The sun had set and finally the crowds had dispersed. The disciples gathered in the upper room, exhausted but joyful after preaching and teaching in many different languages all day, not to speak of seeing to the baptism of three thousand people. James bar Alphaeus put on a CD of the Bach Christmas Oratorio, which seemed somehow appropriate, while James and John opened the fridge and broke out cool ones for all the men, who were sitting and lying around resting their feet.
Then came a knock on the door.
Peter said, “John, would you get that.”
“Sure, Rocky,” said John, and went to the door.
Standing outside were a hand of men, all five distinguished leaders of the Jews: one of the chief priests, two rabbis, and two synagogue officials. “May we come in?” asked the chief priest.
“Certainly,” said John. “Andrew, would you move in five more chairs for our guests? And what would you men like to drink?”
After all had settled down and wedges of a really fine goat-milk Gouda with cumin seeds had been passed around, the chief priest, Johanan, who seemed to be the spokesman for the group, said, “So, then, men. Where’s the book?”
Peter said, “Well, actually we have discussed that a bit. Clearly we need a written record of Jesus’ words and deeds. But until today, we did not feel we had the power to do it.”
“If I might,” said one of the rabbis, “Few of us know very much about Jesus. We know He taught in public occasionally, but often what He said was rather cryptic. There was a lot of controversy around Him, and hence all kinds of false information about Him, much of it deliberate lies and distortions, I’m sure. He spent most of His time privately teaching you men.
“But, beyond the need to get correct information out where it belongs, the fact is that without a book, I just don’t think this project is going to fly. Every prophet either leaves behind his own book or someone else records his deeds and words. Think of Habakkuk, or Elijah. Jesus, as Messiah, is clearly the Greatest Prophet. We know that the prophets’ books were issued right after their deaths, sometimes even while they were alive. Think of Jeremiah. People are not going to take this movement very seriously if there is no book, and that concerns me because I now know that Jesus is the Messiah, and I want this message to be heard clearly.”
“Indeed,” chimed in one of the synagogue officials. “We are Jews, and we need books. Every sabbath the men study and discuss the books. We are a people of The Book. And so we are here to encourage you men to get to work right away. We need to be able to study the words of Jesus when we meet for synagogue.”
“What you say is compelling,” said Peter.
“May I add something?” asked the rabbi who had spoken before. “First, if you don’t mind, could I have another beer? Oh, wait! Is that Laphroaig? Oh, yes, a splash of that, if you don’t mind. Thanks!
“Now, perhaps you did not notice it, but there was a man on the fringe of the crowd yelling that being baptized was insane because Jesus was insane. He claimed that Jesus had taught that if you felt lust for a women, if your hand offends you, you should chop it off. And we all know what the `hand’ means in that context! He also said that Jesus had commanded that His followers pull out their eyes and rip out their tongues. `Pardon me, but no thank you!’ he said. He went on to say that no true prophet would advocate self-mutilation, and that such acts were clearly out of accord with the teaching of … uh, well I guess we can go ahead and speak the name now {gulp} … Yahweh in the book of Leviticus.
“Well, the upshot is that he drew a number of people off. I frankly did not know what to say to the man. I’d heard rumors of this teaching, but assumed it was parabolic or hyperbolic language. But unless you men produce something definitive, there’s going to be a lot of confusion.”
The chief priest added, “And there is this, which we were talking about as we walked over here. Right now there are thousands of pilgrims in Jerusalem for the feast. Many have been baptized, as a result of the miracle of languages. Shortly those people will return to all parts of the Oikumene. And, these people know virtually nothing about Jesus. They have not lived here. You won’t be able to follow them home and teach them orally. It’s impossible to accomplish in a few days, but it would be wonderful if copies of an accurate prophetic book about Jesus could be given to these pilgrims to take home.”
“Well,” said James the son of Thunder, “There’s no doubt but that we need to do this, and fast. We can all contribute what we remember, and what we took down from Rabbi Jesus, but….”
All eyes by now were on Matthew. Matthew had been the best of the note-takers. Peter said, “How about it, Levi? Are you willing to try this, with our help? You’ve got the right name for the job. You can write a first draft, and then read it to us, and we’ll make suggestions.”
Matthew said, “I think what we need is a very systematic presentation of Jesus’ teachings, in the midst of a record of His works and leading to His death and resurrection. I think I can do this, but let me ask that you all pray the Spirit of Holiness to come upon me and help me. Then, if I’m able to do it, we’ll know it was His will.”
Matthew knelt. Peter, James, and John laid their hands on him, while all in the room stood with arms upstretched. Peter prayed that God’s Spirit would enable Matthew to find ease to complete this task, or else to show by blocking Matthew’s concentration that this was not His will at this time.
As the five Jewish leaders began to depart, the rabbi who had not spoken before said, “Just one more thing, please. Just to satisfy my curiosity. On the way here, we were discussing this rumor that Jesus is going to return and end the world very soon.”
Matthew said, “End the old world, yes. But He has told us to disciple all nations, and that’s going to take a long time.”
“I see,” said that rabbi. “Well, it’s just that some are saying that we should watch the desert because He will return, like Moses, from the wilderness. Others are insisting that we need to watch the Temple, because He will appear in the throne room, the Holy of Holies. We had quite a heated discussion on the way over here. As you can imagine, chief priest Johanan was pretty partial to the “inner room” view, while Micanan here, who is chief of the synagogue in Bethel, argued strenuously for the wilderness view. So, if you don’t mind, which is it?”
“Neither,” said Matthew. “He told us that He would return like lightning when it flashes from the east to the west.”
“Ah!” said the chief priest. “As Son of Man, no doubt. As Ezekiel when he was flashed in the Chariot from Babylon back to Jerusalem and helped … uh … {gulp} … Yahweh to destroy the city. Yes, that makes perfect sense. Thank you.”
The five men left.
The disciples went to bed.
But Matthew could not sleep, so he lit a candle and began outlining.
A week after Pentecost, Matthew had finished his first draft. He read it to the disciples, who made comments, and then produced the final version two weeks after Pentecost. Then copies began to be made and the Gospel According to Matthew began to be distributed one month after Pentecost.
Or, not.
But if not, why not?
Why would they wait?
Are we to believe that the apostles ran around the churches year after year, correcting errors, putting out fires, dealing with chaos, and only after a decade or two (or six!) finally figured out that a book would be a good idea?
These were not men who lived in some village oral culture, but people who were steeped in bookishness, devoting every sabbath to book-study in The Book of Books. Are we to believe that it took them a decade or two to realize that there needed to be a book about Jesus?
Unlike modern “scholars,” who believe that they are in a better position to understand when the books of the Bible were written than were the people who lived in the ancient world, these men and all their rabbis, officials, and priests believed that Daniel’s prophecies were written by — get ready; are you ready for this? — Daniel himself. {gasp!} Even Jesus believed this (Matt. 24:15)! (Poor ignorant Jesus. I wonder what else he was wrong about?)
These poor ignorant slobs believed that Jeremiah wrote or dictated the stuff in Jeremiah. They believed that God really spoke to Isaiah and Isaiah wrote it down. Now, we moderns with all our great knowledge may pity Jesus and these other poor untutored men whom God had misled into believing such nonsense, but the fact is that this is what they believed. Hence, they would automatically have assumed that immediately after Jesus left the scene, a record of His teachings would be written up and distributed.
Given how all these people thought, and the context in which they lived, it should be pretty obvious that the book of Matthew was produced immediately after Pentecost. Anyone who thinks otherwise should come forward with any reason why the apostles would have waited.
This article was originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog.