the Third, appears olearly to belong to an earlier type of teaohing than the Fourth Gospel,1 and as modern criticism is gradually showing that this oannot be placed much, if at all, later than A,D. 100, and may, perhaps, be ten or fifteen years earlier, the synoptic Gospels cannot be put muoh later than A,D. 75. The hint.sofa date in the First Gospel itself are only those conneoted with the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple (oh. x:x.iii. 37, 38; :x.x.iv.). It may, indeed, be urged that one reason why the Lord's propheoy was recorded lay in the event already having oome to pass before the record (not before the prophecy) was made. There will always be a difference of opinion in oases of this kind, but it seems probable that, had these prophecies been only recorded after their fulfilment, they would have been modified into closer aocordance with the details of the siege. It is more important to bear in mind that there must have been some lapse of time between the first formation of the sources by oral teaching and their transmission in the forms finally adopted either in the First or in one of the other synoptic Gospels. Yet twenty years would, perhaps, be all that is required, and as the sources might have been begun quite early-say A.D. 35 or 40-the year 60 would allow a fully long enough period to elapse. The limits would thus be about A.D. 60 and A,D. 76.1
IX. THE LIFE OF ST. MATTHEW. § 20. If we may aeSllIIle that Levi the son of Alphems (Hark ii. 14) was of about the same age as our Lord (and while we have no hint that he was younger, it is very improbable that he was much older, for our Lord would hardly have chosen as his apostles those who by reason of their age would soon become unfitted to endure the difficulties and hardships involved in such an office), we may place his birth about B.O, 4 or '5 (eh. ii. 1, note). Of the place of his birth we know nothing, but we may again assume that it was in Galilee. Perhaps it was Capernaum. In his early youth he must often have heard of Judas of Galilee, who had first gathered a number of men round him at Sepphoris (some twenty miles from Caper- nau.m), ma.king the whole country UDBafe (Schurer, I. ii. 4), and afterwards (A.D. 6 or 7) urged the people to rebel, and gave rise to the sect of the Zealots ( eh. L 4, note). But however much his boyish imagination may have been fired with zeal for the political and religious independence of his nation, ho appears to have been in manhood content to take things as they were. For we find him engaged. not, like others of the twelve, in private business, but 1 I have not seen Mr. Halcombe'e works on the Goepels, but I cannot believe that
St. John is the ee.rlicl!t of e.11 • It is just pOBsible that the words, "Herod the klng," in eh. ii. 1 may point to a date before Agrippa II. we.B me.de king, i.e. before A..D. 53, when be received, in exchange for the 11Inall kingdom of Che.leis, e. much larger kingdom north-cast of Jordan, or pcrlie.pB to A.D. 56, when his kingdom wBB enlarged by po.rte of Galilee e.nd Pera,a (tn<U Bchlirer, I. ii.1931 aqq). THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BT. MATTHEW. nJ
in collecting tho custom-revenues that went to maintain the tetrarchy of Antipae ( oh. ix. 9, note). Thie was one degree better than if he had collec.-terl them in Judrea, e.nd had thus directly supported the rule of Rome, but still Antipae was Rome's creature, and could hardly have been supported by truly religious patriots of the time. Even in Galilee the profession of 11. tax-gatherer was despised, 11.s we see on every page of the Gospels, and we cannot wonder that this wae the case, for such a profession ran counter to the Messianic expectations of the time, 11.nd the moral character of those who adopted it was generally far from good ( eh. v. 46, note). Yet St. Matthew became the type of the many government officials of all grades who have given up e. morally doubtful, but a :financially safe, position at the call of Christ. He reckoned hie daily income and the opportunities that it gave of self-enrichment ae nothing compared with the possibilities involved in following Christ. Whether he had heard Jesus before the call we do not know, but we may safely assume that it was so. His time would not be so fully occupied but that he could often have left hie booth by the roadside (eh. ix. 9, note), and listened to the words of him who epake as never man spake, and hear from the crowds the accounts of his miracles, even if he did not himself see some performed. But when he is called he rises up and follows Christ, and, both to celebrate his entrance on a new life and to give his friends a chance of hearing more of the Master whose service he is now about to enter, he makes a feast for him. "Levi," he who cleaves to the old ways, dies; "Matthew," the gift of Jehovah, henceforth Ii vee instead. From hie call until Pentecost hie history is that of the greater number of the apostles. Nothing special is recorded of him. He "attained not to the first three" who were admitted to special privileges, and were with the Lord when he raised the daughter of Jairue, and when a glimpse of the possibilities of human nature was shown in the Mount of Transfigura- tion. Not a word of hie is recorded in the Gospels, not a word or an action in the Acts. We may, indeed, reasonably suppose that he stayed with the other apostles in Jerusalem, and left it when they left it. But of the scene of his labours we know nothing for certain. We may imagine him during the years that he spent at Jerusalem, and perhaps during the earlier part of the succeeding time, as confining his attention almost entirely to that section of Jews and Christians wh.irJh spoke Aramaio, and not Greek, and, further, as perhaps composing, or at any rate as having a share in composing, that form of instruction given in the Ohristian synagogues which dealt ohiefly with the Lord's sayings. There was another cyole of teaching comprehending these sayings as arising out of some event-what we have called the Framework-but the aim of St. Matthew and of those associated with him was rather to collect those 1111.yings of the Lord that bore on cognate subjects, regardless of the occasion n:ii INT RODUCTTON TO