presumably they were not Jews. That means that the Greeks translated Isaiah and the prophets and are responsible for the changing of the word “young woman” in the Hebrew to “virgin” in the Greek. This is a blatant mistranslation.

Mathew wrote; “…from the blood of righteous Abel unto Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar” (23:35). According to Tanakh, it was Zechariah (Zacharias) son of Jehoiada who was killed by the Temple (ll Chronicles 24:20-21). There is no evidence in the Tanakh or in any other writings that Zechariah the Prophet was murdered, let alone killed in the Temple. The First Temple had already been destroyed in Zechariah the Prophet’ time.

When you find one or two events as not being true, you end up having huge doubts as to overall reliability of this book. When you find over 20 events that are not true, altered, questionable (based upon no facts or distorted facts) or contradicts other writers, the whole book ends up being fiction or questionable as to just how truthful is it.

A Christian searching for the truth should ask: Why did Matthew have to go to such lengths to sell his new religion? Couldn’t it stand on its own merits?

Did God inspire Matthew? I don't think so! Was Matthew biased? Definitely!

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