Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
employed in the Gospel itself. The question is unsettled, the best scholars not agreeing in their
Judgment concerning it. If there was a Hebrew original, it disappeared at a very early age. The
Greek Gospel which we now possess was it is almost certain, written in Matthew’s lifetime; and
it is not at all improbable that he wrote the Gospel in both the Greek and Hebrew
languages.—Lyman Abbolt. It is almost certain that our Lord spoke in Greek with foreigners, but
with his disciples and the Jewish people in Aramaic (a form of language closely allied to the
Hebrew).—Schaff. The Jewish historian Josephus furnishes an illustration of the fate of the Hebrew
original of Matthew. Josephus himself informs us that he, wrote his great work “The History of
the Jewish Wars,” originally in Hebrew, his native tongue, for the benefit of his own nation, and
he afterward translated it into Greek. No notices of the Hebrew original now survive.—Professor
D.S. Gregory.
•The date .— The testimony of the early Church is unanimous that Matthew wrote first of the early
Church is among the evangelists. Irenieus relates that Matthew wrote his Gospel while Peter and
Paul were preaching, and founding the Church at Rome, after A.D. 61. It was published before
the destruction of Jerusalem, A.D. 50.—Alford. We would place our present Gospel between A.D.
60 and 66. If there was an original Hebrew Gospel, an earlier date belongs to it—Ellicott.
•Its object .— This Gospel was probably written in Palestine for Jewish Christians. It is an historical
proof that Jesus is the Messiah. Matthew is the Gospel for the Jew. It is the Gospel of Jesus, the
Messiah of the prophets. This Gospel takes the life of Jesus as it was lived on earth, and his
character as it actually appeared, and places them alongside the life and character of the Messiah
as sketched in the prophets, the historic by the side of the Prophetic, that the two may appear in
their marvellous unity and in their perfect identity.—Professor Gregory.
Matthias
(gift of God), the apostle elected to fill the place of the traitor Judas. (Acts 1:26) All beyond
this that we know of him for certainty is that he had been a constant attendant upon the Lord Jesus
during the whole course of his ministry; for such was declared by St. Peter to be the necessary
qualification of one who was to be a witness of the resurrection. It is said that he preached the
gospel and suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia.
Mattock
(Isaiah 7:25) The tool used in Arabia for loosening the ground, described by Neibuhr, answers
generally to our mattock or grubbing-axe, i.e. a single-headed pickaxe. The ancient Egyptian hoe
was of wood, and answered for hoe, spade and pick.
Maul
(i.e. a hammer), a sort of battleaxe or hammer, used as an implement of war. (25:18)
Mauzzim
(fortresses). The marginal note to the Authorized Version of (Daniel 11:38) “the god of forces,”
gives as the equivalent of the last word “Mauzzim, or gods protectors, or munitions.” There can be
little doubt that mauzzim is to be taken in its literal sense of “fortresses,” just as in (Daniel 11:19,39)
“the god of fortresses” being then the deity who presided over strongholds. The opinion of Gesenius
is that “the god of fortresses” was Jupiter Capitolinus, for whom Antiochus built a temple at Antioch.
Liv. xli. 20.
Mazzaroth
(the twelve signs). The margin of the Authorized Version of (Job 38:32) gives Mazzaroth as
the name of the twelve signs of the zodiac.
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William Smith