quia sit; et quando venit ad Petrum et ad eos qui cum Petro erant dixit eis Ecce palpate me et videte, qui non sum dæmonium incorporale. Et statim tetigerunt eum et crediderunt." Cf. Ignatius, Ad Smyrn. iii. 1. 2. Jerome himself ascribes the expression "incorporale dæmonium" to the Gospel "quod Hebræorum lectitant Nazaræi," Comm. in Isaiah, pref. to Bk xviii. Origen, De Princip. 1, procem. 8, says that the expression "non sum dæmonium incorporeum came from the book called Petri Doctrina. 2. Hegesippus (Eusebius, H. E. iv. 22): ἔκ τε τοῦ καθ ̓ Ἑβραίους εὐαγγελίου καὶ τοῦ Συριακοῦ καὶ ἰδίως ἐκ τῆς Ἑβραίδος διαλέκτου τινὰ τίθησιν. 3. Papias (Eusebius, H. E. iii. 39): ἐκτέθειται δὲ καὶ ἄλλην ἱστοριὰν περὶ γυναικὸς ἐπὶ πολλαῖς ἁμαρτ τίαις διαβληθείσης ἐπὶ τοῦ κυρίου, ἦν τὸ καθ ̓ Ἑβραίους εὐαγγελίον περιέχει. Eusebius does not here assert that Papias quoted from the Gospel according to the Hebrews. 4. Irenæus, Adv. Hær. i. 26. 2: Solo autem eo quod est secundum Matthæum evangelio utuntur (Ebionæi), et apostolum Paulum recusant, apostatem eum legis dicentes. 5. (a) Origen, Comment. in Joh. vol. ii. 6 (Paris, 1759, vol. iv. 63). ἐὰν δὲ προσίεταί τις τὸ καθ ̓ Ἑβραίους εὐαγγέλιον. (b) Origen, Comment, in Mt. vol. xv. 14 (Paris, 1740, vol. iii. 671). Scriptum est in evangelio quodam, quod dicitur secundum Hebræos, si tamen placet alicui suscipere illud, non ad auctoritatem, sed ad manifestationem propositæ quæstionis. 6. Clement Alex., Stromata, ii. 9: ᾖ κἂν τῷ καθ ̓ Ἑβραίους εὐαγγελίῳγέγραπται. 7. (a) Eusebius, H. E. iii. 25: Ηδη δ' ἐν τούτοις τινὲς καὶ τὸ καθ ̓ Ἑβραίους εὐαγγέλιον κατέλεξαν, ᾧ μάλιστα Εβραίων οἱ τὸν Χριστὸν παραδεξάμενοι χαίρουσι. (b) Eusebius, H. E. iii. 27: εὐαγγέλιῳ δὲ μόνῳ τῷ καθ ̓ Ἑβραίους λεγομένῳ χρώμενοι, τῶν λοιπῶν σμικρὸν ἐποιοῦντο λόγον. 8. (a) Jerome, De Vir. Illus. 3: Mihi Porro ipsum Hebraicum habetur usque hodie in Cæsariensi bibliotheca, quam Pamphilus martyr studiosissime confecit. quoque a Nazareis, qui in Berœa urbe Syriæ hoc volumine utuntur, describendi facultas fuit. (b) Jerome, Contra Pelag. iii. 2: In Evangelio juxta Hebræos, quod Chaldaico quidem Syroque Sermone, sed Hebraicis literis scriptum est, quo utuntur usque hodie Nazaræni, secundum apostolos sive, ut plerique autumant, juxta Matthæum, quod et in Cæsariensi habetur bibliotheca, narrat historia, etc. (c) Jerome, Comment. in Is 112: Evangelium quod Hebræo sermone conscriptum legunt Nazaræi. (d) Jerome, Comment. in Mic 77: Evangelium "quod secundum Hebræos editum nuper trans tulimus." (e) Jerome, Comment. in Is 409: Evangelium "quod juxta Hebræos scriptum Nazaræi lecti tant." (f) Jerome, Comment. in Ezech 1613: "In evangelio quoque Hebræorum, quod lectitant Nazaræi." (g) Jerome, Comment. in Mt 1213: In evangelio quo utuntur Nazaræni et Ebionitæ, quod nuper in Græcum de Hebræo sermone transtulimus, et quod vocatur a plerisque Matthæi authenticum, etc. (h) Jerome, Ep. 20. 5: Denique Matthæus, qui evangelium Hebræo sermone conscripsit, ita posuit: Osanna barrama. (i) Jerome, Comment. in Mt 2335: In evangelio quo utuntur Nazaræni, etc. (j) Jerome, De Vir. Illus. 2: "Evangelium quoque, quod appellatur Secundum Hebræos et a me nuper in Græcum Latinumque sermonem translatum est, quo et Origenes sæpe utitur," etc. It will have been seen that Papias and the Gospel had a narrative in common; but it does not, of course, follow that Papias had seen the Gospel. Ignatius has a saying which was also contained in the Gospel. Hegesippus quoted from it. Irenæus speaks of it as in use among the Ebionites; but he probably uses Ebionites loosely as a general term for the Jewish Christians of Palestine. It was, as Jerome many times states, the Gospel of the Nazarenes, whilst the Ebionites had another Gospel (Epiphanius, Hæres. xxx. 3. 13). Jerome saw the Gospel at Bercea, and says that there was a copy in the library at Cæsarea. He translated it into Latin and into Greek, and not infrequently (some eighteen times) quotes from it in his writings. The extant fragments of it are too scanty to admit of positive judgements, but it is unlikely that there was any dependence of our canonical Gospel upon the Gospel according to the Hebrews, or vice versa. All that can be said is, that from the beginning of the second century the Jewish Christian Nazarenes had a Gospel which they ascribed to Matthew, and which was written in the Aramaic language and in Hebrew letters. It may have been ascribed to Matthew for the same reason that caused his name to be connected with our canonical Gospel, viz., the fact that one main source for its material was that Apostle's col lection of sayings of Christ. THE DATE. The data furnished by the Gospel itself seem best satisfied if we suppose that its author compiled it within a period of a few years before or after the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. An earlier date does not seem possible, in view of the fact that the compiler had S. Mark's Gospel before him. The writer's forecast of history is clear and unmistakable. The coming of the Son of Man, whom he clearly identifies with the crucified Christ, would be the first stage in a series of events, comprising the gathering of the elect and the final judgement, which together would form a terminus to the present dispensation of the world's history. Compare the following: 243 "What is the sign of Thy coming, and of the consummation of the age?" 2430"They shall see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven," etc. 2531 "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory, and all nations shall be gathered before Him." This coming and the consummation of the age lay in the near future. Compare the following: 1023 "Ye shall not finish the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come." 1628 "There are some of those who stand here, who shall not taste of death, until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom." 2434 "This generation shall not pass away, until all these things come to pass." But it could be still further defined, for it was to take place "immediately after the tribulation of those days," 2429; and this tribulation is clearly to the writer the distress which would accompany the downfall of Jerusalem; cf. 242.3 "There shall not be left a stone upon a stone. When shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the consummation of the age?" It is true that the writer anticipates a previous preaching of the goodness of the kingdom in all the world to all nations, 2414; but he makes it clear that in his opinion this could be accomplished before the great tribulation of the final overthrow of the Jewish nation; cf. 2414ff. "then shall come the end. When, therefore, ye see (the approaching fall of the city)," etc. It is probable that he saw in the apostolic preaching in the West, culminating in the arrival of S. Paul at Rome, an ample fulfilment of this "preaching in all the world (oikovμévn) for a testimony to all nations." It seems impossible to suppose that a Gospel in which Christ's sayings are so arranged as to give this quite definite impression that He had foretold His coming as Son of Man, and the consummation of the age, in close connection with the events of the year 70 A.D., could have been written more than a very few years after that date. Nor does the Gospel contain anything that decisively conflicts with such a date. Certainly not the narratives of chs. 1. 2. Whatever the amount of historical fact here recorded may be, there is no reason why these traditions should not have been recorded before the year 75 A.D., this date being chosen as the latest probable limit. See note on chs. 1. 2. It is only the narrow and undiscerning logic of modern criticism which finds it necessary to detect earlier and later stages of thought in these chapters, on the ground that one and the same writer could not have recorded the story of the supernatural birth, and, at the same time, have compiled as an introduction to it a genealogy professedly designed to emphasise the fact that Joseph was in a real sense the father of Jesus. I have endeavoured to prove in the commentary that the Gospel as it now stands is an indivisible unity; and that the only stages required are an early cycle of Palestinian traditions, and a compiler who placed them at the beginning of his Gospel, and compiled as an introduction to them a genealogy of the main figure in his Gospel narrative. The traditions may well have been current in Palestine before the year 70 A.D., and the compiler need not have done his work much later, if at all later, than this. Nor need such sayings as 1617-19 1816-20 reflect a late period of Church history. The "Church" may well be the Palestinian community of Jewish Christian disciples of Christ in the middle of the century, and the prominence given to S. Peter probably reflects his position in the Palestinian Church during that period. If we regard the writer of the Gospel as a Jewish Christian, and do not read into his record of Christ's words ideas which the later Church quite naturally found there in the light of the development of Christianity, there seems no reason to suppose that he may not have written his book within the period 65-75 A.D. And his arrangement of Christ's eschatological sayings almost conclusively points to that period. THE STYLE AND LANGUAGE. The Greek of the Gospel is not so full of Aramaisms and of harsh constructions due to translation from Aramaic as is the Greek of the second Gospel. Nor, on the other hand, has it the Septuagintal and, so, Hebraic ring of the language of the third Gospel. It has rather the lack of distinction which characterises any narrative compiled from previous sources by an editor who contents himself with dovetailing together rather than rewriting the sources before him. The following phrases are strikingly characteristic of the Gospel : TÓTE. This occurs in narrative at the beginning of a new paragraph,1 318 41 914 1120 1222. 38 1336 151 1821 1913 2020 2215 231 2614. 31. 36 273. 27, or in the course of a section, 27. 16. 17 35. 15 45. 10. 11 826 96. 29. 37 1218 1512. 12.28 1612. 20. 24 171 18.19 1927 211 2221 263. 38. 45. 50. 52. 56. 65. 67. 74 279. 13. 16. 26. 38. 58 2810. Frequently also in sayings and parables, 524 75. 915 1229. 44. 45 1627 1832 228. 13 9. 10. 14. 16. 21. 23. 30 (2). 40 251. 23 1326.43 249. idov. This occurs in narrative, either alone, 1 20 21. 13. 19 918. 32.46 2647, or with kai prefixed, 416. 17 82. 24. 29. 32. 34 92. 3. 10. 20 1210 1522 173.5 1916 2030 2651 2751 289; in sayings and parables, either alone, 118. 10. 19 122.47 138 1927 2018 224 2428. 25. 26 2646 287, or with κaí, 74 287.20 Ŏπws, 17 times. ἀναχωρεῖν, το times. προσέρχεσθαι, 52 times. προσκυνεῖν, 13 times. προσφέρειν, 14 times. ovváyev, 24 times. ὄχλοι. Mk. has ὄχλος 37 times, ὄχλοι once, ch. rr (but D Slabcffikq oxos). On the other hand, Mt. has oxλo 30 times, oxλos 17. For other phrases, see Hora Syn. pp. 4-7, 25-27, and above, p. lv f. Another characteristic of the editor's style is a tendency to repeat a phrase or construction two or three times at short intervals. This is particularly noticeable at the beginning or close of a section. 1 As arranged in the text of Westcott and Hort. This word is characteristic of Mt. only as contrasted with Mk. It is common in Lk. |