"Papias and Irenaeus, both of whom lived in the second century, state that Matthew wrote in the Hebrew dialect (Aramaic). The former uses the word 'logia,' or oracles, which was certainly used of writings containing more than discourses, and applied very early to books of Scripture. But the earliest citations from the Gospels, some of them in works of the earlier half of the second century, give the exact words of the Greek Gospel we now have. No certain traces of a previous Aramaic Gospel have been discovered, nor does the Greek Gospel show any marks of being a translation. It is therefore probable either that there was no Aramaic original, or that it was superseded very soon by a Greek narrative which the Apostle made, or caused to be made. As Greek was extensively spoken in Palestine, and a publican would necessarily be familiar with that language, a Greek original is not improbable. At all events, we now have a well-attested Greek Gospel; and we are not likely to discover in it, or anterior to it, traces of an Aramaic original written by St. Matthew." (Bible Treasury, p. 124.) 6. _Apparent Aim of Matthew:_ "The aim of this Gospel is to show that the Messiah promised in the Old Testament has appeared in Jesus of Nazareth--in a form, however, which led to his rejection by the Jews and their consequent rejection by him, to the eventual emancipation and salvation of the Gentile nations (chap. xxviii: 19, 20). It is the author's justification, as it was that of the Apostles generally, for missionary work among the heathen to the neglect of his own countrymen, who had spurned his message." (Bagster Bible Helps, p. 60.) 7. _St. Mark and His Book:_ "The author of this Gospel is the John Mark spoken of in the Acts, and who accompanied first Paul and then Barnabas in their missionary journeys among the Gentiles (Acts xii: 12 et seq., xiii. 5). He was the son of Mary, Barnabas' sister, apparently a woman of some standing, and of high repute among those that ministered to Christ, and at whose house in Jerusalem the Apostles used frequently to assemble after the death and resurrection of their Master. He appears, from I Peter v: 13, to have been a convert or spiritual child of St. Peter, who there calls him Mark, my son; and tradition alleges, with great probability, that the material for his Gospel was furnished him by that Apostle. His Gospel is certainly written from the standpoint of the Apostle who most clearly recognized the divinity of Christ (Matt. xvi: 16); and it is an expanded narrative of the facts in Christ's life emphasized in Peter's own preaching, e. g., in his speech at the house of Cornelius at Caesarea (Acts x: 36-41). According to ecclesiastical tradition Mark went as a missionary to Egypt and other parts of Africa, where he suffered martyrdom for Christ in 62 or 66 A. D."