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I'll let you have that last word!

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The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew, was also named Levi (Mk 2:14; Lk 5:27); he was an Apostle from among the Twelve (Mk 3:18; Lk 6:45; Acts 1:13), and was brother of the Apostle James Alphaeus (Mk 2:14). He was a publican, i.e., a tax-collector for Rome, in a time when the Jews had come under the rule of the Roman empire. He lived in the Galileian city of Capernaum [Capharnum]. Matthew, in hearing the voice of Jesus Christ: "Come, follow Me" (Mt 9:9), left off from his duties and followed the Saviour. Christ and His disciples did not refuse the invitation of Matthew and they visited at his house, where they shared table with the friends and acquaintances of the publican -- who like the host were publicans and known sinners. This event extremely bothered the pharisees and scribes ["knizhniki", lit. bookmen or scholars].

Publicans, in collecting taxes from their countrymen, did this with great profit for themselves. Usually greedy and cruel people, the Jews considered them pernicious and betrayers of their country and religion. The word "publican" connoted for the Jews the sense of "public-sinner" and "idol-worshipper." To even speak with a tax-collector was considered a sin, and to associate with one -- was defilement. But the Jewish teachers were not able to comprehend, that the Lord was "come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Mt 9:13).

Matthew, acknowledging his sinfulness, recompensed fourfold anyone he had overcharged, and he distributed his remaining possessions to the poor, and together with the other apostles he followed after Christ. Saint Matthew was attentive to the instructions of the Divine Teacher, he beheld His innumerable miracles, he went together with the 12 apostles preaching to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 10:6), he was a witness to the suffering, death, and Resurrection of the Saviour, and of His glorious Ascension into Heaven.

Having received the gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which descended upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost, the Apostle Matthew for the first 8 years preached in Palestine. And before his departure to preach the Gospel in faraway lands, at the request of the Jews remaining at Jerusalem, the holy Apostle Matthew in his Gospel gave account of the earthly life of the Saviour of the world -- of the God-man Jesus Christ and His teaching.

In the order of the books of the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew comes first. Palestine is said to be the place of writing of the Gospel. The Gospel was written by Saint Matthew in the year 42 ([AD -- "Anno Domini" or "Year of the Lord",] i.e. after the Birth of Christ), in his native Jewish language, and then translated into Greek. The Hebrew text has not survived for us, but many of the linguistic and cultural-historical peculiarities of the Greek translation remind of it.

The Apostle Matthew preached among people having quite certain religious expectations about the Messiah. His Gospel manifests itself as a vivid proof that Jesus Christ -- is the real Messiah, foretold of by the prophets, and that another there would not be (Mt 11:3). The preachings and deeds of the Saviour are presented by the evangelist in three divisions, constituting three aspects of the service of the Messiah: as Prophet and Law-Giver (Ch. 5-7), Lord over the world both visible and invisible (Ch. 8-25), and finally as High-Priest offered as Sacrifice for the sins of all mankind (Ch. 26-27). The theological content of the Gospel, besides the Christological themes, includes also the teaching about the Kingdom of God and about the Church, which the Lord sets forth in parables about the inner preparation for entering into the Kingdom (Ch. 5-7), about the worthiness of servers of the Church in the world (Ch. 10-11), about the signs of the Kingdom and its growth in the souls of mankind (Ch. 13), about the humility and simplicity of the inheritors of the Kingdom (Mt 18:1-35; 19 13-30; 20:1-16; 25-27; 23:1-28), and about the eschatological revelations of the Kingdom in the Second Coming of Christ within the daily spiritual life of the Church (Ch. 24-25). The Kingdom of Heaven and the Church are closely inter-connected in the spiritual experience of Christianity: the Church is the historical embodiment of the Kingdom of Heaven in the world, and the Kingdom of Heaven is the Church of Christ in its eschatological perfection (Mt 16:18-19; 28:18-20).

The holy Apostle made the rounds with the "good-news" [euangelia in Greek or evangelium in Latin -- the meaning of the word "gospel"] to Syria, Media, Persia, Parthia, and finishing his preaching work in AEthiopia with a martyr's death. T his land was inhabited by tribes of cannibals with primitive customs and beliefs. The holy Apostle Matthew by his preaching there converted some of the idol-worshippers to faith in Christ. He founded the Church and built a temple in the city of Mirmena, establishing there as bishop his companion by the name of Plato(n).

When the holy apostle was fervently beseeching God for the conversion of the Ethiopians during the time of prayer the Lord Himself appeared to him in the form of a youth, and having given him a staff, commanded him to put it upright at the doors of the church. The Lord said, that from this staff would grow a tree and it would bear fruit, and from its roots would flow a stream of water. And in washing themselves in the water and eating of the fruit, the Ethiopians lost their wild ways and became gentle and good.

When the holy apostle carried the staff towards the church, on the pathway there met him the wife and son of the ruler of the land, Fulvian, who were afflicted by unclean spirits. By the Name of Christ the holy apostle healed them. This miracle converted to the Lord quite a number of the pagans. But the ruler did not want that his subjects should become Christians and cease to worship the pagan gods. He accused the apostle of sorcery and gave orders to execute him. They put saint Matthew head downwards, heaped up brushwood and ignited it. When the bonfire flared up, everyone then saw, that the fire did no harm to Saint Matthew. Then Fulvian gave orders to add more wood to the fire, and frenzied with boldness, he commanded to set up around the bonfire 12 idols. But the flames spread to the idols and caught on even Fulvian. The frightened Ethiopian turned to the saint with an entreaty for mercy, and by the prayer of the martyr the flame went out. The body of the holy apostle remained unharmed, and he expired to the Lord (+60).

The ruler Fulvian deeply repented his deed, but still he had doubts. By his command, they put the body of Saint Matthew into an iron coffin and threw it into the sea. In doing this Fulvian said, that if the God of Matthew would preserve the body of the apostle in the water, as He preserved him in the fire, then this would be proper reason to worship this One True God.

On that night the Apostle Matthew appeared to Bishop Platon in a dream vision, and commanded him to go with clergy to the shore of the sea and to find his body there. Together with the bishop on his way to the shore of the sea went Righteous Fulvian and his retinue. The coffin carried back by the waves was with honour taken to the church built by the apostle. Then Fulvian begged forgiveness of the holy Apostle Matthew, after which Bishop Platon baptised him, giving him the name Matthew in obedience to a command of God. Soon Saint Fulvian-Matthew abdicated his rule and became a presbyter. Upon the death of Bishop Platon, the Apostle Matthew appeared to him and exhorted him to head the Ethiopian Church. Having become a bishop, Saint Matthew-Fulvian toiled much at preaching the Word of God, continuing with the work of his heavenly patron-saint.

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• 1. To be a member of the Body you must believe the gospel committed to and preached by Paul. Specifically, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery. The mystery is what makes the Body of Christ distinct from all that came before it.  There is no difference between Jew and Gentile in the Body and that is an important distinction (Gal 1:8-9; 2:7a; 5:1-12; Eph 3:6).
• 2. A message must first be known to be believed. Because Paul was the first person to know of the mystery he is the first person who is able to believe the gospel, that is, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery.
  
• 3. Paul says he was the first (protos) to receive mercy in 1 Tim 1:16 and that he is a pattern for those who will believe. The passage may be saying that Paul, the chief (protos) sinner, received mercy. That's why I listed it last.

• Chance: Yes, I believe that Mary was a believer. I do not think she was a member of the Body because she apparently believed, as "the twelve" did, the gospel preached by Peter (the gospel of the circumcision Gal 2:7b) and I do not believe that those who believed the gospel preached by Peter ended up becoming members of the Body once they believed the gospel preached by Peter (which did not include the mystery). 1 Cor 7:18-20 may provide some support for the belief that those who believed Peter's gospel did not become members of the Body. There are those who do believe that "the twelve" and those who believed the gospel preached by Peter were able to become members of the Body, but the Scriptural record does not indicate that they did this (Acts 15:5; 21:20-21).  What do you make of these passages in Acts that say these circumcision believers in Jerusalem still kept the law of Moses?

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Am I way off on what you presented, Chance?

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• You affirmed that a functionable definition of "mystery" is the fact that in Christ there is no difference between Jew and Gentile"?
  
  Let me say that I was comforted to read your treatment of the Decalog and Israel as being secondary initiations on God's part--I also think of Kings. The scope of salvation to be universal. That IS important. But the mystery is also following the line that "we chall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." I don't know whether I should read paul there as saying that mystery is only synonomous with "surprise." What if he is saying that an aspect of the mystery of salvation is our change. Metonoma becasue of our enhypsostasis into Christ.
  
  So, the cross-culture and cross-gender part is wonderful and marvelous. But i'm not, surely not ready to end there.


[*] I had also said: "seems quite different from Eastern Orthodoxy uses it!"
EO and RCC are pretty differnet in ways like that. And their spirituality are different.

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[*] I had also said: "seems quite different from Eastern Orthodoxy uses it!"
EO and RCC are pretty differnet in ways like that. And their spirituality are different.

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1 Corinthians 4:1 Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

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by Nicholas Cabasilas (later 1300s AD), in "The Life in Christ" -- p.94-95)


The Second Book [557-560] § 18. Baptism as a personal experience of God

Many are the remedies which down through the ages have been devised for this sick race; it was Christ's death alone which was able to bring true life and health. For this reason, to be born by this new birth and live the blessed life and be disposed to health and, as far as lies in man, to confess the faith and take on oneself the passion and die the death of Christ is nothing less than to drink of this medicine. This is the poser of the new law, thus it is that a Christian is born. In this way he arrives at admirable wisdom and undertakes the noblest deeds. His faith is unmovable, since he believes without compulsion and governs his conduct by the power of God, and not be laws. Holding fast both faith and virtue he is formed by both into the blessed likeness of Christ. "The kingdom of God," it is said, "does not consist in words but in power" (1 Cor. 4:20), and "the word of the cross is to us who are being saved the power of God" (1 Cor 1:18).

The new law, then, is spiritual because the Spirit works everything. The former law is written because it goes no further than letters and sounds. Therefore the law is "as shadow" (Heb. 10:1) and an image, the present one is reality and truth. The words and letters are like an image in relation to reality. Before they were realized God foreshadowed them on many occasions by the covenant, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers" (Jer. 31:31-32) What does this mean? "This," He says, "is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel and the house of Judah: I will put my laws within their mind and in their hearts I will write them" (Jer 31:33) -- that is, not composing them by mere sound of words, but by the Lawgiver's presence, without intermediary. For he says, "no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, "Know the Lord," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest" (Jer. 31:34).[/u Because he had obtained this law David also uttered this blessed saying, "I know that the Lord is great" (Ps. 135:5). He says, "I know," having experienced it himself, not by having heard it taught by others. Wherefore he leads others too to the same experience, saying, "O taste and see that the Lord is gracious" (Ps. 34:9). Even though the blessed man had praised God's graciousness in many and varied words, yet, since the words were not capable of showing the reality, he himself summons his listeners to the experience of the things which he praises.

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TRANFIGURATION was in the Gospels.

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Paul in 1 Cor. 15:50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: . . .

29 As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe [became] white [and] glistening.

Mark 9: 1 And he said to them, "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power." 2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5 Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.) 7 Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!" 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what "rising from the dead" meant. 11 And they asked him, "Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?" 12 Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? 13 But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him."

. . . . . . . . . .

He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise." 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.

25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27 And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins."

"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed--"

This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

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Here is my response to the above. (From an artist and not a Sem. student.)

As an artist I promise at least as much "lateral thinking" as I see narrow, overly literal readings. Fair???

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