It is still unknown as to who the original author was of The Good News According to Matthew. Some scholars believe the author to have been Matthew himself, also known as Levi, a former tax collector and one of Yeshua’s 12 disciples. Some regard the The Good News According to Matthew as the most important of all the gospels as it shows the transition from the Old and New Testament in its explanation of the immaculate conception, teaching of the early church, Judaism and the law, and a detailed account of the life and death of Yeshua the Messiah. Filled with parables and life-changing teaching, like the Sermon on the Mount, The Good News According to Matthew teaches us what it looks like to live as a true disciple of Yeshua the Messiah. An important factor in the The Good News According to Matthew is the mention of the Kingdom of God. The word “kingdom” is used 28 times throughout this book. This evokes the question, “What exactly is the Kingdom of God?” We read in other books, “for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” It is understood that the Jews were expecting the coming Messiah to set up and rule over a physical kingdom, but as we see in the text of Matthew, Yeshua’s heavenly perspective is quite different than what some of the Jews had expected. 

Most historians agree that John Mark is the author of this account of the good news and it may have been one of the first Gospels written. Some believe that the timeline of the gospel being written was approximately sometime between the years 65-70 AD, which was shortly after the death of Peter. There are details in The Good News According to Mark that are not in the other Gospels which lead historians to believe that this was written by someone who had been an eye-witness to these events. What also distinguishes this book among the other Gospels is the emphasis of the suffering of Yeshua. This could have been due to the fact that during the time in history around 65 AD, Christians in Rome were experiencing great persecution. Some believe that Mark was attempting to emphasize Yeshua’s suffering in order to bring comfort and encouragement to the Church, which was suffering as a whole. 

The World Messianic Bible is derived from the World English Bible for the benefit of English-speaking Messianic Jews. In this edition, some of the traditional Greek/English names have been replaced with their traditional Hebrew equivalents. In deference to Jewish tradition, the Holy Name is rendered as "Lord" (or when used in combination with "Lord" translated from "Adonai," as "God"). 

Because the World English Bible: Messianic is in the Public Domain (not copyrighted), and it can be freely copied, distributed, and redistributed without any payment of royalties. This (annotated) version is published by Gardner Global Publishing.