Matthew the apostle and evangelist.
One of the twelve.
Attributed text(s).
Gospel of Matthew
.
Gospel according to the Hebrews.
Related text(s).
Four gospels.
Useful links.
Matthew in the Online Encyclopedia.
Matthew in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
Matthew appears in all four canonical lists of the disciples
in Matthew 10.3 = Mark 3.18 = Luke 6.15 and Acts 1.13. He does not
appear in the four gospels otherwise except that, where Mark 2.13-14
and Luke 5.27-28 have the call of Levi,
Matthew 9.9 has the call of Matthew.
Papias claims to have inquired as to the
words of the elders, and includes Matthew on the list of disciples
whose sayings he sought out (Eusebius, History of the Church 3.39.4; Jerome,
On Famous Men 18). Papias also
claims, probably on the authority of (John) the elder, that Matthew
wrote a gospel in the Hebrew dialect (Eusebius, History of the Church 3.39.16).
Jerome, On Famous Men 3:
Matthaeus, qui et Levi, ex publicano apostolus, primus
in Iudaea propter eos qui ex circumcisione crediderant evangelium Christi Hebraicis litteris
composuit; quod quis postea in Graecum transtulerit non satis certum est. porro ipsum
Hebraicum habetur usque hodie in Caesariensi bibliotheca quam Pamphilus martyr
studiosissime confecit. mihi quoque a Nazaraeis, qui in Beroea urbe Syriae hoc volumine
utuntur, describendi facultas fuit; in quo animadvertendum quo ubicumque evangelista,
sive ex persona sua sive ex domini salvatoris, veteris scripturae testimoniis abutitur,
non sequatur septuagint translatorum auctoritatem, sed Hebraicum. e quibus illa duo sunt:
Ex Aegypto vocavi filium meum, et: Quoniam Nazaraeus vocabitur.
Matthew, who is also Levi, the ex-publican apostle, first composed
in Hebrew letters the gospel of Christ in Judea on account of those who had believed from
among the circumcision; who afterward translated it into Greek is not sufficiently certain.
Furthermore, this Hebrew [text] is held even until today in the Caesarean library which
Pamphilus the martyr studiously put together. There was an opportunity for me from the
Nazoraeans to copy this volume, which is used in Beroea, a city of Syria. In which [gospel]
it must be noted that, wherever the evangelist, whether from his own person or from
the Lord and savior, makes use of testimonies of the old scriptures, he does not follow
the authority of the seventy translators, but the Hebrew. From which things two are:
From Egypt did I call my son, and: For he shall be called a Nazarene.
Refer to Matthew 2.15, 23.
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