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Levi's work was to take the money. As Jesus was having a meal in Levi's home, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples . [5] On the other hand, after scrutinizing the onomastic data compiled by Tal Ilan,[6] 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). A minority view during the Patristic period was that Levi and Matthew were separate individuals. Many think that just as Simon was named Peter (the rock) by the Lord, Levi was likewise renamed Matthew (the gift of God) by Jesus. H. Gundry, 291. Magi, or "wise men," were royal counselors. Brian McNeil (London: T&T Clark, 2003), 40; Jennifer Wright Knust, Early Christian Re-writing and the History of the Pericope Adulterae, JECS 14 (2006): 495n34; Norelli, Papia, 33132, 335; MacDonald, Two Shipwrecked Gospels, 14, 1922, 24653; Jrg Frey, Die Fragmente des Hebrerevangeliums, in Antike christliche Apokryphen in deutscher bersetzung. From the place where he collected taxes near the Sea of Galilee (probably on the outskirts of Capernaum), Matthew may often have heard Jesus speak and must have known about his many miracles. 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. 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 . [14] 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. Luke, also, describes his calling: After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. In the Christian Bible, he was cited as one of the Jesus' apostles. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthews house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. Numerous textual indications point to an author who was a Jewish Christian writing for Christians of similar background. The Testimonium Flavianum Question (My Two Cents), The Bible is Accurate Manuscript Evidence, Sayings From the Bible in the 21st Century, Colors & Dyes For Clothing in Ancient Rome, Thanksgiving: First Foods, First Friends1620, Ancient Ossuaries Uncover Biblical Truths. How come only five disciples of Jesus Christ wrote books in the New Testament? Early Christian CommunionWine or Mingled Wine? The meaning in Hebrew of the word day always means a 24 hour period of time. As a tax collector, Matthew . 1/27/2013 09:47:39 pm. Levi meaning joined and the name Matthew meaning gift of Yahweh.. [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. Both are true because Matthew and Levi are two names for the same person. They were considered traitors because they worked for the despised Roman rulers. Many people were surprised when Jesus sat down to eat with Levi, but they learned that Jesus' message of salvation is for everyone. Perhaps most plain is the calling of the disciple Matthew, also known as Levi the tax collector. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Mark 2:13-17. 30.13.45), indicating that it was published in Greek at the outset. "Follow me," he said to him. But let's hear Matthew's own account of his calling: While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [38] There are a number of Patristic and Medieval quotations that purportedly derive from a text that was commonly dubbed as the Gospel according to the Hebrews. [42], It was not until Epiphanius (Pan. had his name changed from Levi to Matthew likely by Jesus Himself who changed Simon's name to Peter. 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). [26] Gundry, Matthew, 619; idem, Pre-Papian Tradition, 67. Jesus casually says to Levi the tax collector,follow me and Levi got up and followed him. Just like that. 3.1.1). The Pharisees asked them, Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? On hearing this, Jesus said to them, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 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. The debate over the authorship of Matthews Gospel usually focuses on the replacement of Levi, the son of Alphaeus, with Matthew (Matt 9:9; contra Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27) and the addition of the descriptor the toll collector after Matthews name (Matt 10:3; contra Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). One did not give up collecting taxes for the Romans on a whim and expect to ever return. [17] W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison (A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on The Gospel According to Saint Matthew. In both instances, certain copyists of Marks Gospel were unaware of the conflation of Levi with Matthew in Matthew 9:9 and 10:3, yet still turned the character in Mark 2:14 into an apostle. Vir. 29.9.4; 30.3.7; 30.13.2; 30.14.3) and Jerome (Epist. 5. Gundry, Matthew, xxii. Even if this guy gets over the fact that I'm a tax collector, how could he ever be interested in me? They were dishonest and were also seen as. CHICAGO (RNS) The first time the Rev. Band: Evangelien und Verwandtes. Jesus went out again by the sea. 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). 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. prol.) Jennie Ebeling --Department of Archaeology and Art History, University of Evansville, Copyright 2000-2023 The Bible and Interpretation| All Rights Reserved |The University of Arizona | Developed bySBS Tech But Levis guests were of his social ilksinners and other tax collectors.The Pharisees (we get our word pharisaical meaning self-righteous; hypocritical from this sect in ancient Judaism) were always watching whatever Jesus did and said and they followed him to Levis house and were appalled to see Him eating and talking with tax collectors and sinners.Several of Jesus other disciples were near. John P. Meier even entertains the option that the evangelist wanted to replace Levi with any of the apostles and Matthew was chosen at random for this aim. For an alternative approach, W. F. Albright and C. S. Mann speculate that an Aramaic source identified the toll collector as a Levite and that this was mistranslated as the personal name Levi in the Greek texts of Mark and Luke. [34] 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). 16:18) Mark and Luke were probably stunned by Jesus inclusion of a hated tax collector in His Twelve. As Brent Cunningham expressed it the changing of the names represented Jesus' ownership of them. According to Matthew 9:9 and Mark 2:14, Matthew was sitting by the customs house in Capernaum (near modern Almagor, Israel, on the Sea of Galilee) when Jesus called him into his company. Indeed, Levi is Israel's priestly tribe, as stated in the Bible: "The priests the Levites the priests the Levites the priests the Levites" (Deuteronomy 17:9, 17:18, 18:1). Soon, Jesus and His disciples are having dinner in . [8] See Barnabas Lindars, Matthew, Levi, Lebbaeus and the Value of the Western TextNTS 4 (1957-58): 220-22; Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 3rd ed., (London: New York, 1975), 26, 81; Brent Nongbri, Matthew and Levi (and James), Variant Readings (blog), May 21, 2018, https://brentnongbri.com/2018/05/21/matthew-and-levi-and-james/. Pan. Even so, most readers of the New Testament throughout history have taken the identification of Levi with Matthew for granted. (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. There were 12 men chosen to be disciples of Jesus Christ. [35] For the general consensus of Q scholars, see Nigel Turner, Q in Recent Thought ExpTim 80 (1968-69): 32428; John S. Kloppenborg, The Formation of Q: Trajectories in Ancient Wisdom (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1987), 5164; Harry T. Fleddermann, Q: A Reconstruction and Commentary (Leuven: Peeters, 2005), 15557; Sarah E. Rollens, Framing Social Criticism in the Jesus Movement: The Ideological Project in the Sayings Gospel Q (Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014), 9193. 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.' ". 2) Jesus explains his action in having a meal with tax collectors and sin-ners by saying "Go and learn what it means 'I desire mercy and not sacri-fice'" (Matt 9,13; Hos 6,6). Jefferson himself believed that a person's religion was between them and their god. Mark 10:35) and swapped Salome for her in another (Matt 27:56; cf. Tax collectors were not very respected people in Jesus' time because many of them stole from the people. [44] As for Jerome, he boasted that he translated the Gospel according to the Hebrews (e.g., Vir. Some scholars believe that the tax-collector simply had two names, one in Greek (Matthew) and the other in Hebrew (Levi). Following Jesus Meant Matthew Lost His Lucrative Tax Collector Career. [36] Dennis MacDonald, Two Shipwrecked Gospels: The Logoi of Jesus and Papiasss Exposition of Logia about the Lord (Atlanta: SBL, 2012), 15. However, none of the ancient Christian literati surmised that the Apostle was fluent in Greek, for they handed down the tradition that Matthew composed his Gospel in Aramaic before it was translated into Greek. David: So, Matthew was one of Christ's disciples. Matthew was a Levite from the priestly tribe of Levi, making his role that of writing on Christ's priesthood. h.e. Baum, Ein aramischer Urmatthus, 26364. ill. 16; Is. You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form.