————————————

About that time Matthew, the holy apostle and evangelist of Christ, was abiding in the mountain resting, and praying in his tunic and apostolic robes without sandals; and, behold, Jesus came to Matthew in the likeness of the infants who sing in paradise, and said to him:  Peace to thee, Matthew!  And Matthew having gazed upon Him, and not known who He was, said:  Grace to thee, and peace, O child highly favoured!  And why hast thou come hither to me, having left those who sing in paradise, and the delights there?  Because here the place is desert; and what sort of a table I shall lay for thee, O child, I know not, because I have no bread nor oil in a jar.  Moreover, even the winds are at rest, so as not to cast down from the trees to the ground anything for food; because, for the accomplishing of my fast of forty days, I, partaking only of the fruits falling by the movement of the winds, am glorifying my Jesus.  Now, therefore, what shall I bring thee, beautiful boy?  There is not even water near, that I may wash thy feet.

And the child said:  Why sayest thou, O Matthew?  Understand and know that good discourse is better than a calf, and words of meekness better than every herb of the field, and a sweet saying as the perfume of love, and cheerfulness of countenance better than feeding, and a pleasant look is as the appearance of sweetness.  Understand, Matthew, and know that I am paradise, that I am the comforter, I am the power of the powers above, I the strength of those that restrain themselves, I the crown of the virgins, I the self-control of the once married, I the boast of the widowed, I the defence of the infants, I the foundation of the Church, I the kingdom of the bishops, I the glory of the presbyters, I the praise of the deacons.  Be a man, and be strong, Matthew, in, these words.

And Matthew said:  The sight of thee hast altogether delighted me, O child; moreover also, thy words are full of life.  For assuredly thy face shines more than the lightning, and thy words are altogether most sweet.  And that indeed I saw thee in paradise when thou didst sing with the other infants who were killed in Bethlehem, I know right well; but how thou hast suddenly come hither, this altogether astonishes me.  But I shall ask thee one thing, O child:  that impious Herod, where is he?  The child says to him:  Since thou hast asked, hear his dwelling-place.  He dwells, indeed, in Hades; and there has been prepared for him fire unquenchable, Gehenna without end, bubbling mire, worm that sleeps not,²²⁸³

2283 Or, that dies not.

2284 The other [Vienna] ms. has, eleven.

2285 In some of themss. of the previous book the name of Matthew appears in place of that of Matthias—Matthaios for Mattheias.

2286 Comp. Rev. xxii. 2.

And the child having said this, and given him the rod, was taken up into the heavens.  And Matthew went down from the mountain, hastening to the city.  And as he was about to enter into the city, there met him Fulvana the wife of the king, and his son Fulvanus and his wife Erva, who were possessed by an unclean spirit, and cried out shouting:  Who has brought thee here again, Matthew? or who has given thee the rod for our destruction? for we see also the child Jesus, the Son of God, who is with thee.  Do not go then, O Matthew, to plant the rod for the food, and for the transformation of the man-eaters:  for I have found what I shall do to thee.  For since thou didst drive me out of this city, and prevent me from fulfilling my wishes among the man-eaters, behold, I will raise up against thee the king of this city, and he will burn thee alive.  And Matthew, having laid his hands on each one of the demoniacs, put the demons to flight, and made the people whole; and they followed him.

And thus the affair being made manifest, Plato the bishop, having heard of the presence of the holy Apostle Matthew, met him with all the clergy; and having fallen to the ground, they kissed his feet.  And Matthew raised them, and went with them into the church, and the child Jesus was also with him.  And Matthew, having come to the gate of the church, stood upon a certain lofty and immoveable stone; and when the whole city ran together, especially the brethren who had believed, began to say:  Men and women who appear in our sight, heretofore believing in the universe,²²⁸⁷

2287 The other [Vienna] ms. has:  heretofore worshipping every evil thing.

And having said this, and called upon the name of the Lord Jesus, he fixed his rod in the ground, and straightway it sprung up to one cubit; and the sight was strange and wonderful.  For the rod having straightway shot up, increased in size, and grew into a great tree, as Matthew had said.  And the apostle said:  Go into the fountain and wash your bodies in it, and then thus partake both of the fruits of the tree, and of the vine and the honey, and drink of the fountain, and you shall be transformed in your likeness to that of men; and after that, having gone into the church, you will clearly recognise that you have believed in the living and true God.  And having done all these things, they saw themselves changed into the likeness of Matthew; then, having thus gone into the church, they worshipped and glorified God.  And when they had been changed, they knew that they were naked; and they ran in haste each to his own house to cover their nakedness, because they were ashamed.

And Matthew and Plato remained in the church spending the night, and glorifying God.  And there remained also the king’s wife, and his son and his wife, and they prayed the apostle to give them the seal in Christ.  And Matthew gave orders to Plato; and he, having gone forth, baptized them in the water of the fountain of the tree, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.  And so thereafter, having gone into the church, they communicated in the holy mysteries of Christ;²²⁸⁸

2288 The other [Paris]ms. has:  having communicated in the Eucharist.

And when the dawn had fully come, the blessed Matthew, having gone along with the bishop Plato, stood in the place in which the rod had been planted, and he sees the rod grown into a great tree, and near it a vine twined round it, and honey coming down from above even to its root; and that tree was at once beautiful and flourishing, like the plants in paradise, and a river proceeded from its root watering²²⁸⁹

2289 Or, giving drink to.

2290 The other [Paris]ms. has Smyrna.  Nicephorus calls it Myrmene.

And when what had come to pass was reported in the palace, the king Fulvanus, having learned what had been done by Matthew about his wife, and his son, and his daughter-in-law, rejoiced for a time at their purification; but seeing that they were inseparable from Matthew, he was seized with rage and anger, and endeavoured to put him to death by fire.  And on that night²²⁹¹

2291 Comp. Acts xviii. 9; xxiii. 11.

And the blessed Matthew, having awoke, and sealed himself over all the body, rose up at dawn, and proceeded into the church; and having bent his knees, prayed earnestly.  Then the bishop having come, and the clergy, they stood in common in prayer, glorifying God.  And after they had ended the prayer, the bishop Plato said:  Peace to thee, Matthew, apostle of Christ!  And the blessed Matthew said to him:  Peace to you!  And when they had sat down, the apostle said to the bishop Plato, and to all the clergy:  I wish you, children, to know, Jesus having declared it to me, that the king of this city is going to send soldiers against me, the devil having entered into him, and manifestly armed him against us.  But let us give ourselves up to Jesus, and He will deliver us from every trial, and all who have believed in Him.

And the king, plotting against the blessed Matthew how he should lay hands on him, and seeing also that the believers were very many, was very much at fault, and was in great difficulty.

Therefore the wicked and unclean devil who had come forth from the king’s wife, and his son, and his daughter-in-law, put to flight by Matthew, having transformed himself into the likeness of a soldier, stood before the king, and said to him:  O king, why art thou thus put to the worse by this stranger and sorcerer?  Knowest thou not that he was a publican, but now he has been called an apostle²²⁹²

2292 Or, as an apostle.

The king having heard this, and being the more exasperated by the pretended soldier, sent against the blessed Matthew four soldiers, having threatened them, and said:  Unless you bring Matthew to me, I shall burn you alive with fire; and the punishment which he is to undergo, you shall endure.  And the soldiers, having been thus threatened by the king, go in arms to where the Apostle Matthew and the bishop Plato are.  And when they came near them, they heard their speaking indeed, but saw no one.  And having come, they said to the king:  We pray thee, O king, we went and found no one, but only heard the voices of persons talking.  And the king, being enraged, and having blazed up like fire, gave orders to send other ten soldiers—man-eaters—saying to them:  Go stealthily to the place, and tear them in pieces alive, and eat up Matthew, and Plato, who is with him.  And when they were about to come near the blessed Matthew, the Lord Jesus Christ, having come in the likeness of a most beautiful boy, holding a torch of fire, ran to meet them, burning out their eyes.  And they, having cried out and thrown their arms from them, fled, and came to the king, being speechless.

And the demon who had before appeared to the king in the form of a soldier, being again transformed into the form of a soldier, stood before the king, and said to him:  Thou seest, O king, this stranger has bewitched them all.  Learn, then, how thou shalt take him.  The king says to him:  Tell me first wherein his strength is, that I may know, and then I will draw up against him with a great force.  And the demon, compelled by an angel, says to the king:  Since thou wishest to hear accurately about him, O king, I will tell thee all the truth.  Really, unless he shall be willing to be taken by thee of his own accord, thou labourest in vain, and thou wilt not be able to hurt him; but if thou wishest to lay hands on him, thou wilt be struck by him with blindness, and thou wilt be paralyzed.  And if thou send a multitude of soldiers against him, they also will be struck with blindness, and will be paralyzed.  And we shall go, even seven unclean demons, and immediately make away with thee and thy whole camp, and destroy all the city with lightning, except those naming that awful and holy name of Christ; for wherever a footstep of theirs has come, thence, pursued, we flee.  And even if thou shalt apply fire to him, to him the fire will be dew; and if thou shalt shut him up in a furnace, to him the furnace will be a church; and if thou shalt put him in chains in prison, and seal up the floors, the doors will open to him of their own accord, and all who believe in that name will go in, even they, and say, This prison is a church of the living God, and a holy habitation of those that live alone.²²⁹³

2293 i.e., monks.

2294 Lit., of the same form with him.

The king says to him:  And who art thou?  And he says:  I am the demon who dwelt in thy wife, and in thy son, and in thy daughter-in-law; and my name is Asmodæus; and this Matthew drove me out of them.  And now, behold, thy wife, and thy son, and thy daughter-in-law sing along with him in the church.  And I know, O king, that thou also after this wilt believe in him.  The king says to him:  Whoever thou art, spirit of many shapes, I adjure thee by the God whom he whom thou callest Matthew proclaims, depart hence without doing hurt to any one.  And straightway the demon, no longer like a soldier, but like smoke, became invisible; and as he fled he cried out:  O secret name, armed against us, I pray thee, Matthew, servant of the holy God, pardon me, and I will no longer remain in this city.  Keep thou thine own; but I go away into the fire everlasting.

Then the king, affected with great fear at the answer of the demon, remained quiet that day.  And the night having come, and he not being able to sleep because he was hungry,²²⁹⁵

2295 The other [Vienna] ms. has:  for he neither ate nor drank, in his concern about these things.

And they say to the king:  Behold Matthew in the gate!  And he says:  Who he is, or where he is, I see not.  And they said to him:  Behold, he is in sight of thee.  And he says:  All the while I see nobody.  For he had been blinded by the power of God.  And he began to cry out:  Woe to me, miserable! what evil has come upon me, for my eyes have been blinded, and all my limbs paralyzed?  O Asmodæus Beelzebul Satan! all that thou hast said to me has come upon me.  But I pray thee, Matthew, servant of God, forgive me as the herald of the good God; for assuredly the Jesus proclaimed by thee three days ago through the night appeared to me altogether resplendent as with lightning, like a beautiful young man, and said to me, Since thou art entertaining evil counsels in the wickedness of thine heart in regard to my servant Matthew, know I have disclosed to him that through thee will be the release of his body.  And straightway I saw him going up into heaven.  If therefore he is thy God, and if he wishes thy body to be buried in our city for a testimony of the salvation of the generations after this, and for the banishing²²⁹⁶

2296 The word thus translated is used by the LXX. in the sense of an asylum, or place of refuge.

2297 Comp. Mark vii. 34.  The addition of Jesus here shows that the writer did not know the meaning of the Aramaic word.

And straightway the king, laying hold of the apostle, and leading him by the right hand, brought him by craft into the palace; and Plato was on Matthew’s left hand, going along with him, and keeping hold of him.²²⁹⁸

2298 Or, holding him back.

And the apostle exhorted the brethren to remain undismayed, and that they should rejoice, and accompany him with great meekness, singing and praising God, because they were deemed worthy to have the relics of the apostle.  Having therefore come to the place, the executioners, like most evil wild beasts, pinned down to the ground Matthew’s hands and feet with long nails; and having done everything as they had been bid, applied the fire.  And they indeed laboured²²⁹⁹

2299 I should be disposed to read ἔκαιον, set fire to, for ἔκαμνον, laboured.

2300 The other [Vienna] ms. has:  at our gods.

Then he ordered a multitude to carry coals of fire from the furnace of the bath in the palace, and the twelve gods of gold and silver; and place them, says he, in a circle round the sorcerer, lest he may even somehow bewitch the fire from the furnace of the palace.  And there being many executioners and soldiers, some carried the coals; and others, bearing the gods, brought them.  And the king accompanied them, watching lest any of the Christians should steal one of his gods, or bewitch the fire.  And when they came near the place where the apostle was nailed down, his face was looking towards heaven, and all his body was covered over with the paper, and much brushwood over his body to the height of ten cubits.  And having ordered the soldiers to set the gods in a circle round Matthew, five cubits off, securely fastened that they might not fall, again he ordered the coal to be thrown on, and to kindle the fire at all points.

And Matthew, having looked up to heaven, cried out, Adonai eloi sabaoth marmari marmunth; that is, O God the Father, O Lord Jesus Christ, deliver me, and burn down their gods which they worship; and let the fire also pursue the king even to his palace, but not to his destruction:  for perhaps he will repent and be converted.  And when he saw the fire to be monstrous in height, the king, thinking that Matthew was burnt up, laughed aloud, and said:  Has thy magic been of any avail to thee, Matthew?  Can thy Jesus now give thee any help?

And as he said this a dreadful wonder appeared; for all the fire along with the wood went away from Matthew, and was poured round about their gods, so that nothing of the gold or the silver was any more seen; and the king fled, and said:  Woe’s me, that my gods are destroyed by the rebuke of Matthew, of which the weight was a thousand talents of gold and a thousand talents of silver.  Better are the gods of stone and of earthenware, in that they are neither melted nor stolen.²³⁰¹

2301 The other [Vienna] ms. adds:  How my forefathers toiled, and with great trouble made the gods; and now, behold, they have been destroyed by one magician.

And when the fire had thus utterly destroyed their gods, and burnt up many soldiers, there came to pass again another stranger wonder.  For the fire, in the likeness of a great and dreadful dragon, chased the tyrant as far as the palace, and ran hither and thither round the king, not letting him go into the palace.  And the king, chased by the fire, and not allowed to go into his palace, turned back to where Matthew was, and cried out, saying:  I beseech thee, whoever thou art, O man, whether magician or sorcerer or god, or angel of God, whom so great a pyre has not touched, remove from me this dreadful and fiery dragon; forget the evil I have done, as also when thou madest me receive my sight.  And Matthew, having rebuked the fire, and the flames having been extinguished, and the dragon having become invisible, stretching his eyes to heaven, and praying in Hebrew, and commending his spirit to the Lord, said:  Peace to you!  And having glorified the Lord, he went to his rest about the sixth hour.

Then the king, having ordered more soldiers to come, and the bed to be brought from the palace, which had a great show of gold, he ordered the apostle to be laid on it, and carried to the palace.  And the body of the apostle was lying as if in sleep, and his robe and his tunic unstained by the fire; and sometimes they saw him on the bed, and sometimes following, and sometimes going before the bed, and with his right hand put upon Plato’s head, and singing along with the multitude, so that both the king and the soldiers, with the crowd, were struck with astonishment.  And many diseased persons and demoniacs, having only touched the bed, were made sound; and as many as were savage in appearance, in that same hour were changed into the likeness of other men.

And as the bed was going into the palace, we²³⁰²

2302 The change of person is noticable.

And the king stood at the gate of the palace, and ordered that no one should come in but the soldiers carrying the bed.  And having shut the doors,²³⁰³

2303 In the otherms. the king prays:  And now, since there is still in me a little unbelief, I beseech thee that thou wilt bring the body of Matthew from the sea.  For, behold, I will order the body to be thrown into the depths of the sea; and if thou deliver it as thou didst deliver it, in the funeral pile, I will forsake all my gods at once, and believe in thee alone.  [The Viennams., here cited, interpolates still more.—R.]

And through the whole night the brethren remained before the gate of the palace, spending the night, and singing; and when the dawn rose there was a voice:  O bishop Plato, carry the Gospel and the Psalter of David; go along with the multitude of the brethren to the east of the palace, and sing the Alleluia, and read the Gospel, and bring as an offering the holy bread; and having pressed three clusters from the vine into a cup, communicate with me, as the Lord Jesus showed us how to offer up when He rose from the dead on the third day.

And the bishop having run into the church, and taken the Gospel and the Psalter of David, and having assembled the presbyters and the multitude of the brethren, came to the east of the palace at the hour of sunrise; and having ordered the one who was singing to go upon a certain lofty stone, he began to praise in singing of a song to God:  Precious in the sight of God is the death of His saints.²³⁰⁴

2304 Ps. cxvi. 15.

2305 Ps. iii. 5 according to the LXX.

2306 Or, of the Eucharist.

And it was about the sixth hour, and Plato sees the sea opposite about seven furlongs off; and, behold, Matthew was standing on the sea, and two men, one on each side, in shining garments, and the beautiful boy in front of them.  And all the brethren saw these things, and they heard them saying Amen, Alleluia.  And one could see the sea fixed like a stone of crystal, and the beautiful boy in front of them, when out of the depth of the sea a cross came up, and at the end of the cross the coffin going up in which was the body of Matthew; and in the hour of the piercing on the cross,²³⁰⁷

2307 The meaning is not clear.  The otherms. has:  After one hour he sees in that place an image of a cross coming up from the depth of the sea.  [The Viennams. varies more than this extract indicates.—R.]

And the king having seen these things from the upper part of the house, and being terror-struck, went forth from the palace, and ran and worshipped towards the east at the coffin, and fell down before the bishop, and the presbyters, and the deacons, in repentance and confession, saying:²³⁰⁸

2308 The other [Vienna] ms. is much fuller here:  And the cry of the multitude came to the king.  And he asked:  What is the uproar and shouting among the people?  And he learned that Matthew’s coffin had come of itself.  Then, filled with great joy, the king straightway goes to the coffin, crying out, and saying with a loud voice:  The God of Matthew is the only God, and there is none other but Him.  And he fell on his face near the coffin, saying:  Pardon me, Lord Jesus Christ, for what I have done against this holy man, for I was in ignorance.  And the bishop, seeing the repentance and tears of the king, gave him a hand, and raised him from the ground, and said to him:  Rise up, and be of good courage; for the Lord God hath accepted thy repentance and conversion through the good offices of His servant and apostle Thomas.  And the king rose up from the ground, and fell at the bishop’s feet, etc.—as in the text.

2309 Wisdom.

2310 Understanding.

2311 The other [Vienna] ms. has:  And likewise his wife and his daughter-in-law deaconesses.

Then the king, having awakened out of sleep, and rejoiced with all his house at the vision of the holy Apostle Matthew, praised God.

And the king, having gone into his palace, broke all the idols to pieces, and gave a decree to those in his kingdom, writing thus:  King Matthew, to all those under my kingdom, greeting.  Christ having appeared upon earth, and having saved the human race, the so-called gods have been found to be deceivers, and soul-destroyers, and plotters against the human race.  Whence, divine grace having shone abroad, and come even to us, and we having come to the knowledge of the deception of the idols, that it is vain and false, it has seemed good to our divinity that there should not be many gods, but one, and one only, the God in the heavens.  And you, having received this our decree, keep to the purport of it, and break to pieces and destroy every idol; and if any one shall be detected from this time forth serving idols, or concealing them, let such an one be subjected to punishment by the sword.  Farewell all, because we also are well.

And when this order was given out, all, rejoicing and exulting, broke their idols to pieces, crying out and saying:  There is one only God, He who is in the heavens, who does good to men.

And after all these things had come to pass, Matthew the apostle of Christ appeared to the bishop Plato, and said to him:  Plato, servant of God, and our brother, be it known unto thee, that after three years shall be thy rest in the Lord, and exultation to ages of ages.  And the king himself, whom after my own name I have called Matthew, shall receive the throne of thy bishopric, and after him his son.  And he, having said Peace to thee and all the saints, went to heaven.

And after three years the bishop Plato rested in the Lord.  And King Matthew succeeded him, having given up his kingdom willingly to another, whence there was given him grace against unclean demons, and he cured every affliction.  And he advanced his son to be a presbyter, and made him second to himself.

And Saint Matthew finished his course in the country of the man-eaters, in the city of Myrna, on the sixteenth of the month of November, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, to whom be glory and strength, now and ever, and to ages of ages.  Amen.²³¹²

2312 The other [Paris]ms. ends differently:  And there came a voice, Peace to you, and joy, for there shall not be war nor stroke of sword in this city, because of Matthew, mine elect, whom I have loved for ever.  Blessed are they who observe his memory, for they shall be glorified to ages of ages. And the day of his commemoration shall be the fourteenth of the month of Gorpiæus.*  Glory, honour, and worship to God, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages.  [The Paris ms. is usually followed by Tischendorf.  But in the three concluding paragraphs, as given in the text above, he follows the Vienna ms.—R.] *Gorpiæus was the eleventh month of the Macedonian year, and fell partly in August and partly in September.

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