_Note on the Date of Matthew._--Irenaeus, apparently following Papias, says, "Matthew published a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, Peter and Paul preaching the Gospel at Rome" (_Adv. Haer._ iii. 1). This would fix the date of the Hebrew Matt. about A.D. 63, if it was the intention of Irenaeus to give chronological information in this sentence. But the context makes it more probable that this is not the case, and that he simply wished to make it clear that the teaching of the four chief apostles, Peter and Paul, Matthew and John, has come down to us in writing. That of Matthew and John survives in their Gospels, that of Peter and Paul, though they wrote no Gospels, survives in Mark and Luke. Eusebius, in his _Chronicle_ dates the composition in A.D. 41. This he probably does in order to make it fit with the supposed departure of the apostles from Jerusalem after twelve years from the Crucifixion. His statement is very improbable. At any rate our Greek Matt. must have been written after Mark. The frequent quotations from it in primitive literature from the Epistle of Barnabas and the _Didaché_ onwards, bear witness both to its early date and its high authority. Internal evidence points to the same conclusion. In addition to what is said above (p. 38), we may note some passages likely to perplex the reader. Such are ii. 23, "the ass _and the colt_" in xxi. 7, the "three days and _three nights_ in the belly of the whale" mentioned as typical of Christ's rest in the tomb (xii. 40), the absence of all reference to the _burning_ of the temple in xxiv. 2, the reference to Zachariah the son of Barachiah (xxiii. 35; contrast 2 Chron. xxiv. 20). Such verses would probably have been altered if the Gospel had not gained an authoritative position at a very early date. [1] Strom. iv. 9. [2] Eusebius, _H. E._ iii. 39. [3] _Adv. Haer._ iii. 1. [4] _De Vir, Ill._ 3. [5] _In Matt._ xii. 13. [6] _Con. Pelag._ iii. 1. [7] So Prof. Armitage Robinson, _Expositor_, March, 1897. [8] Batiffol, _Six Leçons sur les Evangiles_, p. 48. [9] Burton, _Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of New Testament Greek_, pp. 92-95. [10] In this Gospel only is sin called "lawlessness." [11] These analyses of the Gospels are not complete, but are arranged with the hope that the readers, by studying all the four, may gain a clearer conception of the life of our Lord. {49} CHAPTER IV THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK [Sidenote: The Author.]