After the history of his call, not one circumstance is related
respecting him, either in the gospels, the Acts or the epistles. In
his own gospel, he makes not the slightest allusion to anything either
said or done by himself; nor does his name anywhere occur except in the
apostolic lists. Even the Fathers are silent as to any other important
circumstances of his life, and it is only in the noble record which
he has left of the life of Christ, in the gospel which bears his name,
that any monument of his actions and character can now be found. Yet
this solitary remaining effort of his genius is of such importance in
the history of revealed religion, that hardly the most eminent of the
apostles is so often brought to mind, as the evangelist, whose clear,
simple, but impressive testimony to the words and deeds of his Lord,
now stands at the head of the sacred canon.
On the history of this portion of the Christian scriptures, the
testimony of the Fathers, from very early times, is very decided in
maintaining the fact, that it was written in the vernacular language
of Palestine. The very earliest testimony on this point, dating within
seventy-five years of the time of Matthew himself, expressly declares
that Matthew wrote his gospel in the Hebrew language; and that each
one interpreted it for himself as he could. It is also said on somewhat
early authority, that he wrote his gospel when about to depart from
Palestine, that those whom he left behind him might have an authentic
record of the facts in the life of Christ. So that by these and a great
number of other testimonies, uniformly to the same effect, the point
seems well established that Matthew wrote in Hebrew; and that what is
now extant as his gospel, is only a translation into Greek, made in
some later age, by some person unknown.