I can't find any mention of "subscriptions" in matthew.
This says the earileiest anyone is willing to propose is 63.
Date of gospel
Biblical scholars generally hold that Matthew was composed between the years
c. 70 and 100. [
72] [
73] [
74] [
75] A minority of scholars believe, however, that the gospel could have been written as early as 63 AD. [
8]
Ignatius seemed to have knowledge of four Pauline epistles and the Gospel of Matthew" [
76] , which gives a
terminus ad quem of
c. 110. The author of the
Didache (
c 100) probably knew it as well. [
7] Many scholars see the prophecy of the
siege and destruction of Jerusalem [
77] as suggesting a date of composition after the year 70. [
78] However,
John A. T. Robinson argues that the lack of a passage indicating the fulfillment of the prophecy suggests an earlier date. [
79] . Futhermore the
Gospel of Matthew does not mention the death of James in 62 nor the persecutions of the early Christians by Nero.
This view has been challenged by two scholars almost a century apart, The Reverend C. B. Huleatt and Carsten Peter Thiede. In December 1994, Carsten Peter Thiede redated the Magdalen papyrus, which bears a fragment from the Gospel of Matthew, to roughly the year 60 on palaeographical grounds, and thus the Gospel of Matthew could have been written by an eye-witness to Jesus. [80] [81] [82] According to many scholars, however, it is not necessary for the gospel to have been written at an early date, in order for the apostle to have written it. [8] Many scholars who hold that the apostle wrote the gospel contend that Matthew's old age might have been the motivating factor behind the writing of the book.
