GETTING READY: Why was the gospel of Matthew written?

Every book has an intended audience - textbooks are written for students, manuals for users, and novels for bored people looking to escape daily life. So, who was the gospel of Matthew written for? And what does it tell us about this "Good News" that Matthew is talking about?

Matthew's gospel is clearly written for a Jewish Christian audience living within the immediate proximity of the homeland itself. Matthew's is the most Jewish of all the gospels. The community for which Matthew was written was a Jewish Christian community that was encountering some new tensions in the period of reconstruction after the first revolt. It would appear that they've been there for quite some time. They actually show a consciousness of an older legacy of Jesus' tradition, going back to before the war. But now they're experiencing new tensions and new problems in the aftermath of the revolt as a political and social reconstruction is taking place.