Gospel of Matthew in Smiths Bible Dictionary
1. Its authorship. --That this Gospel was written by the
apostle Matthew there is no reason to doubt. Seventeen
independent witnesses of the first four centuries attest its
genuineness.
2. Its original language. --The testimony of the
early Church is unanimous that Matthew wrote originally in
the Hebrew language. On the otherhand doubt is thrown over
this opinion, both statements of by an examination of the
fathers and by a consideration of peculiar forms of language
employed in the Gospel itself. The question is unsettled,
the best scholars not agreeing in their Judgment concerning
it. If there was a Hebrew original, it disappeared at a very
early age. The Greek Gospel which we now possess was it is
almost certain, written in Matthew's lifetime; and it is not
at all improbable that he wrote the Gospel in both the Greek
and Hebrew languages. --Lyman Abbolt. It is almost certain
that our Lord spoke in Greek with foreigners, but with his
disciples and the Jewish people in Aramaic (a form of
language closely allied to the Hebrew). --Schaff. The Jewish
historian Josephus furnishes an illustration of the fate of
the Hebrew original of Matthew. Josephus himself informs us
that he, wrote his great work "The History of the Jewish
Wars," originally in Hebrew, his native tongue, for the
benefit of his own nation, and he afterward translated it
into Greek. No notices of the Hebrew original now survive. -
-Professor D.S. Gregory.
3. The date.-- The testimony of the early Church is
unanimous that Matthew wrote first of the early Church is
among the evangelists. Irenieus relates that Matthew wrote
his Gospel while Peter and Paul were preaching, and founding
the Church at Rome, after A.D. 61. It was published before
the destruction of Jerusalem, A.D. 50.--Alford. We would
place our present Gospel between A.D. 60 and 66. If there
was an original Hebrew Gospel, an earlier date belongs to it
--Ellicott.
4. Its object.-- This Gospel was probably written in
Israel for Jewish Christians. It is an historical proof that
Jesus is the Messiah. Matthew is the Gospel for the Jew. It
is the Gospel of Jesus, the Messiah of the prophets. This
Gospel takes the life of Jesus as it was lived on earth, and
his character as it actually appeared, and places them
alongside the life and character of the Messiah as sketched
in the prophets, the historic by the side of the Prophetic,
that the two may appear in their marvellous unity and in
their perfect identity. --Professor Gregory.
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