There are two principal reasons that Matthew's Gospel has traditionally been thought to have been written for Jews. The first is the traditional attribution of this originally anonymous gospel to the disciple Matthew and the second is its extensive use of references from the Old Testament .
Modern New Testament scholars now say that the Gospel could not have been written by an eyewitness to the events portrayed, which rules out Matthew as the real author. They also point to clear evidence that the Gospel was written in Greek, meaning that it was written for a Greek-speaking audience. Its Old Testament references were taken from the Septuagint and include errors that Palestinian Jews would hve quickly recognised. Matthew's Gospel may perhaps have been written for Jews of the Greek-speaking diaspora, but not for Palestinian Jews.