Matthew 5:3

Well, in the same way, people have argued that Matthew's gospel displays an unusual interest in money compared to the other gospels.

one place where that happens is in the beatitudes in luke's version of the beatitudes luke 6 20 says and jesus lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of god so here the blessing is pronounced upon the poor the parallel in matthew though reads differently matthew 5 3 says blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven so it isn't blessed are you who are poor but blessed are the poor in spirit that means matthew wants us to understand that it's not just any poor people that inherit the kingdom of god there can be poor people who are selfish and cruel and so obsessed with their own needs that they never think of anybody else they don't have the spirit that would truly characterize poor people who are living in a way that's consistent with god's kingdom and so to clarify that it isn't just any poor people that are blessed matthew adds the words in spirit people who display a true spirit of poverty that's consistent with the kingdom they're the ones who are going to be blessed and that's the kind of thing people point to as evidence that matthew was a tax collector However, not everybody agrees that Matthew wrote this gospel, and to be frank, the evidence for Matthew's authorship of his gospel is not as strong as the evidence for the other three gospels, but I still think he did write it.

There are, though, several objections that we ought to consider.

One objection to the idea that Matthew wrote his gospel is based on its proposed date.

Yeah.

That's why Matthew 5:3 says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Yeah.

Yeah.