why did jesus change levi to matthew

This leads Dennis MacDonald to maintain that Papiass supposition about the multiple translations of Matthews oracles was an explanation for the dissimilar Greek texts of Q and Matthew. [8] Alternatively, the textual variant that has James instead of Levi as the son of Alphaeus in Mark 2:14 in a handful of manuscripts was plausibly motivated by a desire for uniformity by having a single son of Alphaeus (cf. 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). Following Jesus Meant Matthew Lost His Lucrative Tax Collector Career. 13:4; 19:1; 53:1; 62:3; 2 Clem. The next disciple that Jesus called was Levi (Matthew). Jefferson himself believed that a person's religion was between them and their god. See W. F. Albright and C. S. Mann, Matthew, AB (Doubleday: New York, 1971), CLXXVIII. At best, they were learned and prudent. Luz, Matthew 17, 80. On the other hand, after scrutinizing the onomastic data compiled by Tal Ilan. 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. Was the Gospel of Matthew written by Levi aka Matthew in Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek? This is a depiction of a moment of spiritual awakening and conversion, which was something many Baroque artists were interested in painting, especially Caravaggio. [9] Lindars, Western Text,222; cf. He was included as one of the Evangelists according to the Christian tradition. Jesus ate a meal at Levi's house and . Impossible!"[3]. At the same time, opposition against Jesus was growing stronger, especially from the religious . Wright --University of Arizona, Center for Judaic Studies Sextus Julius AfricanusWhy Did The Magi Come ? 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 Acts 1:1-2 appears to tie the two books to the same author. Follow me, Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Jesus' death by crucifixion was the worst death that anybody would have to endure. [6] Tal Ilan, Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity: Part I: Palestine 330 BCE 200 CE, TSAJ 91 (Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2002). [10] Even so, most readers of the New Testament throughout history have taken the identification of Levi with Matthew for granted. [47] Whatever the case, Jerome slowly distanced himself from his earlier confident declarations that the Nazarenes had the original Matthean Gospel in their possession (cf. [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/. Q. Could Ancient Sparta Defeat Ancient Rome? Logion could be translated as an oracle or divine utterance. ill. 3) and, after comparing it to the textual fragments that he received from Jewish Christ-followers living in Beroea known as the Nazarenes, would translate the entire work. [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). Matthew (Levi) who wrote the first of the Gospels did write it in the Hebrew tongue which at that time was Aramaic. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. And many followed him ( Mark 2:15 ). 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. This is very possible, as scholars point to Simon (Peter) and Saul. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Rudolf Pesch, LeviMatthus (Me 2.14/Mt 9.9; 10.3). 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). [41] Contra Edwards, Hebrew Gospel, 8 and Petri Luomanen, Recovering Jewish-Christian Sects and Gospels (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 12326. There are many examples of irresistible grace in God's Word. "John, James, Andrew and Peter were the disciples closest to Jesus," Traylor says. [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). 6:25 (300s AD). 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 wouldnotwrite down what Jesus was doing and teaching requires a far bigger leap of faith than believing that he did. (vv. 3.27.4). [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. [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. Vir. Christian missionaries have taught people in Papua, New Guinea who had many gods before their conversion to recite the Hebrew Shema announcing only ONE GOD. And he got up and followed him. Whatever the case, Jerome slowly distanced himself from his earlier confident declarations that the Nazarenes had the original Matthean Gospel in their possession (cf. Yet our access to Papias is mediated through Eusebius, so it is uncertain whether Eusebius interrupted an interconnected statement about both evangelists or juxtaposed two separate excerpts from Papias together. Indeed, Papias commented on a story about the Lords encounter with a condemned woman that Eusebius located in this Gospel (cf. 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). Answer (1 of 3): In Mark, the first New Testament gospel written, Matthew and Levi are very definitely two different people. 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. It is the contracted name of Mattathias. [16] At first sight, this description seems like a poor match for the extant text entitled the Gospel according to Matthew, for it does not look like a translation of an Aramaic precursor. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered them, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Luke 5:27-32. 1.7; Irenaeus, haer. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. It is beyond the scope of this paper to determine why Matthew was substituted for Levi. Ps. Change the way you think and act, and believe (trust in, rely on, and adhere to) this Good News. Vose Seminary This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. 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. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: 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. 3.39.16). All the names for our week days come from Roman and Norse/Anglo-Saxon gods. 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. [14] For the theory that Matthew was either the founder of a putative Matthean community or the source of their traditions, see Pesch, Levi-Matthus, 56; Gundry, Old Testament, 184; Hill, Matthew, 5354, 173; Gnilka, Matthusevangelium, 1.331; Davies and Allison, Matthew VIIIXVIII, 2.99; Hagner, Matthew 113, xlvi; John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 3-4; Witherington III, Matthew, 5, 29; Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 40; Bauckham, Eyewitnesses, 111. His symbol is an angel, and he is a patron saint of tax collectors and accountants. There are sayings (Matt 13:3643) and stories (e.g., Matt 12) in Matthews special material, too. Levi's work was to take the money. 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. [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. 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. [36] Dennis MacDonald, Two Shipwrecked Gospels: The Logoi of Jesus and Papiasss Exposition of Logia about the Lord (Atlanta: SBL, 2012), 15. [16] This English translation of the Greek text is taken from Michael W. Holmes, editor, The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations (rev. H. Gundry, 287291; James R. Edwards, The Hebrew Gospel and the Development of the Synoptic Tradition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 35; Shanks, Papias, 12529, 195; Bauckham, Eyewitnesses, 214. 4.9). ill. 3; Tract. Matthew 9:9-13 begins with Jesus calling Matthew, a tax collector, to follow Him as His disciple. They contend that the conjunction. 20.5; Vir. [45] The majority position among the experts is that the fragments Jerome inherited from the Nazarenes do not derive from the Gospel according to the Hebrews but from a distinct work that scholars have designated as the Gospel according to the Nazarenes. 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. 3.2) that the Gospel according to the Hebrews was associated with Matthew. How come only five disciples of Jesus Christ wrote books in the New Testament? A minority view during the Patristic period was that Levi and Matthew were separate individuals. It is beyond the scope of this paper to determine why Matthew was substituted for Levi. He called us when all we had was need. 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. Band: Evangelien und Verwandtes. Matthew authored the first Gospel of the . 4 Macc 12:7; 16:15; Acts 21:40; 22:2; 26:14; Josephus, A.J. [27] For instance, see Ulrich Krtner, Papias von Hierapolis: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des frhen Christentums, Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 133 (Gttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1983), 203206; Davies and Allison, Matthew IVII, 16; Black, Rhetorical Terminology, 3334, 38; France, Evangelist and Teacher, 57; Hagner, Matthew 113, xlv; Morris, Matthew, 1314; William R. Schoedel, Papias ANRW 2.27.1 (1993): 257, 263; Carson, Matthew, 13; Armin Baum, Ein aramischer Urmatthus im kleinasiatischen Gottesdienst. [46] Other scholars suspect that the Nazarenes only supplied Jerome with their own translations and commentary on Matthews Gospel. 3.1.1; Pantaenus, in Eusebius, h.e. All the names for our week days come from Roman and Norse/Anglo-Saxon gods. The tax collector had already counted the cost.Sandra Sweeny Silver, Slaves Were Lifeless Tools in Ancient Rome, The Exotic Animal Business in Ancient Rome. [29] Baum, Ein aramischer Urmatthus, 262. 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). 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. Matthew (also known as Levi in the Gospels of Luke and Mark) was a Jewish tax collector, or publican, living in Capernaum. [3] Powers, Progressive Publication, 29 (emphasis original). Matthew, the Apostle of Yahshua (Popularly known as Jesus Christ) is best known as the publican or tax collector. Teilband 1, 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. Matthew did follow Jesus for the rest of his life. [30] For instance, see France, Evangelist and Teacher, 6466; Morris, Matthew, 14; Carson, Matthew, 13 Osborne, Matthew, 34; Brown and Roberts, Matthew, 16. [18] B. C. Butler, The Originality of St Matthew: A Critique of the Two-Document Hypothesis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951), 16566; Albright and Mann, Matthew, XXXVIXLVIII; Powers, Progressive Publication, 4749. Calling of St. Matthew by Alexandre Bida, 1875. [17] W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison (A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on The Gospel According to Saint Matthew. 30.1; Jerome, Matt. Assuming that the identification of Matthew with Levi is correct, Matthew (probably meaning "Yahweh's Gift") would appear to be the Christian name of Levi (called by Mark "Levi the son of Alphaeus"), who had been employed as a tax collector in the service of Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee. Rather, he plainly states, So Matthew composed the oracles in the Hebrew language and each person interpreted them as best he could (in Eusebius, At first sight, this description seems like a poor match for the extant text entitled the. 3.27.4; 3.39.17; 4.22.8). Jesus Calls Levi | Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at Ligonier.org | Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at Ligonier.org One of the themes of Jesus' ministry is that He is not bound to choose the most obvious candidates for ministry according to social convention. Of course, their hippy-dippy ways are . This is a quite different case from that of an individual having both a Semitic and a Greek or Latin name, as well as from that of an individual having a Semitic name and also a nickname or family name."[7]. [39] James R. Edwards has revived the older position that Matthew was the author of the Gospel according to the Hebrews and postulates that our Greek Gospel according to Matthew was named in honor of an apostolic figurehead who preserved the Jewish Jesus traditions. Levi had to keep very accurate records. Likewise, Jerome prematurely announced that he had finished his translations of the Old and New Testaments when he just started the task (Vir. Hence, Mark listened to Peters, 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. had his name changed from Levi to Matthew likely by Jesus Himself who changed Simons name to Peter.(Matt. You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form. Francis Watson, Gospel Writing: A Canonical Perspective (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013), 126. For two reasons *Jews did not like the men who did that work. 5. The diversity of text-forms evident in Matthews biblical citations and allusions, however, disproves the notion that the evangelist was reliant on one testimonium source. 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. 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. I. 1) The name of the collector whom Jesus summons is not "Levi, son of Alphaeus", but "Matthew" (9,9). [38] For the latter view, see France, Evangelist and Teacher, 64-66; Bauckham, Eyewitnesses, 224. [18] Josef Krzinger and Robert Gundry have tried to line up Papiass testimony with the academic consensus. Magi, or "wise men," were royal counselors. I. A few scholars have likened Papiass oracles to a testimonium source or collection of prophetic proof-texts from the Hebrew Bible that were translated and integrated into the Gospel of Matthew. [13] 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. The fact that three of the four Gospels recount the calling by Jesus of the tax collector Levi is important. Christoph Markschies und Jens Schrter (Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck 2012), 62354. Even so, most readers of the New Testament throughout history have taken the identification of Levi with Matthew for granted. Luke 6:12-26. 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. 3.11.7), which is hard to reconcile with the Ebionitess denial of the virginal conception of Jesus (1.26.2; 3.21.1; 5.1.3; contra Matt 1:23). The Bible says that Matthew left everything to follow Jesus. Matthew belonged to a family of tax gatherers, or publicans, but was himself a customs collector in Capernaum, where he lived. prol.) The First Disciples [Matthew 4:18-22, Luke 5:1-11, John 1:35-51] . Some Patristic interpreters guessed that the evangelists Mark and Luke called Matthew by his less popular name Levi out of deference for his apostolic status, while Matthew himself had the humility to confess that he was once employed in a disreputable profession under his better-known name (e.g., John Chrysostom, When Origen of Alexandria searched for a parallel for why Saul was surnamed Paul in the preface of his. Zavada, Jack. They contend that the conjunction oun (therefore) in Papiass statement about Matthew (3.39.16) was connected to his prior statement about Mark (3.39.15), entailing that Matthew published his narrative of Jesuss life in response to the perceived shortcomings of Marks account. Mark 10:35) and swapped Salome for her in another (Matt 27:56; cf. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Because of that, Levi later threw a party at his house and invited his sinner friends to meet Jesus.

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