Other scholars suspect that the Nazarenes only supplied Jerome with their own translations and commentary on Matthews Gospel. 3 Whatever their character, the line between astrology and astronomy was thin, if only because stargazing was respectable. 3.27.4). He being a Hebrew wrote in Hebrew, that is, his own tongue and most fluently; while things which were eloquently written in Hebrew were more eloquently turned into Greek. Jerome, 382 AD On Illustrious Men, Book V. This writer will go with the early church writers who were within a few hundred years from Matthew and the other people who knew Jesus rather than with unproven theories several thousands of years away from sources. If Jesus proclaimed the 'Kingdom of God," sneered Pilate, let him die as "King of the Jews" (Mark 15:2,9,12,18,26). ill. 3; Tract. The task of the present article is to explain these two variations in . Levi - who the Bible tells us was also named Matthew - was a Jew and a tax collector. [36] Dennis MacDonald, Two Shipwrecked Gospels: The Logoi of Jesus and Papiasss Exposition of Logia about the Lord (Atlanta: SBL, 2012), 15. Th. They contend that the conjunction. The answer is very simple. [14] Nevertheless, it is conceivable that the two verses in Matthew 9:9 and 10:3 were the basis for why this Gospel was later ascribed to Matthew. Logion could be translated as an oracle or divine utterance. However, Bacons hypothesis depends on his suppositions that the source of Matthew 10:24 was not simply Mark 3:1619 and that the author of Matthews Gospel did not just alter Marks order by moving Thomas before Matthew. Soon, Jesus and His disciples are having dinner in . In spite of this, Jesus went to Levi and invited him to join Jesus' disciples. 29.7.4). 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. Tax collectors were not very respected people in Jesus' time because many of them stole from the people. For objections against this view, see Meier, The Vision of Matthew, 25n.26; Luz, Matthew 820, 32. 2.9.45.5; Origen, Jo. Matthews relics were reputedly discovered in Salerno (Italy) in 1080. 1.62), though these 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. Zavada, Jack. [34] The double tradition is mostly comprised of sayings, but there are a couple of narratives (e.g., Matt 4:111/Luke 4:113; Matt 8:513/Luke 7:110). 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. 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. After his conversion, Matthew ardently preached Jesus as Messiah to his Jewish community. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners., CLICK HERE for Jesus and the Pharisees article. All the names for our week days come from Roman and Norse/Anglo-Saxon gods. 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. 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. Per tradition, Matthew was killed by by a soldier on the order of the king of Ethiopia. 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. Verse 15. He was thirty-one years old and married and had four children. [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. He is mentioned in Matthew 9:9. But let's hear Matthew's own account of his calling: Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Levi meaning joined and the name Matthew meaning gift of Yahweh.. [41] Contra Edwards, Hebrew Gospel, 8 and Petri Luomanen, Recovering Jewish-Christian Sects and Gospels (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 12326. 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. Levi: Luke 5:27, "And after that He went out, and noticed a tax-gatherer named Levi, sitting in the tax office, and He said to him, 'Follow Me.' ". He was a tax collector who was sitting at his booth. Say, Jesus saw Levi and knew that Levi and the other tax collectors needed to know the good news. [39] Edwards (Hebrew Gospel, 210) identifies Matthews oracles in h.e. Ps. ed. 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. Vielhauer and Strecker, Jewish Christian Gospels, 15465; Klijn. Supported by: 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. Moreover, the Hebrew itself is preserved to this day in the library at Caesarea, which the martyr Pamphilus so diligently collected. [29] 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. There is no evidence that any of the Patristic authorities made any inferences about Matthews proficiency in Greek or level of education in rhetorical composition based on Matthews former occupation alone. I. However, Mark . [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/. J.E. In the late '60s, he runs a musty SoCal church turned upside-down by an unexpected deluge of flower children seeking peace and love of the Christly variety. 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). Christ redeemed the priesthood of Levi back unto himself and redeemed Matthew the . However, Didymus the Blind spotted a similar story in certain Gospels in his Commentary on Ecclesiastes (223.613) and one of those Gospels could have been the Gospel according to the Hebrews that he cited elsewhere in his Commentary on the Psalms (184.910). 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. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collectors booth. According to Luke 5:29, the aforementioned dinner was given by Levi in his house after his call. December 29, 2020 7:00 AM EST. High priest Aaron and his sons were descendants of Levi (Exodus 4:14), Levi being a son of Jacob (Genesis 29:34). The most natural reading is that a language was meant by the combination of the noun. The other Eleven were ordinary men. (vv. 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. Follow me, Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. [6] Tal Ilan, Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity: Part I: Palestine 330 BCE 200 CE, TSAJ 91 (Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2002). March 2020. 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. There are many examples of irresistible grace in God's Word. [18] Josef Krzinger and Robert Gundry have tried to line up Papiass testimony with the academic consensus. 1/27/2013 09:47:39 pm. Ancient and modern scholars have been perplexed by the fact that the name of the toll collector in Matthew 9:9 differs from its synoptic counterparts. Krzinger and Gundry re-read the Papian fragment through the lens of rhetorical categories. The next disciple that Jesus called was Levi (Matthew). T/F. - And it came to pass - seems the best reading - as he was sitting at meat in his house.This was the house of Matthew. 5.10.3; Clement, in h.e. 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. [5] On the other hand, after scrutinizing the onomastic data compiled by Tal Ilan,[6] Richard Bauckham makes it clear why these examples may be irrelevant to this case: "[I]f Matthew and Levi were the same person, we should be confronted with the virtually unparalleled phenomenon of a Palestinian Jew bearing two common Semitic personal names (Matthew: ninth most popular, 62 occurrences; Levi: seventeenth most popular, 25 occurrences). Matthew 9:9-13 begins with Jesus calling Matthew, a tax collector, to follow Him as His disciple. In Matthew 4:18-21, he tells them he will make them "fishers of men.". Tax collectors at that time were known as dishonest and corrupt people. Among these repetitions are: variations of Mattathias (five times), Jesus (twice), Joseph (three times), Simeon (Semein), Levi (twice), and Melchi (twice). Acts 1:1-2 appears to tie the two books to the same author. [30] For instance, see France, Evangelist and Teacher, 6466; Morris, Matthew, 14; Carson, Matthew, 13 Osborne, Matthew, 34; Brown and Roberts, Matthew, 16. 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. Wilson (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1991), 138; A. F. J. Klijn, Jewish-Christian Gospel Tradition (Leiden: Brill, 1992), 11, 119, 138; Hans Josef Klauck, Apocryphal Gospels: An Introduction, trans. [46] Other scholars suspect that the Nazarenes only supplied Jerome with their own translations and commentary on Matthews Gospel. 16.13). , TSAJ 91 (Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2002). Despite the pain and agony of the cross, Jesus chose to die for the sins of the world because He loves us. It's unclear why Matthew/Levi was called by both names. [17] 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. 135). For three main reasons, almost all scholars believe the Gospel of Luke was written by the same person who wrote Acts: Luke and Acts were written in the same style and express the same theology. T/F, 4. 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. H. Gundry, 291. As he went along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth. h.e. 11.1-3; Pelag. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. [24] Krzinger, Papias, 1516; Gundry, Matthew, 619; idem, Pre-Papian Tradition, 6162, 67. I. The best way to think about the Greek language during the time of Jesus is to think about modern-day English. Clement, str. Numerous textual indications point to an author who was a Jewish Christian writing for Christians of similar background. He may call peop [26] Gundry, Matthew, 619; idem, Pre-Papian Tradition, 67. 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, hom. 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). But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered them, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Luke 5:27-32. T/F, 2. [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. A beam of light illuminates the faces of the men at the table who are looking at Jesus Christ. 18) or Origen (cf. There were 12 men chosen to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Caseys efforts have been critiqued by Peter M. Head and P. J. Williams, Q Review TB 54.1 (2003): 13144. [42] Luomanen, Jewish-Christian Sects, 21, 123; Frey, Die Fragmente des Ebionerevangeliums in Antike christliche Apokryphen in deutscher bersetzung. Assuming that the identification of Matthew with Levi is correct, Matthew (probably meaning "Yahweh's Gift") would appear to be the Christian name of Levi (called by Mark "Levi the son of Alphaeus"), who had been employed as a tax collector in the service of Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee. Even if this guy gets over the fact that I'm a tax collector, how could he ever be interested in me? Marys Perpetual Virginity & Jesus Brothers, Why Pollen on the Shroud of Turin Proves it is Real, Christian Inscriptions in Roman Catacombs, Eruption Of Mt. [22] Krzinger, Papias, 22; Gundry, Matthew, 619; Pre-Papian Tradition, xxi, 68; cf. "Meet Nathanael in the Bible, the 'True Israelite'." Learn Religions, Dec. 6, 2021, learnreligions.com/nathanael-the-true-israelite-701068. At worst, they were charlatans, sycophants, and brutes (cf. 30.13.45), indicating that it was published in Greek at the outset. Likewise, Jerome prematurely announced that he had finished his translations of the Old and New Testaments when he just started the task (Vir. 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. 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. You're right Zahid, the author of Matthew was a tax collector. I. My theory is that for one thing John and Peter were closer to Jesus. I.2.26; Eusebius, h.e. The Romans were their enemies. 29.9.4; 30.3.7; 30.13.2; 30.14.3) and Jerome (Epist. One theory is that Matthew went by the name Levi, or was simply of the tribe of Levi, and was re-named by Jesus as Matthew upon his call. Modern Persecution of Christians in China, Patriarch Jacobs Well & St. Philoumenous, Slaughter of the Theban Legion C. 286 AD, LapsiChristians Who Lapse/Abandon Their Faith, Evodias Named Followers of Christ Christians. Could Ancient Sparta Defeat Ancient Rome? 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. James E. Crouch; Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 32n.12; Ian Boxall, Matthew through the Centuries (Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell, 2019), 31, 172. Jesus could have walked up to Matthew and said sarcastically, "I bet your mother is really proud you!" Jesus was considered a rabbi. Luke, with greater fullness, says that "Levi made him a great feast in his house."From this it appears that Matthew at once marked the . When Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. This quote from Powerss monograph on the Synoptic Problem may presume too much about the literary skills, and psychological motivations, of a relatively low-level functionary operating a toll booth on the outskirts of the Galilean village of Capernaum (Matt 9:1, 9; cf. Who translated it after that in Greek is not sufficiently ascertained. The Greek language became the international language through the conquests of Alexander the Great in 330 BCE. [28] On the contrary, there are cases when dialektos is translated as a language even when it is not preceded by an article (e.g., Philo, Mos. It is not surprising he watched Jesus carefully and wrote down the first of the four Gospels, the biographies of Jesus of Nazareth. While He was on the cross, He cried out, "Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani," which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?". Matthew authored the first Gospel of the . [47] Luomanen, Jewish-Christian Sects, 103119; Kok, Gospel According to the Hebrews, 4143; Gregory, Gospel according to the Hebrews, 1417; 4352. News and Interpretations on the Bible and Ancient Near East History. We soon discover the difference between the man and the rock. 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. 58 Matthew seems to have written his Gospel primarily to the: Jews The thesis that the first canonical Gospel was published under the name of a pseudonym is defended by George D. Kilpatrick. 3.1.1; Pantaenus, in Eusebius, h.e. Pelag. 47:13-15), yet God . Mark 16:1),[11] though this example differs slightly from Matthew 9:9 inasmuch as the woman is left unnamed. However, none of the ancient Christian literati surmised that the Apostle was fluent in Greek, for they handed down the tradition that Matthew composed his Gospel in Aramaic before it was translated into Greek. Sometimes the men took too much money. For two reasons *Jews did not like the men who did that work. 1.7; Irenaeus, haer. Richard Bauckham makes it clear why these examples may be irrelevant to this case: "[I]f Matthew and Levi were the same person, we should be confronted with the virtually unparalleled phenomenon of a Palestinian Jew bearing two common Semitic personal names (Matthew: ninth most popular, 62 occurrences; Levi: seventeenth most popular, 25 occurrences). Thom. 3.2-3), but failed to place them in a rhetorically effective arrangement (taxis), whereas Matthew arranged (sunetaxato) the oracles (logia) in a Hebrew style.[21] That is, they surmise that Matthew applied Jewish exegetical techniques and forms of argumentation to the material at his disposal to shape it into a cogent presentation about how Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures. Krzinger and Gundry insist that, 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, Hence, Krzinger identifies the each one (. The whole crowd came to him, and he taught them. Teilband 1, ed. in Mt. ill. 3). Jerome may have anticipated that he would track down the Gospel according to the Hebrews in Pamphilus library in Caesarea (cf. Matthew, the Apostle of Yahshua (Popularly known as Jesus Christ) is best known as the publican or tax collector. As a result, those who reject the academic consensus on Markan priority are often the most open to Papiass claim. DepartmentBldg Tucson, AZ 85721 TEL 520-621-6897 FAX 520-626-9014. [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. 13:3; Pol. 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. All of the harsh and disapproving things He could have or should have said to Matthew would have been justified as far as the culture around them was concerned. Or Levi was having a lot of friends over for dinner that night and asked Jesus if He would come, too. One did not give up collecting taxes for the Romans on a whim and expect to ever return. Jesus ate a meal at Levi's house and . Christoph Markschies und Jens Schrter (Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck 2012), 62354. [14] 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, Old Testament, 184; Hill, Matthew, 5354, 173; Gnilka, Matthusevangelium, 1.331; Davies and Allison, Matthew VIIIXVIII, 2.99; Hagner, Matthew 113, xlvi; John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 3-4; Witherington III, Matthew, 5, 29; Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 40; Bauckham, Eyewitnesses, 111. 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. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthews house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. Many commentators compare Matthews two names with other first-century Jews who had a Greek or Latin cognomen. But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Matthew 9:9-13, Matthew is the ONLY one of the Gospel writers who uses his changed name from Levi to Matthew. 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. [15], The Original Language of Matthews Gospel, Unlike the modern deductions about Matthews level of literacy, Papias did not presuppose Matthews facility in Greek. Jesus does not say "On you I will build my church" but "on this rock ." "This rock" is distinct from Peter, although connected to him. Calling of St. Matthew by Alexandre Bida, 1875. Warren Carter underscores how Papiass erroneous supposition served to underline the antiquity of this gospel and link it to the apostles.. Some have also argued that he's the Apostle Matthew 's brother. 3. Jesus sent out 70 Disciples to preach His Good News. Wilhelm Schneemelcher, trans. [46] Vielhauer and Strecker, Jewish Christian Gospels, 15465; Klijn, Jewish Christian Gospel Tradition, 29-30, 3132; Klauck, Apocryphal Gospels, 4351; Frey, Die Fragmente des Nazorerevangeliums, in Antike christliche Apokryphen in deutscher bersetzung. 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. Mark 10:35) and swapped Salome for her in another (Matt 27:56; cf. See W. F. Albright and C. S. Mann, Matthew, AB (Doubleday: New York, 1971), CLXXVIII. 3.2).[48]. The Calling of St. Matthew, by Vittore Carpaccio, 1502. What created confusion was that Irenaeus reported that Jewish Christ followers who were called Ebionites or poor ones had a special affinity for Matthews Gospel, just as Marcion was inclined toward Lukes Gospel and Valentinus toward Johns Gospel (haer. This is not a solitary occurrence within Matthews Gospel: the evangelist inserted the mother of the sons of Zebedee into one pericope (Matt 20:20; cf. News of his preaching and healing ministry was spreading far and wide. "And Peter was the chief . Matthew, or Levi, son of Alpheus, was one of the seven who received a call to follow Christ before the ordination of the Twelve. Of course, their hippy-dippy ways are . Perhaps most plain is the calling of the disciple Matthew, also known as Levi the tax collector. Early Christian CommunionWine or Mingled Wine? 40.9; Ezech. Mark 16:1). Scripture both prohibits and mocks astrology (Jer. 184.9-10) and Eusebius regarded the text as disputed but not unorthodox (h.e. Dr. Beth Harris: In the Contarelli Chapel. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. 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. In many Western Christian traditions, there are 12 days of Christmas, culminating around . For example, the Valentinian theologian Heracleon differentiated Levi from Matthew (cf. 29.9.4; 30.3.7; Jerome, Vir. 1. They were considered traitors because they worked for the despised Roman rulers. Key Verse: 6:13, "When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles". [47] Whatever the case, Jerome slowly distanced himself from his earlier confident declarations that the Nazarenes had the original Matthean Gospel in their possession (cf. 4. He followed Jesus to his death. For example, the Valentinian theologian Heracleon differentiated Levi from Matthew (cf. Jesus believed that he had the same right to reassign a person's nameand therefore a person's life calling and destiny" (Cunningham). F. C. Burkitt, Levi Son of Alphaeus. 5.12), and the verb hermeneuein; Papias could have chosen different terminology to highlight Matthews rhetorical style. In Mark 2:14, Jesus calls Levi, a tax collector and son of Alphaeus, to follow him, much as Jesus calls other disciples, and at first Levi does follow Jesus. The account of the sinful woman at the well in John 4 is a good example as is the woman caught in adultery in John 8 or even Jesus calling Levi (Matthew) to join His entourage and dining with sinners and tax collectors in Matthew 9. had his name changed from Levi to Matthew likely by Jesus Himself who changed Simons name to Peter.(Matt. 1.31.124), see Joseph Barber Lightfoot, Essays on the Work Entitled Supernatural Religion: Reprinted from the Contemporary Review (London: Macmillan, 1893), 17077; Bacon, Studies in Matthew, 443-51; T. W. Manson, Studies in the Gospels and Epistles (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1962), 6975; Krzinger, Papias, 5051; France, Evangelist and Teacher, 58-60; Krtner, Papias, 15167; Gundry, Matthew, 617; Norelli, Papia, 5980; Gundry, Pre-Papian Tradition, 6467; Sim, R. Some scholars believe that the tax-collector simply had two names, one in Greek (Matthew) and the other in Hebrew (Levi). 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. This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. [44] Vielhauer and Strecker, Jewish Christian Gospels, 167; Klijn, Gospel Tradition, 67-68; Klauck, Apocryphal Gospels, 51; Jrg Frey, Die Fragmente des Ebioniterevangeliums, 612; Kok, Gospel according to the Hebrews, 39; Gregory, Gospel according to the Hebrews, 183, 222. [23] Krzinger, Papias, 24, 3342; cf.