Matthew — Claims Ledger
Pericope-by-pericope. See README.md for the claim-type/status legend. "Flag:
major" marks a checkable claim substantial enough to warrant its own priority in the pending
queue, ahead of strict verse order, when this campaign resumes.
| Ref | Pericope | Claim type | Status | Doc / note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1:1–17 | Genealogy of Jesus | Checkable | Drafted | genealogies-of-jesus.md |
| 1:18–25 | Birth of Jesus; virgin birth; Isaiah 7:14 citation | Checkable | Drafted | nativity-chronology.md |
| 2:1–12 | Visit of the Magi; the star | Checkable | Drafted | nativity-chronology.md |
| 2:13–15 | Flight to Egypt | Checkable | Drafted | nativity-chronology.md |
| 2:16–18 | Slaughter of the Innocents | Checkable | Drafted | nativity-chronology.md |
| 2:19–23 | Return to Nazareth; "he shall be called a Nazarene" | Checkable | Drafted | nativity-chronology.md |
| 3:1–6 | John the Baptist's ministry | Checkable | Pending | Independently corroborated figure (Josephus, Antiquities 18.5.2) — good early candidate |
| 3:7–12 | John's preaching to Pharisees/Sadducees | Theological | Noted | Ethical/prophetic content, no external check |
| 3:13–17 | Baptism of Jesus | Mixed | Pending | Checkable: place/timing near John's ministry. Theological: the heavenly voice, dove |
| 4:1–11 | Temptation in the wilderness | Theological | Noted | Private, witnessless by the narrative's own account — no possible external check |
| 4:12–17 | Jesus relocates to Capernaum | Checkable | Pending | Place-name/geography claim |
| 4:18–22 | Calling of Peter, Andrew, James, John | Checkable | Pending | Named individuals, occupations |
| 4:23–25 | Ministry summary | Mixed | Pending | Crowd/geography claims mixed with generic healing summary |
| 5:1–7:29 | Sermon on the Mount (entire) | Theological | Noted | Ethical teaching; the "mountain" setting itself is unspecified and not independently locatable |
| 8:1–4 | Cleansing a leper | Mixed | Pending | See open question on miracle-claims as a class, below |
| 8:5–13 | Centurion's servant | Checkable | Pending | Roman centurion presence in Capernaum — plausible, checkable against known garrison patterns |
| 8:14–17 | Healing Peter's mother-in-law, and many others | Mixed | Pending | Implies Peter was married — relevant to twelve-apostles.md |
| 8:18–22 | Would-be followers; "foxes have holes" | Theological | Noted | |
| 8:23–27 | Calming the storm | Mixed | Pending | |
| 8:28–34 | Gadarene/Gerasene demoniacs | Checkable | Pending | Flag: major — the place name itself varies by manuscript and by Gospel (Gadarenes/Gerasenes/Gergesenes), a clean self-contained geography case |
| 9:1–8 | Healing a paralytic | Mixed | Pending | |
| 9:9–13 | Calling of Matthew (the tax collector) | Checkable | Pending | |
| 9:14–17 | Question about fasting; new wine in old wineskins | Theological | Noted | |
| 9:18–26 | Jairus's daughter; woman with the flow of blood | Mixed | Pending | |
| 9:27–31 | Two blind men healed | Mixed | Pending | |
| 9:32–34 | Mute demoniac healed | Mixed | Pending | |
| 9:35–38 | "The harvest is plentiful" | Theological | Noted | |
| 10:1–4 | The Twelve named and commissioned | Checkable | Drafted | twelve-apostles.md |
| 10:5–42 | Missionary discourse | Theological | Noted | |
| 11:1–19 | John the Baptist's question from prison; Jesus on John | Mixed | Pending | |
| 11:20–24 | Woes on Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum | Checkable | Pending | Place-name/geography claims |
| 11:25–30 | Thanksgiving; "come to me, all who labor" | Theological | Noted | |
| 12:1–8 | Grainfields on the Sabbath | Theological | Noted | Legal/religious argument, not a factual claim |
| 12:9–14 | Healing a withered hand | Mixed | Pending | |
| 12:15–21 | God's chosen servant (Isaiah citation) | Theological | Noted | |
| 12:22–32 | Beelzebul controversy | Mixed | Pending | |
| 12:33–37 | "A tree is known by its fruit" | Theological | Noted | |
| 12:38–42 | Sign of Jonah | Theological | Noted | |
| 12:43–45 | Return of the unclean spirit | Theological | Noted | |
| 12:46–50 | Jesus's mother and brothers | Checkable | Pending | Flag: major — named siblings appear elsewhere (Mark 6:3: James, Joseph, Judas, Simon), directly relevant to later claims about a "James, brother of Jesus" (cf. the James Ossuary controversy) |
| 13:1–53 | Parables (sower, weeds, mustard seed, leaven, hidden treasure, pearl, net, etc.) | Theological | Noted | |
| 13:54–58 | Rejection at Nazareth | Checkable | Pending | Hometown, family named, "carpenter's son" occupation claim |
| 14:1–12 | Death of John the Baptist | Checkable | Pending | Flag: major — independently corroborated event (Josephus, Antiquities 18.5.2) but with a different stated motive and no Salome-dance detail; a strong first case study for cross-checking a Gospel account against a named non-Christian historian |
| 14:13–21 | Feeding the 5,000 | Mixed | Pending | Crowd-count claim |
| 14:22–33 | Walking on water | Mixed | Pending | |
| 14:34–36 | Healings at Gennesaret | Mixed | Pending | Place-name claim |
| 15:1–20 | Tradition of the elders; defilement | Theological | Noted | |
| 15:21–28 | The Canaanite woman's faith | Mixed | Pending | Place: district of Tyre and Sidon |
| 15:29–31 | Healing many by the Sea of Galilee | Mixed | Pending | |
| 15:32–39 | Feeding the 4,000 | Mixed | Pending | Crowd-count claim |
| 16:1–4 | Sign of Jonah (again) | Theological | Noted | |
| 16:5–12 | Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees | Theological | Noted | |
| 16:13–20 | Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi | Mixed | Pending | Checkable: place (Caesarea Philippi, a real, locatable Herodian city). Theological: the confession itself |
| 16:21–28 | First prediction of death and resurrection | Theological | Noted | |
| 17:1–13 | Transfiguration | Mixed | Pending | |
| 17:14–20 | Healing a boy with seizures | Mixed | Pending | |
| 17:22–23 | Second prediction | Theological | Noted | |
| 17:24–27 | Temple tax; coin in the fish's mouth | Checkable | Pending | The Temple tax itself was a real, documented Jewish custom (cf. Josephus) — separable from the miracle detail |
| 18:1–35 | Discourse on the church (greatest in the kingdom, lost sheep, church discipline, unforgiving servant) | Theological | Noted | |
| 19:1–12 | Teaching on divorce | Theological | Noted | |
| 19:13–15 | Blessing the children | Theological | Noted | |
| 19:16–30 | The rich young man | Theological | Noted | |
| 20:1–16 | Workers in the vineyard | Theological | Noted | |
| 20:17–19 | Third prediction | Theological | Noted | |
| 20:20–28 | Request of James and John's mother | Checkable | Pending | Named individuals |
| 20:29–34 | Two blind men at Jericho | Mixed | Pending | Place: Jericho |
| 21:1–11 | Triumphal entry | Checkable | Pending | Flag: major — place (Bethphage, Bethany, Mount of Olives), the donkey/colt detail (Matthew alone has Jesus riding two animals, a plausible misreading of the Hebrew parallelism in Zechariah 9:9), and crowd-size claims |
| 21:12–17 | Cleansing the Temple | Checkable | Pending | Flag: major — a public, disruptive act in a heavily-documented location (the Temple, extensively described by Josephus); zero independent corroboration despite the setting |
| 21:18–22 | Cursing the fig tree | Mixed | Pending | |
| 21:23–27 | Question about authority | Theological | Noted | |
| 21:28–32 | Parable of the two sons | Theological | Noted | |
| 21:33–46 | Parable of the tenants | Theological | Noted | |
| 22:1–14 | Parable of the wedding feast | Theological | Noted | |
| 22:15–22 | "Render unto Caesar" | Checkable | Pending | Roman taxation and the denarius bearing Caesar's image are well-documented; the episode itself is not externally attested |
| 22:23–33 | Sadducees and the resurrection | Theological | Noted | |
| 22:34–40 | The greatest commandment | Theological | Noted | |
| 22:41–46 | Whose son is the Christ? | Theological | Noted | |
| 23:1–36 | Woes against the scribes and Pharisees | Mixed | Pending | Contains some claims about Pharisaic practice checkable against later rabbinic sources |
| 23:37–39 | Lament over Jerusalem | Theological | Noted | |
| 24:1–51 | Olivet Discourse (Temple destruction prediction, signs of the end) | Checkable | Pending | Flag: major — the Temple destruction prediction (fulfilled 70 CE) is central to dating Matthew's own composition; this is one of the most consequential single claims in the book for establishing when the text itself was written |
| 25:1–46 | Parables (ten virgins, talents, sheep and goats) | Theological | Noted | |
| 26:1–5 | Plot to kill Jesus | Checkable | Drafted | Caiaphas ossuary — in-book Note [17] |
| 26:6–13 | Anointing at Bethany | Checkable | Drafted | Four-Gospel harmonization problem (Matthew/Mark vs. Luke vs. John — different women, settings, timing), in-book Note [53] (added 2026-07-27) |
| 26:14–16 | Judas's bargain — thirty pieces of silver | Checkable | Drafted | Covered in-book, explicitly flagged as unverifiable from outside — the correct treatment per method, not a gap |
| 26:17–30 | The Last Supper | Checkable | Drafted | Flag: major, now resolved in-book — Synoptic/John Passover-timing contradiction covered, in-book Note [18] |
| 26:31–35 | Prediction of Peter's denial | Theological | Noted | |
| 26:36–46 | Gethsemane | Checkable | Drafted | Covered in-book; prayer content correctly flagged as witnessless |
| 26:47–56 | Betrayal and arrest | Checkable | Drafted | Covered in-book |
| 26:57–68 | Trial before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin | Checkable | Drafted | Flag: major, now resolved in-book — Mishnah procedural-violation case, in-book Note [19] |
| 26:69–75 | Peter's denial | Theological | Noted | |
| 27:1–2 | Jesus handed over to Pilate | Checkable | Drafted | pontius-pilate.md + in-book prose |
| 27:3–10 | Judas's death by hanging | Checkable | Drafted | Contradicts Acts 1:18 — flagged in twelve-apostles.md §1; Field of Blood/Jeremiah-vs-Zechariah misattribution, in-book Note [51] |
| 27:11–26 | Trial before Pilate; hand-washing; Barabbas | Checkable | Drafted | pontius-pilate.md |
| 27:27–31 | Roman soldiers mock Jesus | Checkable | Drafted | Philo's Carabas mockery (In Flaccum 6.36-39) as an independent parallel ritual, in-book Note [54] (added 2026-07-27) |
| 27:32–44 | Crucifixion — Simon of Cyrene, Golgotha, the titulus, two thieves | Checkable | Drafted | Covered in-book |
| 27:45–56 | Death of Jesus — darkness, the temple veil torn, earthquake, saints raised | Checkable | Drafted | Flag: major, now resolved in-book — the cleanest Gap Table "legendary accretion" case in the book, in-book Note [20] |
| 27:57–61 | Burial by Joseph of Arimathea | Checkable | Drafted | Covered in-book |
| 27:62–66 | Guard placed at the tomb | Checkable | Drafted | Covered in-book; "unique to Matthew" theme preserved |
| 28:1–10 | Empty tomb; women as first witnesses | Checkable | Drafted | Flag: major, now resolved in-book — Josephus on women's testimony credibility, in-book Note [52] (added 2026-07-27) |
| 28:11–15 | Guards bribed; the "stolen body" counter-story | Checkable | Drafted | Covered in-book; unique to Matthew |
| 28:16–20 | The Great Commission | Theological | Noted |
Open method note: miracle claims as a class
A recurring "Mixed" pattern above (healings, nature miracles) raises a question this ledger
defers rather than resolves ad hoc per pericope: what does "checkable" even mean for a
reported miracle? No amount of independent evidence can confirm or refute that a specific
1st-century healing was supernatural in origin. What can be checked, where evidence exists,
is the surrounding claim — was there a real place, a real crowd, a plausible illness — while the
miracle attribution itself sits outside any evidence's reach in either direction. When this
campaign returns to draft the individual healing-narrative pericopes, they should get a shared
short method note (likely appended to this file or split into its own
docs/gospel/miracle-claims-as-a-class.md) rather than re-litigating this in every entry.