Scholars have come to recognize how thoroughly Hellenized Jewish thought was during the Second Temple Period. Given Walsh’s view of gospel authorship, Greek philosophy would have influenced the education of the elite literate class. Whoever “Matthew” was, he would have been exposed to Stoic ideas in “school”.

From byrnmawr.edu-

Stoicism in Early Christianity
Tuomas Rasimus, Troels Engberg-Pedersen, Ismo Dunderberg, Stoicism in Early Christianity. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2010. xiii, 301. ISBN 9780801039515 $39.99 (pb).

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Stoicism in Early Christianity is a collection of thirteen scholarly essays dedicated to exploring the relationship between Greco-Roman philosophy and the development of Christianity in the first and second century. The editors acknowledge in their introduction that the influence of Middle Platonism upon early Greek and Latin church fathers and the interaction between Platonism and Stoicism are important to elucidating early Christian texts; however, the editors assert that the research presented in their collection shows that Stoicism often bears a more significant influence on early Christian writers than Middle Platonism.

Stoicism in Early Christianity is the most recent and complete survey of scholarship on a topic that has been long neglected. The essays are exceptionally rigorous, far-ranging, and represent a high standard of scholarship, making this collection an essential resource for anyone interested in this area of research. For readers with a limited understand of Stoicism, the book provides an excellent introduction to some of the philosophy’s most important concepts. Stoicism in Early Christianity greatly enriches the appreciation of Christianity as part of the cultural fabric of the Greco-Roman world, and it offers a fresh perspective on the relationship between this popular philosophy and Christianity in its earliest years.

The essays contained in this volume are arranged in a roughly chronological order, beginning with contributions on New Testament authors and concluding with examinations of second century Christian texts.

In “Jesus the Teacher and Stoic Ethics in the Gospel of Matthew,” Stanley K. Stowers proposes that the writer of the Gospel of Matthew adapted elements of Stoic thought in creating his portrayal of Jesus as a sage and a teacher of ethics. Stowers limits his discussion to a few of the most distinctive elements of the Matthean Jesus – the idea of a universal ethic based on divine law, the demand for perfection, and the concept of intentionality.