With Matthew's gospel we are dealing with a book written for a different early Christian readership in another location and facing its own particular set of problems. Virtually all scholars are agreed that Matthew, like Mark, was composed in an urban environment, possibly with a fairly wealthy readership in mind. The location has traditionally been at Antioch, the capital of the province of Syria and the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire. In favour of Antioch is the city's Greek-speaking gentile character together with its large Jewish population; the long existence of Christianity in the city (since the 30s according to Acts 11.19–26); and the fact that Matthew's gospel seems to have been known and possibly quoted in the early second century by Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch. Although this is still a widely held view, a growing number of scholars suggest that the gospel may have originated much closer to Palestine, possibly in a city of upper Galilee or Syro-Phoenicia. In support of such a location is the close contact it would afford with emerging rabbinic Judaism (a contact for which there is very little evidence at Antioch) and the fact that the gospel must have originated somewhere where Jewish influence was strong enough to bring serious trouble to Christian believers (10.17, 23). Although it is impossible to be certain, this geographical area does make good sense of the pictures both of Judaism and of Pilate which emerge from Matthew and will be taken as the general area of origin in the following discussion.