In the story of the Apostolic Church as we find it in the N'T the name of Matthew occurs only once, viz. in the list of apostles in Ac P'. Probably he became a preacher to the lost sheep of tlie Imuse of Israel and for the most part confined his labours to the land of Palestine. His name became associated with the First Gospel either because he was supposed to be the author or because he was the author of one of the sources on which the work was based. Eusebius makes three interesting state- ments regarding Matthew. He says (EE iii. 24) : ' Matthew and John are the only two apostles who have left us recorded conmients, and even they, tradition says, undertook it from necessity. Matthew, having first proclaimed the gospel in Hebrew, when on the point of going also to other nations, committed it to writing in his native tongue, and thus supplied the want of his presence to them by his writings.' Again we find in HE iii. 39 the famous statement of Papias quoted by Eusebius, ' Matthew composed his logia in the Hebrew tongue, and everyone translated as he was able.' We also find in Eusebius' review of the canon of Scripture the statement : ' The first (Gospel) is written according to Matthew, the same that was once a publican but afterwards an apostle of Jesus Christ, who, having published it for the Jewish converts, wrote it in the Helarew ' (HE vi. 25). These varied quotations associate Matthew with a Hebrew Gospel or collection of the Sayings of Jesus which in some way or other is connected with or incorporated in our First Gospel. Probably Matthew the ex-publican and apostle did form such a collection of the Sayings of our Lord which were wrouglit into a connected narrative of the Life of Christ by the First Evangelist, a Palestinian Jew of the 1st century. But for full discussion see art. ' Matthew, Gospel of,' in HDB and DOG. Unfortunately, Eusebius does not tell us what the ' other nations ' were to whom Matthew proclaimed the gospel, and we have no certain knowledge of his subsequent missionary labours. W. F. BoYD.
MATTHIAS — Matthias ( = Theodore, ' God's gif t ') is only once mentioned in the NT, viz. Ac l^'"-,
where his appointment by lot to fill the i>lace of Judas among the Twelve Apostles is described. We there gather (1) that he was one of those who had 'companied with' the apostles 'all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among' them, ' begiiming from the baptism of John ' until the Ascension ; (2) that he was antecedently the less prominent of the two put forward, his bare name only being given, while Joseph is further described by a patronymic ' called Barsabbas,' and also by a surname 'Justus' (SIxatos) ; for, says Bengel, 'eo cognoniine videri poterat pra;ferri debere, nisi,' as he justly adds, 'postea demum hoc cognomen nactus est ut agnosceret quamvis Matthias electus esset, ipsum tamen sua laude non ex- cidisse'; and (3) that anyhow the Lord who is KapSior/fuaTTji unerringly declared him (dvaSfl^ai) the more suitable for the apostleship. In view of these considerations, it is a good illustration of Bible methods that no further mention of him occurs in its pages. Matthias is said by Eusebius (HE i. 12, ii. 1) and Epiphanius (Hmr. i. 22) to have been one of the Seventy (Lk 10'), and the former authority {HE iii. 25), as well as Origen {Horn, in Luc. i. ), speaks of a spurious Gospel of Matthias, on which it seems likely that the Basilidian Gnostics based their teaching (Philos. vii. 20 ; Clem. Alex. Strom, iii. 4, vii. 13). One early tradition assigns Ethiopia as the scene of his apostolic labours, another Jerusalem ; but of these the former is the better attested. There is little probability in the identification which has been suggested of Matthias with Nathanael (which means ' God-given '). For a fuller discussion of this and other points the reader should refer to HDB, s.v.
There can be little doubt that the exact method by which the lots were cast was the ancient one by which the two names were put into a vessel, which was shaken until one of them leapt out, and tliat was chosen : the idea of a ballot is of later date and not Scriptural (see Lots). C. L. F'ELTOE.
MEDES. — Medes are mentioned in Ac 2' in con- nexion with the special events of the Day of Pen- tecost. These sojourners in Jerusalem would be descendants of Jewish settlers among the Medes, with perhaps a few Median proselytes. In Biblical times, the Medes are closely associated with the Persians, along with whom they occupied the western portion of Iran, extending north and south from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, and from the Zagros Mountains on the west to the nearer edge of the great desert separating Media and Persia from Bactriana and Sogdiana on the east. Along this western portion of Iran, Media Minor lay to the north. Media proper in the middle, and Persia to the south.
The Medes were Aryans using a cuneiform script of their own, and worshipping (after the earlier half of the 7th cent. B.C.) according to the faith of Zarathustra. Their art shows little originality or development, and their manners, simple and uncor- rupted at first, quickly degenerated under foreign innuence. The so-called Median Empire lasted from 647 to 550 B.C., after which date Cyrus founded the Medo-Persian dominion, in which the Persian branch, hitherto subject, became the ruling power. A. W. Cooke.