The Harmony Chronicle and Order of the New Testament, Part 1 · Section 23

The Harmony Chronicle and Order of the New Testament · Part 1 · Section 23

p. 21SECTION XXIII.

CHRIST healeth a palsie man: forgiveth sinnes: calleth MATTHEW.

MARK and Luke do again confirm the order: but Matthews dislocation of the same story, doth breed some scruple. For the cleering of which, let us first begin at the very conclusion of this Section, and make good the order there in the end, and that will illustrate the propriety of it here in the beginning: We have parted the story of the calling of Levi, from the story of the feast that he made for Christ after his call, although all the Evangelists that handle his story have laid them close together: The warrant upon which we have parted them, although they be so neerly joyned in the text, is from these two things: 1. From undoubted evidence, by the current of the history, and the progresse of the Evangelists hitherto, which makes it plain, that Levies calling was at that time that we are now upon, or as it is laid in the end of this Section. 2. From this evidence, that his feast was not of a good while after his call, in that Matthew saith, while he was speaking, namely about fasting, and putting new cloth into an old garment, &c. [which speech both the other Evangelists place at Levies feast or presently upon it:] Iairus came unto him. See Matth. 9.18. Mark 2.15, 18, 19. Luk. 5.29, 33, &c. Now it is plain by the processe of the history of Mark and Luke, that very many things, and a good space of time intercurred between the calling of Matthew or Levi, and the coming of Iairus: for Levies call is in Matth. 2.14. and Luk. 5.27. and the story of Iairus his coming is not till Matth. 5.22. and Luk. 8.41. Now in that these words that Christ was in speaking when Iairus came to him, Matth. 9.18. were spoken at Levies feast, Luk. 5.29, 33. it is apparent that his feast was a good space of time after his call: and hence have we warrant for the putting of those stories in the harmonizing of the Evangelists. The three indeed that speak of these stories do handle them together, because they would dispatch Levies story at once: and Mark and Luke do mention what occurred at his feet, but when they have done that, they return to the story and time, that properly followed in order after his calling.

Here therefore is the reason of Matthews so farre dislocating the story of the palsie man that is before us as he hath done: namely because in that ninth Chapter he pitcheth upon the time of Levies feast, and from that time goes on forward with the story succeeding it: And so having pitched upon the time of his feast, he also brings in the story of his call, because he would take up his whole story in one place, as the other Evangelists have also done: and with the story of his call, he hath likewise brought in the story of the palsie man because it occurred at the same time.

Matthew is not ashamed to proclaim the basenesse of his own profession before he was called, that that grace might be magnified that had called him. He was a Publican [and as it seemeth] at the Custom-house of Capernaum, to gather custom and tribute of those that passed over the water, or that had to deal on that sea of Galilee The Ierus. Talm. hath this Canon. Demai. fol. 23 col. 1. foreign: A Pharisee [or one of the religion] that turns Publican, they turn him out of his order, but doth he leave his Publicanisme? they restore him to his order again: so unconsistent did they repute this profession and religion. Maym. in Gezelah. par. 5. Men of whom it may be presumed that they are robbers, and of whom it may be presumed that all their wealth is gotten of rapine, because their trade is a trade of robbers, as Publicans and theeves, it is unlawfull to use their wealth, &c. He becomes an Apostle and a penman of the Gospel: He wrote his Gospell first of all the four; and wrote it in Greek, though he wrote it more particularly for Hebrews: for the Hebrew tongue was so lost, that it was not ordinarily to be understood; and the Greek Bible was the readiest in the hands of the unlearned, to examine the quotations from the old Testament, that he or any other of the divine Penmen should alledge: The Prophets had been but very lately before Matthews time turned into the Chaldee tongue by Ionathan ben Vzziel, and the Law by Onkeles a little after; and the p. 22Ierusalem Talmud tells of a Targum or tradition of Iob, which Gamaliel Pauls Master had. Shabb. fol. 15. col. 3. and all this because the originall Hebrew was not commonly understood. And in the reading of the Law and Prophets in the Synagogues, they had Interpreters that rendred it into the Syriack as was said a little before, because they understood not the Originall; therefore it were unreasonable that Matthew should write in Hebrew, a Language then to the most unknown.