ch were subsequently
deemed apocryphal; the narratives related in them of Christ Jesus and
his apostles were stamped as forgeries.

"The Gospel according to Matthew" is believed by the majority of
biblical scholars of the present day to be the oldest of the four, and
to be made up principally of a pre-existing one, called "The Gospel of
the Hebrews." The principal difference in these two gospels being that
"_The Gospel of the Hebrews_" commenced with giving the genealogy of
Jesus from David, through Joseph "_according to the flesh_." The story
of Jesus being born of a virgin _was not to be found there_, it being an
afterpiece, originating either with the writer of "_The Gospel according
to Matthew_," or some one after him, and was evidently taken from "The
Gospel of the Egyptians." "_The Gospel of the Hebrews_"--from which, we
have said, the _Matthew_ narrator copied--_was an intensely Jewish
gospel_, and was to be found--in one of its forms--among the Ebionites,
who were the narrowest Jewish Christians of the second century. "_The
Gospel according to Matthew_" is, therefore, the most Jewish gospel of
the four; in fact, the most Jewish book in the New Testament, excepting,
perhaps, the _Apocalypse_ and the _Epistle of James_.

Some of the more conspicuous Jewish traits, to be found in this gospel,
are as follows:

Jesus is sent _only_ to the lost sheep of the house of _Israel_. The
twelve are forbidden to go among the _Gentiles_ or the _Samaritans_.
They are to sit on twelve thrones, _judging the twelve tribes of
Israel_. The genealogy of Jesus is traced back to _Abraham_, and there
stops.[455:1] The works of the _law_ are frequently insisted on. There
is a superstitious regard for the _Sabbath_, &c.

There is no evidence of the existence of the Gospel of Matthew,--_in its
present form_--until the year 173, A. D. It is at this time, also, that
it is first ascribed to Matthew, by Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis.
The original oracles of the Gospel of the Hebrews, however,--which were
made use of by the author of our present Gospel of Matthew,--were
written, likely enough, not long before the destruction of Jerusalem,
but the Gospel itself dates from about A. D. 100.[456:1]

"_The Gospel according to Luke_" is believed to come next--in
chronological order--to that of Matthew, and to have been written some
fifteen or twenty years after it. The author was a _foreigner_, as his
writings plainly show that he was far rem