Matthew the author of the only genuine Gospel.--Rejected,
because it did not contain the first two chapters of the
present Greek version.
Matthew, surnamed Levi, was a native of Galilee. Before his conversion
to Christianity he was a publican, or tax-gatherer, under the Romans,
and collected the customs of all goods exported or imported at
Capernaum, a maritime town on the Sea of Galilee, and received tribute
paid by passengers who went by water. From the position of Matthew, he
must have been a man of some learning and judgment, and from what we
know of the early lives of the other Apostles, the only one among
them, except perhaps Peter and James, that was capable of writing out a
correct account of what was said and done by Christ.
As the first church at Jerusalem increased in number, and new converts
were added to it, there was a necessity that there should be some
written history given of what was said and taught by Christ before his
death; and as Matthew was in every way qualified, the task was imposed
on him. Matthew wrote this book about A.D. 40, not much, if any, more
than seven years after the death of Christ. Everything was fresh in his
memory, and no doubt he was particular to give to the new converts a
full and correct knowledge of all the doctrines taught by Christ, and
especially to place before them his sermon on the mount, so full of
divine morality, which was to form the soul of the new religion.
From all we know with certainty, this Gospel of Matthew was the only
account of Christ in use among the members of the first Christian
church, and their only means of information, except what they learned
direct from the other Apostles. Everything, then, was just as it fell
from the lips of Christ, and had the odor of fresh-gathered flowers.
How the Christians at Jerusalem clung to this Gospel of Matthew, their
sufferings and persecutions through a period of more than two centuries
will bear witness. These Christians, afterwards called by way of
aversion Ebionites, were charged with the alteration of the Scriptures.
This alteration, according to Epiphanius, consisted in the omission
of the first two chapters of Matthew, which contain the account of
the miraculous conception of Christ. The statements of Epiphanius are
verified by the fact, that at the time these two chapters were added,
by the men of the second century, we can trace through the pages of
Ignatius, and other early fathers, numerous forgeries and interpolations
which are unmistakable, and were intended to sustain the new aspect
which Christianity took on in the early part of the second century. The
addition of the two chapters, and the forgeries, belong to the period
when the religion of Paul had passed off into the Philo-Alexandrian
period of Christianity. Eusebius informs us what were the crimes of the
Ebionites: "They are properly called Ebionites by the ancients, as those
who cherished a low and mean opinion of Christ. For they consider him
a _plain and common man_, and justified in his advances in virtue, and
that he was born of the Virgin Mary by natural generation." (Eusebius,
Ecc. Hist., book iii. chap. 27.)
The views held by the Ebionites of Christ were derived from the Gospel
of Matthew, and what they learned direct from the Apostles. Matthew had
been a hearer of Christ--a companion of the Apostles, and had seen and
no doubt conversed with Mary. When he wrote his Gospel everything was
fresh in his mind, and there could be no object on his part, in writing
the life of Jesus, to state falsehoods or omit important truths in order
to deceive his countrymen. If what is stated in the two first chapters
in regard to Christ is true, Matthew would have known of them; and,
knowing them, why should he omit them in giving an account of his
life? It was impossible to pass from the first to the second stage
of Christianity, as long as the Gospel of Matthew was recognized as
authority in the church. It stood as a mountain in the way, and had to
be torn down and made way with. The history of the Ebionites, from the
time they are charged with altering the Scriptures, to the time when
they disappear from history, is one of tyranny and bloody persecution.
In the reign of Adrian, what was left of them settled in the little town
of Pilla, beyond the Jordan, from whence they spread themselves into
villages adjacent to Damascus. Some traces of them can be discovered as
late as the fourth century, when they "insensibly melted away; either
into the church or synagogue." (_Gibbon_, ch. xv. vol. I. p. 255.) With
them perished the genuine Gospel of Matthew, the only Gospel written by
an Apostle.
Much useless labor has been bestowed on the question, whether the
genuine Gospel was written in the Hebrew or Greek language. How this may
be is of little consequence, since the genuine writing is no longer in
existence. It is just as certain that the present version of Matthew was
written in Greek, as that the genuine one was published in the Hebrew
tongue. To the church of Rome the world is indebted for the destruction
of the only genuine Gospel, and with it the only authentic account of
Christ. No greater loss could befall the world. It was written in the
dawn of Christianity, before corrupt and ambitious men sought to make
religion a way to power and distinction. The truths contained in this
Gospel stood in the way of a gigantic scheme, conceived by corrupt and
arrogant men, who saw in a church established by the authority of
God, the road to the highest point of human power and grandeur. They
succeeded, but their success,--
"Brought death into the world and all our woe."
It was not necessary to reject all of Matthew's Gospel, and it is very
evident that much was retained--such as the discourses of Christ and
some portions of history.