Contrary to Epiphaniuss assertions, he may have not had access to the Gospel according to the Hebrews at all, and scholars generally label his source, which frequently harmonizes passages in the Synoptic Gospels, as the Gospel according to the Ebionites to distinguish it from the former text. Could Ancient Sparta Defeat Ancient Rome? [30] Warren Carter underscores how Papiass erroneous supposition served to underline the antiquity of this gospel and link it to the apostles.[31], Another option is that Papias was referring to a lost source. in Mt. The debate over the authorship of Matthews Gospel usually focuses on the replacement of Levi, the son of Alphaeus, with Matthew (Matt 9:9; contra Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27) and the addition of the descriptor the toll collector after Matthews name (Matt 10:3; contra Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). Jesus speaking or understanding Greek is the least controversial of the three. had his name changed from Levi to Matthew likely by Jesus Himself who changed Simon's name to Peter. 3.39.1, 15), which subtly contrasts with an exclusive interest in the Lords logoi or sayings (3.39.14). [43] Further, the Gospel according to the Ebionites features a pun that only works in Greek (cf. [33] For lexical discussion and debate about the term logion in Papiass vocabulary (cf. Meier, The Vision of Matthew, 24; Luz, Matthew 820, 32, 32n.14. 4. It's unclear why Matthew/Levi was called by both names. This makes it doubtful that Matthew 9:9 was intended as either the evangelists self-reference or as a pseudonymous literary device supplementing the ascription of this Gospel to Matthew. However, Mark . [13] The thesis that the first canonical Gospel was published under the name of a pseudonym is defended by George D. Kilpatrick, The Origins of the Gospel according to St. Matthew (Oxford: Clarendon, 1946), 13839. I. According to Matthew 9:9 and Mark 2:14, Matthew was sitting by the customs house in Capernaum (near modern Almagor, Israel, on the Sea of Galilee) when Jesus called him into his company. The fact that three of the four Gospels recount the calling by Jesus of the tax collector Levi is important. He left Judea and carried the Gospel to Ethiopia where he was martyred while celebrating a mass at the altar of a small church he had started. Follow me, Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Consequently, the evangelist wrote Matthew into the Markan story of the toll collector in Matthew 9:9. Jesus was very popular in the Capernaum area where He and Levi lived and it is sure Levi had seen and heard the Nazarene. [1] For the range of theories accounting for the redactional changes in Matthew 9:9 and 10:3, see the helpful summaries compiled by Joachim Gnilka, Das Matthusevangelium, HTKNT (Freiburg: Herder, 1986), 1.330-31; W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, The Gospel According to Matthew: Matthew VIIIXVIII, ICC (London and New York: T&T Clark, 2006), 2.9899; cf. 16:18) Mark and Luke were probably stunned by Jesus inclusion of a hated tax collector in His Twelve. Some scholars believe that the tax-collector simply had two names, one in Greek (Matthew) and the other in Hebrew (Levi). In Matthew's parabolic aside, the wisest advice Pilate got that day -- our Good Friday -- was from his wife: "Have nothing to do with that innocent man" (27:19). As most of us know, the tax collector named Levi became Saint Matthew. The Gospel of Mark at the beginning of this article is not the only Gospel which gives an account of the calling of the tax collector Levi aka Matthew. Sextus Julius AfricanusWhy Did The Magi Come ? When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? On hearing this, Jesus said,It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. News and Interpretations on the Bible and Ancient Near East History. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Teilband 1, ed. Saint Matthew's decision lives on into eternity and benefited not millions . Because Matthews original purpose was to prove to his Jewish brethren that Jesus is their Mashiach/Messiah, he included in his Gospel nine proof texts from the Old Testament which Jesus fulfilledMatthew 1:22,23; 2:15; 2:17,18; 2:23; 4:14-16; 8:17; 12:17-21; 13:35; 27:9,10. Some Patristic interpreters guessed that the evangelists Mark and Luke called Matthew by his less popular name Levi out of deference for his apostolic status, while Matthew himself had the humility to confess that he was once employed in a disreputable profession under his better-known name (e.g., John Chrysostom, When Origen of Alexandria searched for a parallel for why Saul was surnamed Paul in the preface of his. Band: Evangelien und Verwandtes. Vir. From the place where he collected taxes near the Sea of Galilee (probably on the outskirts of Capernaum), Matthew may often have heard Jesus speak and must have known about his many miracles. Frey, Die Fragmente des Nazorerevangeliums, 626; Gregory, Media, Video and Lectures From The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies of the University of Arizona, Teaching the Bible in Public Schools and Higher Ed, Scholars, Frauds, the Media and the Public, Essays on Minimalism from Bible and Interpretation, Final Reports on the Yehoash Inscription and James Ossuary from the Israeli Antiquities Authority, Essays on the James Ossuary and the Temple Tablet from Bible and Interpretation, University of Arizona, Center for Judaic Studies, Department of Archaeology and Art History, University of Evansville. However, most scholars think that the tax collector Levi (not Zacchaeus) and Matthew were the same person based on these three verses: - Matthew 9:9 - "And as Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man, called Matthew, sitting in the tax office; and He *said to . When Jesus called Levi, Jesus never told him, "Repent, and follow Me." Jesus only said, "Follow Me." Jesus sought out someone like Levi, who was in need of God's mercy and helped him to make a decision to follow Jesus; that is to turn to God. 12.13; Is. The fact of one man having two names is of frequent occurrence among the Jews. A beam of light illuminates the faces of the men at the table who are looking at Jesus Christ. Outside the New Testament, a statement of importance about him is the passage from the Apostolic Father Papias of Hierapolis preserved by Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea: So then Matthew composed the Oracles in the Hebrew language, and each one interpreted them as he could. The Gospel According to Matthew was certainly written for a Jewish-Christian church in a strongly Jewish environment, but that this Matthew is definitely the Synoptic author is seriously doubted. Jesus came to give us the same choice he gave . (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 166; Hagner, Matthew 113, 238; Carson, Matthew, 224; Ben Witherington III, Matthew (Macon: Smyth & Helywys, 2006), 197; Osbourne, Matthew, 334; Powers, Progressive Publication, 2829. [8] See Barnabas Lindars, Matthew, Levi, Lebbaeus and the Value of the Western TextNTS 4 (1957-58): 220-22; Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 3rd ed., (London: New York, 1975), 26, 81; Brent Nongbri, Matthew and Levi (and James), Variant Readings (blog), May 21, 2018, https://brentnongbri.com/2018/05/21/matthew-and-levi-and-james/. The Testimonium Flavianum Question (My Two Cents), The Bible is Accurate Manuscript Evidence, Sayings From the Bible in the 21st Century, Colors & Dyes For Clothing in Ancient Rome, Thanksgiving: First Foods, First Friends1620, Ancient Ossuaries Uncover Biblical Truths. Most general Bible readers have the mistaken impression that Matthew, the opening book of the New Testament, must be our first and earliest Gospel, with Mark, Luke and John following. [37] See B. H. Streeter, The Four Gospels: A Study of Origins (London: MacMillan, 1924). Teilband 1, ed. Moreover, the Hebrew itself is preserved to this day in the library at Caesarea, which the martyr Pamphilus so diligently collected. [16] This English translation of the Greek text is taken from Michael W. Holmes, editor, The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations (rev. [22] Krzinger, Papias, 22; Gundry, Matthew, 619; Pre-Papian Tradition, xxi, 68; cf. Ps. He invited his friends to a feast, where they could meet Jesus. The answer is very simple. The Western reading attested in Codex Bezae that switched Thaddaeus with Lebbaeus, the Latinized form of Levi, in the list of the twelve apostles in Mark 3:18, influenced the textual transmission of Matthew 10:3. Papiass notice that Matthew addressed a Palestinian Jewish audience in their own vernacular language (i.e., Aramaic) was repeated in subsequent Patristic literature (e.g., Irenaeus, As for Jerome, he boasted that he translated the, The majority position among the experts is that the fragments Jerome inherited from the Nazarenes do not derive from the. December 29, 2020 7:00 AM EST. The Calling of Matthew is an episode in the life of Jesus which appears in all three synoptic gospels, Matthew 9:9-13, Mark 2:13-17 and Luke 5:27-28, and relates the initial encounter between Jesus and Matthew, the tax collector who . Jesus sent out 70 Disciples to preach His Good News. Additionally, specialists on the Synoptic Problem generally hold that Matthews Gospel reproduced over 90 percent of Marks content, improved Marks grammar and style, and edited out Marks transliterated Aramaic terms. [13] Moreover, Matthew hardly features more as a character in the narrative than in the other two Synoptic Gospels to be the key source of the Matthean traditions. 6.25.4; Epiphanius, Pan. Hence, Eusebius corrected Irenaeus by substituting the Gospel according to the Hebrews as the Ebionitess preferred Gospel (h.e. h.e. [2] For some examples, see Robert Gundry, The Use of the Old Testament in St. Matthews Gospel: With Special Reference to the Messianic Hope(Leiden: Brill, 1975), 183; David Hill, The Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972), 1; R. T. France, Matthew: Evangelist and Teacher (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989), 6768; Leon Morris, The Gospel according to Matthew (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 14; Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 113 (Dallas: Word, 1993), lxxvi; D. A. Carson, Matthew: Chapters 1 through 12 (EBC; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 1819; Grant R. Osbourne, Matthew, ECNT (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 34; B. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2017), 1089; cf. Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27), but some commentators factor this verse in as evidence for the Matthean authorship of the first canonical Gospel or, at a minimum, for one of its major sources. See Krtner, Papias, 2045; Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus and the Adulteress NTS 34 (1988): 2444, 29; Philipp Vielhauer and Georg Strecker, Jewish Christian Gospels, in New Testament Apocrypha I: Gospels and Related Writings, ed. 3.25.5; cf. He was thirty-one years old and married and had four children. The next disciple that Jesus called was Levi (Matthew). Matthew authored the first Gospel of the . with Q or M may depend on a given scholars acceptance or not of the Four Source theory as classically formulated. Jesus did not call us because of our righteousness or gifting. Luke 6:12-26. [39] Edwards (Hebrew Gospel, 210) identifies Matthews oracles in h.e. The best way to think about the Greek language during the time of Jesus is to think about modern-day English. This English translation of the Greek text is taken from Michael W. Holmes, editor, Matthew Black, The Use of Rhetorical Terminology in Papias on Matthew and Mark. ill. 3). 1.62), though these observations contradict Origens argument in his commentary above. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. ill. 3) and, after comparing it to the textual fragments that he received from Jewish Christ-followers living in Beroea known as the Nazarenes, would translate the entire work. Both are true because Matthew and Levi are two names for the same person. Jesus Calls Levi (Matthew). Even so, most readers of the New Testament throughout history have taken the identification of Levi with Matthew for granted. 29.9.4; 30.3.7; 30.13.2; 30.14.3) and Jerome (Epist. Calling of St. Matthew by Alexandre Bida, 1875. Levi had to keep very accurate records. Matthews Gospel has more quotations from and allusions to the Old Testament than any other New Testament author. There are sayings (Matt 13:3643) and stories. 3.1.1; Pantaenus, in Eusebius, h.e. Jefferson himself believed that a person's religion was between them and their god. There are many examples of irresistible grace in God's Word. For objections against this view, see Meier, The Vision of Matthew, 25n.26; Luz, Matthew 820, 32. For two reasons *Jews did not like the men who did that work. Clement, str. He followed Jesus to his death. haer. Matthias was the only one who was not chosen by Jesus . [39] James R. Edwards has revived the older position that Matthew was the author of the Gospel according to the Hebrews and postulates that our Greek Gospel according to Matthew was named in honor of an apostolic figurehead who preserved the Jewish Jesus traditions. As a result, those who reject the academic consensus on Markan priority are often the most open to Papiass claim. For the range of theories accounting for the redactional changes in Matthew 9:9 and 10:3, see the helpful summaries compiled by Joachim Gnilka, Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity: Part I: Palestine 330 BCE 200 CE. Biblical Evidence : Read Mark 2:13-14. Matthew, or Levi, son of Alpheus, was one of the seven who received a call to follow Christ before the ordination of the Twelve. Baum, Ein aramischer Urmatthus, 26364. Tax collectors at that time were known as dishonest and corrupt people. Of course, their hippy-dippy ways are . You're right Zahid, the author of Matthew was a tax collector. Why is Matthew called Levi? [12] Neither Matthew 9:9 nor 10:3 advances an explicit authorial claim. Gundry takes the referent to be the expositors who expounded on Matthews text. 30.13.45), indicating that it was published in Greek at the outset. But Pilate replied, I imagine, "What happens in Jerusalem, stays in . [8] Alternatively, the textual variant that has James instead of Levi as the son of Alphaeus in Mark 2:14 in a handful of manuscripts was plausibly motivated by a desire for uniformity by having a single son of Alphaeus (cf. 7.2627; 14.5960). 2. As a result, those who reject the academic consensus on Markan priority are often the most open to Papiass claim. Matthew, who is also Levi, and who from a publican came to be an apostle, first of all composed a Gospel of Christ in Judaea in the Hebrew language and characters for the benefit of those of the circumcision who had believed. Acts 1:19; 2:6, 8; 21:40; 22:2; 26:14);[22] Krzinger enlists Irenaeus in support of his reading of Papias, despite the fact that Irenaeus used the article when affirming that Matthew wrote to the Hebrews in their dialektos (cf. [17] W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison (A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on The Gospel According to Saint Matthew. Watchthe video below. Volume I: Introduction and Commentary on Matthew IVII, ICC [Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988], 1.12) acknowledge the difficulties in determining whether a text was a translation in the ancient world and the Patristic tradition about Matthew even persuaded an accomplished textual critic like Origen. Matthew had a lucrative, though dishonest, tax collecting business for the occupying Roman government. However, Jesus Christ is of the tribe of Judah. St. Matthew (Matthew 9:10) modestly says, "in the house," keeping himself as much as possible in the background.St. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. F. C. Burkitt, Levi Son of Alphaeus JTS 28 (1927): 27374; Metzger, Textual Commentary, 78; Brent Nongbri, Matthew and Levi. Benjamin Bacon (Studies in Matthew [New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1930], 3940) conjectures that the textual variant in Mark 2:14 predated the composition of Matthews Gospel, leading a pre-Matthean scribe who was transmitting a list of the Twelve that was originally independent of Mark 3:1619 to preface the name James the son of Alphaeus with the title the toll collector. The author of Matthews Gospel, however, copied this list in Matthew 10:24 and wrongly took this scribal insertion in reference to Matthew since James was immediately preceded by Matthew in the list of names. Epiphanius and Jerome later confused the traditional account of the authorship of Matthews Gospel with the origins of the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Thom. [29] Baum, Ein aramischer Urmatthus, 262. For criticism of their theory, see France, Matthew, 70. [40] Conversely, Papias may not have known the Gospel according to the Hebrews at all, instead learning about the woman who was accused of many sins before the Lord from his oral informants in Asia Minor, and Eusebius may have been the one who discovered that this tale was included in the version of the Gospel according to the Hebrews that circulated in his own day. Even if this guy gets over the fact that I'm a tax collector, how could he ever be interested in me? [33] Some scholars equate Matthews oracles with the hypothetical sources Q or M supposedly underlying the double tradition shared by Matthew and Luke and the singly attested traditions in Matthews Gospel respectively. They contend that the conjunction oun (therefore) in Papiass statement about Matthew (3.39.16) was connected to his prior statement about Mark (3.39.15), entailing that Matthew published his narrative of Jesuss life in response to the perceived shortcomings of Marks account. Hence Levi was the original name of the man who was subsequently called Matthew; the Maththaios legomenos of Matthew 9:9, would indicate this. This creates space between Peter and the church's rock. C hristmas Day may be Dec. 25, but it's not the end of Christmas story. J.E. Neither Matthew 9:9 nor 10:3 advances an explicit authorial claim. In spite of this, Jesus went to Levi and invited him to join Jesus' disciples. He was a tax collector who was sitting at his booth. John P. Meier even entertains the option that the evangelist wanted to replace Levi with any of the apostles and Matthew was chosen at random for this aim. "And Peter was the chief . Das Papiaszeugnis zur Entstehung des Matthusevangeliums ZNW 92 (2001): 257272; Nolland, Matthew, 3; Enrico Norelli, Papia di Hierapolis: Esposizione degli Oraculi del signore: I Frammenti (Milan: Figlie di San Paolo, 2005), 32829; David H. Sim, The Gospel of Matthew, John the Elder, and the Papias Tradition: A Response to R. H. Gundry HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 63.1 (2007): 290; Monte Shanks, Papias and the New Testament (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2013), 196; Michael J. Kok, Did Papias of Hierapolis Use the Gospel according to the Hebrews as a Source? JECS 25.1 (2017): 32; Bauckham, Eyewitnesses, 223; Jeannine K. Brown and Kyle Roberts, Matthew (Two Horizons; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 1516. After Jesus grants Peter the keys to the kingdom (see below), Jesus explains . So it is more than probable that Matthew or someone else translated Matthews biography of Christ into Greek in order to spread the Good News beyond the Jews. Hence, Mark listened to Peters chreiai or anecdotes about the Lords sayings and deeds (cf. Mark 10:35) and swapped Salome for her in another (Matt 27:56; cf. [26] Gundry, Matthew, 619; idem, Pre-Papian Tradition, 67. There must have been at least 15-20 people eating in Levis spacious home. - And it came to pass - seems the best reading - as he was sitting at meat in his house.This was the house of Matthew. A few scholars have likened Papiass oracles to a testimonium source or collection of prophetic proof-texts from the Hebrew Bible that were translated and integrated into the Gospel of Matthew.