Maybe Jesus had seen Levi often as he sat in his chair with his table, papyrus, quill and ink made from carbon (soot or lampblack), water and gum arabic, a natural gum from the acacia tree used to control the inks viscosity when applied to the papyrus. 1) The name of the collector whom Jesus summons is not "Levi, son of Alphaeus", but "Matthew" (9,9). It is beyond the scope of this paper to determine why Matthew was substituted for Levi. 3.24.6; Origen, in h.e. There were, however, at the time of Christ and the Apostles two languages spoken by JewsAramaic and Greek. [20] Matthew Black, The Use of Rhetorical Terminology in Papias on Matthew and Mark JSNT 37 (1989): 32; Bauckham, Eyewitnesses, 222. Whatever the case, Jerome slowly distanced himself from his earlier confident declarations that the Nazarenes had the original Matthean Gospel in their possession (cf. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collectors booth. Even Jesus acknowledges the hatred people had for tax collectors: " If they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector" (Matthew 18:17). 13:3; Pol. Mark 2:15 While Jesus was dining at Levi's house, many tax collectors March 2020. [24] Krzinger, Papias, 1516; Gundry, Matthew, 619; idem, Pre-Papian Tradition, 6162, 67. [44] As for Jerome, he boasted that he translated the Gospel according to the Hebrews (e.g., Vir. 3.1.1). 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. The Bible shares in the book of Acts, that the betrayal and arrest of Jesus were foretold long ago by the Holy Spirit. , TSAJ 91 (Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2002). 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. 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. had his name changed from Levi to Matthew likely by Jesus Himself who changed Simons name to Peter.(Matt. Band: Evangelien und Verwandtes. [42] Luomanen, Jewish-Christian Sects, 21, 123; Frey, Die Fragmente des Ebionerevangeliums in Antike christliche Apokryphen in deutscher bersetzung. [46] Other scholars suspect that the Nazarenes only supplied Jerome with their own translations and commentary on Matthews Gospel. As most of us know, the tax collector named Levi became Saint Matthew. Even so, most readers of the New Testament throughout history have taken the identification of Levi with Matthew for granted. Levi - Wikipedia ; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999), 56869. 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. CLICK HERE for Jesus and the Constant Crowds article. The Calling of Saint Matthew depicts the moment from Matthew 9:9 when Jesus passes by Matthew, a tax collector, and says 'Follow me.' Matthew (also called Levi) did so and became one of Jesus . Jesus could have walked up to Matthew and said sarcastically, "I bet your mother is really proud you!" Jesus was considered a rabbi. Jesus ate a meal at Levi's house and . A minority view during the Patristic period was that Levi and Matthew were separate individuals. For example, the Valentinian theologian Heracleon differentiated Levi from Matthew (cf. Christ redeemed the priesthood of Levi back unto himself and redeemed Matthew the . There is no indication that Matthew wrote anything (contra John 21:24; 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. [22] Krzinger, Papias, 22; Gundry, Matthew, 619; Pre-Papian Tradition, xxi, 68; cf. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 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). Harris J. Rendel, The Logia and the Gospels, For lexical discussion and debate about the term. 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. Sometimes the men took too much money. Matthew's shocked facial expression shows that he understands this societal dynamic well, but his look and gesture may indicate even more than that. It is the contracted name of Mattathias. 2.12.87; Didymus, Comm. praef. Mark 3:18). 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. But lets hear Matthews own account of his calling: As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collectors booth. The Patristic Traditions about the Evangelist Matthew 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. [38] For the latter view, see France, Evangelist and Teacher, 64-66; Bauckham, Eyewitnesses, 224. 13:4; 19:1; 53:1; 62:3; 2 Clem. St. Matthew the Apostle He Left His Post to Follow Jesus - NCR 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.' ". [10] 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, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, 87n.17. It felt "weird," Carr said. Gundry takes the referent to be the expositors who expounded on Matthews text. Both are true because Matthew and Levi are two names for the same person. Indeed, Papias commented on a story about the Lords encounter with a condemned woman that Eusebius located in this Gospel (cf. Matthew was saying, Jesus IS the fulfillment of Old Testament predictions of our coming Messiah, Anontied One. He is called the Son of David nine times in the Gospel of Matthew. UBF Resources : Jesus Calls Levi 11.1-3; Pelag. 3.25.5; cf. ill. 3). See Barnabas Lindars, Matthew, Levi, Lebbaeus and the Value of the Western Text, https://brentnongbri.com/2018/05/21/matthew-and-levi-and-james/, Lindars, Western Text,222; cf. Meet the Apostle Nathanael, a 'True Israelite' - Learn Religions [7] Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony, 2nd ed. Perhaps they did so because Levis call narrative closely resembled the summons of the first four apostles to discipleship in Mark 1:1620 and Alpheus was already remembered as the father of one of the apostles in Mark 3:18. [2] B. Logion could be translated as an oracle or divine utterance. [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. To follow Jesus requires renouncement. Matthew (also known as Levi) doubtless was one of the tax collectors who responded to John the Baptist's call to repentance. had his name changed from Levi to Matthew likely by Jesus Himself who changed Simon's name to Peter. 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. The Romans were their enemies. The First Disciples [Matthew 4:18-22, Luke 5:1-11, John 1:35-51] . [37], 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. Jerome may have anticipated that he would track down the Gospel according to the Hebrews in Pamphilus library in Caesarea (cf. 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. (1) Repetition of names in the list after David, some of which appear to be anachronisms, possibly suggesting that this list had its own history. Teilband 1, ed. Jesus calls his disciples (Matthew 4: 18-22, 9: 9-13) At the same time, opposition against Jesus was growing stronger, especially from the religious . Some have also argued that he's the Apostle Matthew 's brother. Zavada, Jack. [9] Lindars, Western Text,222; cf. 10 Facts about Matthew the Apostle | Less Known Facts There is no indication that Matthew wrote anything (contra John 21:24; Gos. 1. Saint Matthew made a very small decision at the time that ended up not only affecting his life, and the people of his time, but he made a choice that affected all of mankind in the future as well. T/F, 4. prol.) There are sayings (Matt 13:3643) and stories. 6.25.4; Epiphanius, Pan. Was the Gospel of Matthew written by Levi aka Matthew in Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek? For a recent effort to argue that plural Aramaic and Greek sources underlie the double tradition, see Maurice Casey, An Aramaic Approach to Q: Sources for the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). Many people were surprised when Jesus sat down to eat with Levi, but they learned that Jesus' message of salvation is for everyone. 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. Levi was happy to accept! Hence, Eusebius corrected Irenaeus by substituting the Gospel according to the Hebrews as the Ebionitess preferred Gospel (h.e. While Jesus was having dinner at Levis house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. CHICAGO (RNS) The first time the Rev. - And it came to pass - seems the best reading - as he was sitting at meat in his house.This was the house of Matthew. The Calling of Levi Sunday School Lesson - Children's Ministry Deals He it was who gave a feast, for attending which Jesus and the disciples were severely criticized by the Pharisees, k on the charge that it was unseemly for Him to eat with publicans and sinners. [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. Vielhauer and Strecker, Jewish Christian Gospels, 167; Klijn. 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. (vv. Clement. Pelag. Or Levi was having a lot of friends over for dinner that night and asked Jesus if He would come, too. As Jesus was having a meal in Levi's home, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples . The whole crowd came to him, and he taught them. The Ipuwer PapyrusWere The 10 Biblical Plagues Real? Answer (1 of 3): In Mark, the first New Testament gospel written, Matthew and Levi are very definitely two different people. Even if this guy gets over the fact that I'm a tax collector, how could he ever be interested in me? 3.39.17). Mark 10:35) and swapped Salome for her in another (Matt 27:56; cf. [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. Ward Powers enthusiastically endorses this line of reasoning in the following bold claim: "To have this evidence about the apostle Matthew his background, training, and employment in the Roman administration; his response to the call to follow Jesus; his appointment to the role and responsibility of apostle and to believe that he would. Jesus Chooses the Twelve Apostles (Lk 6:12-26) - UBF They were considered traitors because they worked for the despised Roman rulers. Q. News and Interpretations on the Bible and Ancient Near East History. Hist. 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. However, Jesus Christ is of the tribe of Judah. 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. F. C. Burkitt, Levi Son of Alphaeus. Jesus asked him to be a *disciple (Matthew 9:9). Say, Jesus saw Levi and knew that Levi and the other tax collectors needed to know the good news. 8:2; 19:13; Isa. Klijn (Gospel Tradition, 11, 119) and Frey (Die Fragmente des Hebrerevangeliums, 606) treat Eusebiuss attribution of this tale to the Gospel According to the Hebrews as spurious since Eusebius may have had no firsthand knowledge of the text. Mark 2:1, 1314). "John, James, Andrew and Peter were the disciples closest to Jesus," Traylor says. [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. Matthew's Gospel was written in approximately A.D.___, before the destruction of Jerusalem. Matthew did follow Jesus for the rest of his life. 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. Biblical literature - The Gospel According to Matthew 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). Here's What History Can Tell Us About the Magi | Time Acts 1:1-2 appears to tie the two books to the same author. 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. 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 . The Bible says that Matthew left everything to follow Jesus. This is a depiction of a moment of spiritual awakening and conversion, which was something many Baroque artists were interested in painting, especially Caravaggio. Teilband 1, ed. Some scholars believe that the tax-collector simply had two names, one in Greek (Matthew) and the other in Hebrew (Levi). The Apostles: Impetuous Peter overcame mistakes to become leader [4] When Origen of Alexandria searched for a parallel for why Saul was surnamed Paul in the preface of his Commentary on Romans, he pointed out that the same individual appears under different names in Matthew 9:9 and Luke 5:27 (PG 14.836). Why didn't more of Jesus' disciples write books of the New Testament? This writer will explore what the ancient writers who were closer in time to Matthew had to say about the language in which Matthew was originally written: Matthew also issued a written gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3:1 c.175-185 A.D. The first (Gospel) is written according to Matthew, the same that was once a tax collector, but afterwards an emissary of Yeshua the Messiah, who having published it for the Jewish believers, wrote it in Hebrew. Origen circa 210 CE, quoted by Eusebius, Eccl. 29.9.4; 30.3.7; 30.13.2; 30.14.3) and Jerome (Epist. "Meet Nathanael in the Bible, the 'True Israelite'." Learn Religions, Dec. 6, 2021, learnreligions.com/nathanael-the-true-israelite-701068. PDF Sermon # 9 Matthew The Tax Collector Luke 5:27-32 - Clover Sites He may call peop Meier, The Vision of Matthew, 24; Luz, Matthew 820, 32, 32n.14. 2.9.45.5; Origen, Jo. Who Was James Son of Alphaeus? The Beginner's Guide On the other hand, the oldest quotations from the Gospel according to the Hebrews were not attributed to a named author (e.g., Clement, str. James son of Alphaeus is traditionally identified as James the Less and James the brother of Jesus. He offered something infinitely better. 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. 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. 29-30) James E. Crouch; Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 32n.12; Ian Boxall, Matthew through the Centuries (Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell, 2019), 31, 172. Teilband 1, ed. Matthew, of course. How come only five disciples of Jesus Christ wrote books in the New Testament? 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). 6.14.2; Epiphanius, Pan. Alternate titles: Levi, St. Matthew the Apostle, St. Matthew the Evangelist. [4] See Manlio Simonetti, Matthew 113, ACCS New Testament 1a (Downers Grove: IVP, 2001), 177; Ulrich Luz, Matthew 820, trans. High priest Aaron and his sons were descendants of Levi (Exodus 4:14), Levi being a son of Jacob (Genesis 29:34). It is beyond the scope of this paper to determine why Matthew was substituted for Levi. The Gracious Calling of Matthew by Richard Phillips - Ligonier Ministries However, Mark . 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. Matthew was obviously a small mokhes because he himself was sitting in the tax office as Jesus passed through the outskirts of Capernaum. Gundry, Matthew, xxii. It is not surprising he watched Jesus carefully and wrote down the first of the four Gospels, the biographies of Jesus of Nazareth. For objections against this view, see Meier, The Vision of Matthew, 25n.26; Luz, Matthew 820, 32. Because Levi's 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 2:15-17). Jesus was becoming popular. "And Peter was the chief . As a tax collector, Matthew . It's unclear why Matthew/Levi was called by both names. 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. (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. 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). Numerous textual indications point to an author who was a Jewish Christian writing for Christians of similar background. 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 . Until that moment, she'd always thought Jesus was . Levi asked Jesus to come to dinner at his home. [23] They render the verb hermeneuein as meaning to mediate or to interpret rather than to translate.[24] Hence, Krzinger identifies the each one (hekastos) who interpreted according to their ability as the evangelists conveying oral Jesus traditions in a new literary medium;[25] Gundry takes the referent to be the expositors who expounded on Matthews text. He followed Jesus to his death. 3.1.1; Pantaenus, in Eusebius, h.e. Band: Evangelien und Verwandtes. Saint Matthew - Facts, Life & Bible - Biography