Rabanus Maurus Magnentius, a Frankish Benedictine monk and theologian, had this to say about the symbols of the gospel writers (the Evangelists), specifically the winged man (not an angel) that often represents the Gospel of Matthew in Catholic art: "Matthew the Evangelist, the author of the first gospel account, is symbolized by a man. Matthew's gospel starts with Jesus' genealogy from Abraham; it represents Jesus' Incarnation, and so Christ's human nature. This signifies that Christians should use their reason for salvation."
According to the early church fathers, the Gospel of Matthew was written by the apostle Matthew who, before following Jeusus as one of his 12, was a Jewish tax collector working for the Romans. If this was the case, Matthew would be educated and orderly, as well as good with math and public relations. We can see evidence of this in the Gospel of Matthew. The writer provides orderly and concise accounts of Jesus's life, one after another, with very little "fluff" in between. The writer also points to the Old Testament Hebrew texts many times throughout his writing in order to make some serious links between the life and mission of Jesus and old Jewish tradition as well as prophesies about the coming Messiah. These days there are other theories about who wrote the Gospel of Matthew, however, the general consensus seems to be that the most important thing to know is that the Gospel account seems to be written to a Jewish audience. Although the oldest copies we have of the Gospel of Matthew are all in Greek, they are, indeed, copies. Some believe that this text was originally written in Aramaic or Hebrew. Although this tradition is debatable, I thought it was worth mentioning. If we read Matthew through the lens of what we know about old Jewish culture, the deepest meanings of it's text become visible to us :)In Unity,
Chelsea
