Matthew's " original name, Levi, suggests that he was a man of the priestly tribe." Levi means " adhesion ." But Matthew was re-Christened " gift " or "given," a profound switch for a tax. Updates? For the debate over whether Mark 2:14 and 3:18 refer to the same individual or to two different individuals named Alphaeus, see Bauckham. Tradition notes his ministry in Judaea, after which he supposedly missioned to the East, suggesting Ethiopia and Persia. He was honored that His Lord considered him such a gift, But as Levi he had immediately joined his life to Jesus and His Mission. Saint Matthew's decision lives on into eternity and benefited not millions . Aelius Theon, Prog. It is beyond the scope of this paper to determine why Matthew was substituted for Levi. Say, Jesus saw Levi and knew that Levi and the other tax collectors needed to know the good news. [35] This leads Dennis MacDonald to maintain that Papiass supposition about the multiple translations of Matthews oracles was an explanation for the dissimilar Greek texts of Q and Matthew. Numerous textual indications point to an author who was a Jewish Christian writing for Christians of similar background. But let's hear Matthew's own account of his calling: [47] Luomanen, Jewish-Christian Sects, 103119; Kok, Gospel According to the Hebrews, 4143; Gregory, Gospel according to the Hebrews, 1417; 4352. 30.3.7; 30.13.214.4), was the Gospel according to the Hebrews, though Epiphanius derided it as the Ebionites mutilation of Matthews Gospel. 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. The reason for Papiass error may simply be that he made the natural assumption that a Galilean Apostle would be writing primarily in Aramaic. [28] Baum, Ein aramischer Urmatthus, 26364. Ps. C hristmas Day may be Dec. 25, but it's not the end of Christmas story. Who translated it after that in Greek is not sufficiently ascertained. 135). Ein Beitrag zur Lsung eines alten Problems ZNW59 (1968): 4056; Mark Kiley, Why Matthew in Matt 9:913Biblica65.3 (1984): 34751; Michael J. Kok, Re-naming the Toll Collector in Matthew 9:9: A Review of the Options JGAR (forthcoming). Hence, Mark listened to Peters chreiai or anecdotes about the Lords sayings and deeds (cf. There is no indication that Matthew wrote anything (contra John 21:24; Gos. 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). The Gospel According to Matthew consequently emphasizes Christ's fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies (5:17) and his role as a new lawgiver whose divine mission was confirmed by repeated miracles. Band: Evangelien und Verwandtes. The other Eleven were ordinary men. Krzingers and Gundrys proposals have varying degrees of persuasiveness, but most scholars have not been swayed by their contention that Papiass words on Matthew have been misread through the centuries. This leads Dennis MacDonald to maintain that Papiass supposition about the multiple translations of Matthews oracles was an explanation for the dissimilar Greek texts of Q and Matthew. High priest Aaron and his sons were descendants of Levi (Exodus 4:14), Levi being a son of Jacob (Genesis 29:34). If these are all references to the same James, that would make James son of Alphaeus the author of the Book of James and one of the three men Paul called "pillars" of the church. 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 . He was included as one of the Evangelists according to the Christian tradition. Until that moment, she'd always thought Jesus was . Pelag. Jesus speaking or understanding Greek is the least controversial of the three. Answer (1 of 3): In Mark, the first New Testament gospel written, Matthew and Levi are very definitely two different people. It is not surprising he watched Jesus carefully and wrote down the first of the four Gospels, the biographies of Jesus of Nazareth. He was thirty-one years old and married and had four children. [45] The majority position among the experts is that the fragments Jerome inherited from the Nazarenes do not derive from the Gospel according to the Hebrews but from a distinct work that scholars have designated as the Gospel according to the Nazarenes. 2:1-10; Acts 8:9-24). Both Eusebius and Epiphanius missed Irenaeuss point that schismatics rejected the fourfold Gospel canon and selected one of the four Gospels, but their doctrines were refuted by the very Gospels that they privileged. Matthew (also known as Levi in the Gospels of Luke and Mark) was a Jewish tax collector, or publican, living in Capernaum. 1. Pet. Legend differs as to the scene of his missions and as to whether he died a natural death or a martyrs. A minority view during the Patristic period was that Levi and Matthew were separate individuals. The fishermen who followed Jesus, and some became His Apostles, had to pay taxes on fishing licenses and perhaps on their daily catch. h.e. Alternate titles: Levi, St. Matthew the Apostle, St. Matthew the Evangelist. Some scholars believe that the tax-collector simply had two names, one in Greek (Matthew) and the other in Hebrew (Levi). Because Levis occupation was one that earned distrust and contempt everywhere, the scribes of the Pharisees criticized Jesus on seeing him eat with tax collectors and sinners, whereupon Jesus answered, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Mark 2:1517). Vielhauer and Strecker, Jewish Christian Gospels, 15465; Klijn. There are sayings (Matt 13:3643) and stories. At best, they were learned and prudent. While He was on the cross, He cried out, "Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani," which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?". Curiously, Origen answered the philosopher Celsuss criticism that Jesus assembled a motley crew of toll collectors and sailors by stressing that Matthew was the sole toll collector within the apostolic circle and that Levi was not numbered among the twelve apostles except for in select manuscripts of Marks Gospel (Cels. [2] B. Mich. 7.6; Is. Matthew did follow Jesus for the rest of his life. The final option is that a non-extant Jewish Gospel stands behind Papiass reference to Matthews oracles or, at least, the New Testament Gospel that bears the name Matthew was mixed up with a Jewish Gospel circulating in Papiass milieu. Clement, str. [38] For the latter view, see France, Evangelist and Teacher, 64-66; Bauckham, Eyewitnesses, 224. Perhaps most plain is the calling of the disciple Matthew, also known as Levi the tax collector. In this post, let us take a deeper . Another option is that Papias was referring to a lost source. 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. 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. They were considered traitors because they worked for the despised Roman rulers. Other scholars suspect that the Nazarenes only supplied Jerome with their own translations and commentary on Matthews Gospel. The important take-away from this detour through the Patristic testimonies was that the oldest tradition was that the evangelist Matthew published a text in Aramaic and left it to more qualified translators to translate it into the form that we have today as the Greek Gospel according to Matthew. A beam of light illuminates the faces of the men at the table who are looking at Jesus Christ. It's unclear why Matthew/Levi was called by both names. Impossible!"[3]. [35] For the general consensus of Q scholars, see Nigel Turner, Q in Recent Thought ExpTim 80 (1968-69): 32428; John S. Kloppenborg, The Formation of Q: Trajectories in Ancient Wisdom (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1987), 5164; Harry T. Fleddermann, Q: A Reconstruction and Commentary (Leuven: Peeters, 2005), 15557; Sarah E. Rollens, Framing Social Criticism in the Jesus Movement: The Ideological Project in the Sayings Gospel Q (Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014), 9193. Slaves Were Lifeless Tools in the Ancient World, Meaning of Names, Places & Things in the Bible, Gardens and the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, The Roman Phalanx & Hannibals Pincer Movement. Biblical Evidence : Read Mark 2:13-14. As he went along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth. Sextus Julius AfricanusWhy Did The Magi Come ? Jefferson himself believed that a person's religion was between them and their god. "Follow me," he said to him. 5.12), and the verb hermeneuein; Papias could have chosen different terminology to highlight Matthews rhetorical style. [7] Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony, 2nd ed. Luke, also, describes his calling: After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. 3.11.7), which is hard to reconcile with the Ebionitess denial of the virginal conception of Jesus (1.26.2; 3.21.1; 5.1.3; contra Matt 1:23). Matthew (Levi) who wrote the first of the Gospels did write it in the Hebrew tongue which at that time was Aramaic. Christoph Markschies und Jens Schrter (Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck 2012), 62354. Vose Seminary Matthias was chosen to be one of the Apostles after Judas of Iscariot had betrayed Jesus and died ( Acts 1:26 NIV). 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. However, Jesus Christ is of the tribe of Judah. Matthew was obviously a small mokhes because he himself was sitting in the tax office as Jesus passed through the outskirts of Capernaum. 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. I. Jerome may have anticipated that he would track down the Gospel according to the Hebrews in Pamphilus library in Caesarea (cf. Therefore, commentators often appeal to Matthew 9:9 and 10:3 as evidence that the Apostle Matthew was capable of composing either the Greek text of the first canonical Gospel or one of the literary sources incorporated into it. The Bible says that Matthew left everything to follow Jesus. He called us when all we had was need. 29.9.4; 30.3.7; Jerome, Vir. Band: Evangelien und Verwandtes. Wright --University of Arizona, Center for Judaic Studies summer | 4.2K views, 92 likes, 102 loves, 53 comments, 67 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from The Ramp: His presence is here, worship with us at Summer. 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. [18] B. C. Butler, The Originality of St Matthew: A Critique of the Two-Document Hypothesis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951), 16566; Albright and Mann, Matthew, XXXVIXLVIII; Powers, Progressive Publication, 4749. Matthew, the seventh apostle, was chosen by Andrew. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2017), 1089; cf. Warren Carter underscores how Papiass erroneous supposition served to underline the antiquity of this gospel and link it to the apostles.. [17] W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison (A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on The Gospel According to Saint Matthew. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). He was a tax collector who was sitting at his booth. Jesus casually says to Levi the tax collector,follow me and Levi got up and followed him. Just like that. [30] For instance, see France, Evangelist and Teacher, 6466; Morris, Matthew, 14; Carson, Matthew, 13 Osborne, Matthew, 34; Brown and Roberts, Matthew, 16. For the theory that Matthew was either the founder of a putative Matthean community or the source of their traditions, see Pesch, Levi-Matthus, 56; Gundry. [4] See Manlio Simonetti, Matthew 113, ACCS New Testament 1a (Downers Grove: IVP, 2001), 177; Ulrich Luz, Matthew 820, trans. And many followed him ( Mark 2:15 ). Thus, some scholars who otherwise defend the traditional authorship of Matthews Gospel admit that Papias erred in his belief about the original language in which it was written. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Meier, The Vision of Matthew, 24; Luz, Matthew 820, 32, 32n.14. 1/27/2013 09:47:39 pm. St. Matthew, also called St. Matthew the Evangelist, St. Matthew the Apostle, or Levi, (flourished 1st century ce, Palestine; Western feast day September 21, Eastern feast day November 16), one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ and the traditional author of the first Synoptic Gospel (the Gospel According to Matthew). Jesus went out again by the sea. Indeed, Papias commented on a story about the Lords encounter with a condemned woman that Eusebius located in this Gospel (cf. [21] Krzinger, Papias, 1214, 2122, 5256; Gundry, Matthew, xxixxii, 61820; idem, Pre-Papian Tradition, 6364, 6768. [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/. In many Western Christian traditions, there are 12 days of Christmas, culminating around . The meaning in Hebrew of the word day always means a 24 hour period of time. Lettie Moses Carr saw Jesus depicted as Black, she was in her 20s. The Identification of the Toll Collector as Matthew. 47:13-15), yet God . Religion is "a matter between every man and his maker, in which no other, & far less the public, [has] a . I. For objections against this view, see Meier, The Vision of Matthew, 25n.26; Luz, Matthew 820, 32. The text of Matthew in its final form, on the other hand, may be a better point of contrast for Marks narrative, and Q would not have an advantage over it if Q originated in Greek as well. Christian Soldiers in the Ancient Roman Army, Destruction of Jerusalem, c. 586 BCEyewitness Account, Assassination of Julius CaesarAncient Accounts, Claudia ActeNeros Mistress, Secret Christian, Emperor Tiberius & The Resurrection Of Jesus, Plinys Letter To Trajan About Christians, Ancient TechnologyThe Antikythera Mechanism, The Lycurgus CupNanotechnology in Ancient Rome, Monte TestaccioAncient Romes Garbage Dump, Metal Detector FindRoman Coins & Lost Emperor of Britain, Stirring of Water in the Pool of Bethesda. [43] Daniel A. Bertrand, Lvangile des Ebionites: une harmonie vangelique antrieur au Diatessaron NTS 26 (1980): 54863; Vielhauer and Strecker, Jewish Christian Gospels, 16671; Klijn, Gospel Tradition, 28-30; Klauck, Apocryphal Gospels, 5154; Luomanen, Jewish-Christian Sects, 3738; 83, 25152; Frey, Die Fragmente des Ebioniterevangeliums, 60722; Kok, Gospel according to the Hebrews, 43; Gregory, Gospel according to the Hebrews, 10, 171261. He offered something infinitely better. There is a lot of controversy in recent centuries about that subject. 3.39.17. Ultimately, the identification of Matthews oracles. But Pilate replied, I imagine, "What happens in Jerusalem, stays in . A survey of the ancient traditions about how the evangelist Matthew wrote his Gospel in Aramaic for a Jewish audience before it was translated into Greek suggests that the modern assumptions about the Apostles fluency in Greek or education in rhetorical composition may not have necessarily been shared by the Patristic intelligentsia. For two reasons *Jews did not like the men who did that work. Regardless of how this name change is explained, this toll collector may have been trained in accounting and documenting records and may have been functionally bilingual or trilingual in order to converse with travellers moving between the territories of Philip and Antipas. You're right Zahid, the author of Matthew was a tax collector. R. McL. This is a quite different case from that of an individual having both a Semitic and a Greek or Latin name, as well as from that of an individual having a Semitic name and also a nickname or family name."[7]. h.e. Facts about Matthew the Apostle give the readers a hint about Levi or Saint Matthew. Indeed, Levi is Israel's priestly tribe, as stated in the Bible: "The priests the Levites the priests the Levites the priests the Levites" (Deuteronomy 17:9, 17:18, 18:1). Jesus could have walked up to Matthew and said sarcastically, "I bet your mother is really proud you!" Jesus was considered a rabbi. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. My theory is that for one thing John and Peter were closer to Jesus. I. B. ill. [19] Josef Krzinger, Papias von Hierapolis und die Evangelien die Neuen Testaments (Regensberg: Pustet, 1983), 10-11, 4445; Gundry, Matthew, 614; idem, The Apostolically Johannine Pre-Papian Tradition Concerning the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, in The Old is Better: New Testament Essays in Support of Traditional Interpretations, WUNT 178 (Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005), 56; cf.