I took her to his own home (Jn lO'-*-^"^-). It is not a ; little remarkable, in view of later develojtnients, i tliat no fewer than three of these allusions seem to i guard airainst an undue feeling of veneration for
142
MASTER
MATTHEW
the mother of our Lord, In the story of the feast at Cana, His words, though not wanting in respect, ' show that the actions of the Son of God, now that He has entered on His Divine work, are no longer dependent in any way on the suggestion of a woman, even though that woman be His mother. . . . The time of silent discij^line and obedience is over' (Westcott, in loc). In the scene at Capei'naum the lesson is much the same, though the inter- ference of Mary and our Lord's brethren on this occasion seems to have arisen from a different motive. They are seeking to oppose His work. Before they reach Him He understands their pur- pose, and declares that the true kinship to the Son of God consists in obedience to the will of God, and not in mere earthly ties. It is, of course, as Swete observes (St. Mark, p. 70), 'a relative atti- tude only, and is jierfectl}' consistent with tender care for kinsmen, as the saying on the cross shows.' These two scenes at Cana and Capernaum belong to the beginning of the ISIinistry, and similarly, almost at its close, we have Christs words, during the last journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, in answer to the saying of the woman above men- tioned, ' Yea, rather (fievovv), blessed are they that hear the Mord of God and keep it (Lk 11-*).' This adds to and corrects the woman's words. There is no denial of the Virgin's blessedness, only a declara- tion of that wherein her blessedness consists, a blessedness which may be shared \>y all who, like her, hear the word of God and keep it.
Why it was that the Virgin was committed by our Lord on the cross to John can be only a matter of conjecture. It may Ije, as Mayor suggests (St. James, p. xxvii), that her sons, as married men (I Co 9''), were aheadj^ dispei'sed in their several homes, while John her nephew was unmarried, and so could more readily accept such a charge. All we know is that ' from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home (Jn 19-').
7. After this the only glimpse we get of Mary is in Ac I''*, where she is mentioned as continuing steadfastly in prayer with the other women and the brethren and Apostles of the Lord, after the Ascension. Whether she lived the rest of her life in Palestine, or accompanied St. John to Ephesus, cannot be known. Traditions thei^e are, but they vary. According to one, found in Nicephorus Callistus (HE ii. 3), she continued to live with St. John in Jerusalem, and died there in her fifty- ninth year. Another tradition, found in the Syn- odical Letter of the Council of Ephesus (A.D. 431), makes her accomjjany St. John to Ephesus, and speaks of her as having been buried in that city. J. M. Harden.
MASTER (Lat. magister from root of mngnus = 'great.' Hence 'master' corresponds to rabbi, which is from ni ' great' ; and in AV pa^jSei is frequently tr. ' master,' e.g. Mt 26-5, ^n- 95 j^ 431^ though in all such cases KV retains ' rabbi '). — The word most generally rendered 'master' is StSdo-fcaXos, which strictly means teacher ; and this meaning is given in every case as an alternative reading in RVm, e.g. MtV« 22ie, Mk 5^ 10", Lk 3'- S'", Jn IV^ 13'^- '^ In Lk 82^ and 9»3 the Gr. word for ' master ' is iTncTaTris, a word generally used in the sense not of 'teacher' but of 'chief or 'overseer.' In Mt 23'" KadrjyriTris, rendered ' master,' is more correctly tr. 'leader' or 'guide.' 'Master' was the ordi- nary title of courtesy and respect paid to a religious teacher. See art. Rabbi. Dugald Clark.
MATTATHA.— A grandson of David, named in our Lord's genealogy, Lk 3^'.
MATTATHI AS.— Occurs twice in our Lord's gene- alogy, Lk 3-5- 26.
MATTHAN.— Grandfather of Joseph the husbj/nd of Mary, Mt P^.
MATTHAT.— 1. The form of the name^(Mt. Matthan) of Joseph's grandfather given in Lk 3-''. 2. Another link in our Lords genealogy, Lk 3-'''.
MATTHEW (Uaddalos, Lachm., Tisch., WH ; ^Mar^aios, TR) is to be identiiied with Levi, son of Alplueus, since the Sj'noptists agree in their de- scription of the feast associated with the publican who is named Levi in Mk. (2'^) and Lk. (5-'*), and MattheM' in Mt.- (9®).* Levi, according to the ana- log}' of Simon and Peter, may have been the ori- ginal name and J\[attheiv the acquired ; though, according to Edersheim (Life and Times, i. 514), it was common in Galilee for a man to have two names, one strictly Jewish and the other Galila*an. Matthew was cho'^en one of the Twelve, and is placed seventh in the lists in Mk. and Lk., and eighth in those ip Mt. and Acts. When called to be a disciple, he was sitting at a toll-hou.<e, his jjlace of business. Along the north end of the Sea of Galilee there wiis a road leading from Damascus to Acre on the ]\j editerranean, and on that road a customs-office nuvrked the boundarj- between the territories of Philip the tetrarch and Herod Antii)as. Matthew's occupaf.on was the examination of goods which passed along the road, and the levying of the toll (cf. Hausri'th, NT Times, ii. 179). The work of a publican excited the scorn so often shown beyond the limits 0/ Israel to fiscal officers ; and when he was a Jew, as was MattheM-, he was con- denmed for impuritj by the Pharisees. A Jew serving on a great lifghway was prevented from fultilling requirement.-, of the Law, and was com- pelled to violate the Si\bbath law, which the Gen- tiles, who conveyed tht.'r goods, did not observe. Schiirer makes tlie statement that the customs raised in Capernaum in the time of Ciirist went into the treasury of Herod Antipas, while in Judtt- a they were taken for the imperial jiseus (HJP I. ii. 68). Mat'Jiew was thu.s not a collector under one of the companies that farmed the taxes in the Empire, but was in the servitc of Herod. Yet the fact that he belonged to the publican class, among whom were Jews who outra^,ed patriotism by gathering tribute for Caesar, -vubjected him to the scorn of the Pharisees and tlieir party (cf. Edersheim, Life and Times, i. oliJ) ; and his occu- pation itself associated him with rren who, every- where in the Empire, were despised, for extortion and fraud, and were ^^xecrated (cf. Cic. de Offie. i. 42; Lucian, Menipp. 11). Even Jesus Himself named the publicans w'th harlots (Mt 2P'). See Publican, and Sea of Galilee, § vi.