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written by Matthew in Hebrew is the same as the Gospel according to
Matthew in Greek, and sore have been the shifts to which they have been
driven in the effort. Dean Alford, unable to deny that all the testimony
which could be relied upon to prove that Matthew wrote at all, also
proved that he wrote in Hebrew, and aware that an unauthorised
translation, which could not be identified with the original, could
never claim canonicity, fell back on the remarkable notion that he
himself translated his Hebrew Gospel into Greek; in the edition of his
Greek Testament published in 1859, however, he gives up this notion in
favour of the idea that the original Gospel of Matthew was written in
Greek.

Of his earlier theory of translation by Matthew, Davidson justly says:
"It is easy to perceive its gratuitous character. It is a clumsy
expedient, devised for the purpose of uniting two conflicting
opinions--for saving the credit of ancient testimony, which is on the
side of a Hebrew original, and of meeting, at the same time, the
difficulties supposed to arise from the early circulation of the
Greek.... The advocates of the double hypothesis go in the face of
ancient testimony. Besides, they believe that Matthew wrote in Hebrew,
for the use of Jewish converts. Do they also suppose his Greek Gospel to
have been intended for the same class? If so, the latter was plainly
unnecessary: one Gospel was sufficient for the same persons. Or do they
believe that the second edition of it was designed for Gentile
Christians? if so, the notion is contradicted by internal evidence,
which proves that it was written specially for Jews. In short, the
hypothesis is wholly untenable, and we are surprised that it should have
found so many advocates" ("Introduction to the New Testament," p. 52).
The fact is, that no one knows who was the translator--or, rather, the
writer--of the Greek Gospel. Jerome honestly says that it is not known
who translated it into Greek. Dr. Davidson has the following strange
remarks: "The author indeed must ever remain unknown; but whether he
were an apostle or not, he must have had the highest sanction in his
proceeding. His work was performed with the cognisance, and under the
eye of Apostolic men. The reception it met with proved the general
belief of his calling, and competency to the task. Divine
superintendence was exercised over him" (Ibid, pp. 72, 73). It is
difficult to understand how Dr. Davidson knows that divi