Dear reader! Now you are holding in your hands a commentary on a book that, according to church tradition, was written by one of the Lord’s disciples, the Apostle Matthew. This is the Gospel, and it comes first in the list of New Testament works. Probably, every person who decides to read the New Testament also begins by opening this particular Gospel.

Everything is here: scenes of the Nativity and worship of the Eastern sages-magi, recognizable from childhood, the Sermon on the Mount with its stunning, addressed directly to a person’s heart and at the same time in such simple words, short and forever memorable sayings, spread throughout many languages of the world as proverbs and sayings, the Lord’s Prayer, which is said daily by millions of Christians, here is a wealth of wise parables, here is the tragedy of the people of God who did not accept their Savior , here, finally, is a sonorous and solemn language with numerous repetitions, most suitable for liturgical recitative reading. As a rule, people judge the Gospels precisely by this text, which opens the New Testament.