Q: I have enjoyed your magazine’s
informative articles on Sacred Scripture,
including the 2008 column “The
Bible’s Supporting Cast.” I saved the one
on Joseph of Arimathea.
I have three short questions: Did the
Apostle Matthew write the Gospel of
Matthew? Is the Apostle John also the
Beloved Disciple in the Gospel of John? Did
John the Apostle write the Fourth Gospel
and the Book of Revelation?
A: Even though your questions are
short, adequate responses will
require some detail. My short answer is,
“Over the centuries, most Christians
have assumed your three questions
have the same answer: yes.” A more
complete response, however, is: “The
names of authors were not affixed to
the Gospels until the second century,
by which time the Church had already
accepted these Gospels as inspired by
God. Likewise, we cannot be certain
who the Beloved Disciple in John’s
Gospel is. A biblical book can be
inspired even if its exact author is
unknown.”
We do not have the original manuscripts
for any of the books of the Bible.
According to D.W. Johnson, S.J., in the
New Jerome Biblical Commentary (NJBC),
the oldest New Testament fragment
(Rylands Papyrus 457) dates to approximately
135. The Codex Sinaiticus, probably
the oldest copy of the entire New
Testament, dates to the middle of the
fourth century (68:179,157).
Benedict T. Viviano, O.P., points out
that in the same century Eusebius of
Caesarea’s Ecclesiastical History quotes
Papias of Hierapolis (c. 125), who identifies
the Gospel writers as Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John, reflecting their
order in the New Testament. Papias
says that Matthew compiled the sayings
of Jesus in Aramaic and translated them
into Greek as well as he could (NJBC,
42:2).
The identity of the Beloved Disciple,
mentioned only in the Gospel of
John (13:23; 19:26; 20:2f; 21:7,20-24),
has intrigued Christians for centuries.
Although John L. McKenzie’s Dictionary
of the Bible (1965) states that there
is “no difficulty in identifying [John]
with the beloved disciple,” Pheme
Perkins notes in 1990 that the author
of Chapter 21 of the Gospel of John
“clearly does not identify the Beloved
Disciple, who is the source of the
Johannine tradition, with John the son
of Zebedee [John the apostle]” (NJBC,
61:12). Raymond Brown, S.S., and
many other biblical scholars had earlier
reached the same conclusion.
Pheme Perkins also says that the
Apostle John did not write the Gospel
that bears his name.
Regarding the Book of Revelation,
Adela Yabro Collins writes, “It seems
best to conclude that the author was an
early Christian prophet by the name of
John, otherwise unknown” (NJBC,
63:7). Many modern biblical scholars
agree with Perkins and Collins on this.
Such scholarly work, however, does
not undermine the value of the Gospel
of Matthew, the Gospel of John or the
Book of Revelation. These three works
are part of the New Testament not
because all members of the Church
were certain of their authorship but
because the Church at large recognized
its faith in these writings.
The same cannot be said for the
Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter
or other accounts that allegedly come
from an apostle or close associate of
Jesus. These writings were not accepted
into the canon (list) of New Testament
books.
In this, Christianity has followed the
lead of Judaism in recognizing which
books belong in the Hebrew Bible. The
content of the writing was much more
important than its presumed author.
The New Testament is the Church’s
book before it belongs to any individual Christian. When that is acknowledged,
there can be legitimate development
in understanding biblical texts. For
example, although neither Jesus nor
St. Paul explicitly condemned slavery as
incompatible with the Good News,
after centuries of prayer and reflection
most Christians by the mid-19th century
had concluded that no one can
own another person in the same sense
that an individual can own a house,
food or clothing.
We need to pray with the Bible, allowing it to challenge the way we
view God, ourselves and other people.
We also need to study the Bible with
the best tools that we can find. The New American Bible, the New Jerusalem
Bible, the New Jerome Biblical Commentary and the Collegeville Bible Commentary contain excellent background
material for understanding biblical
texts. Catholic bookstores have other
helpful resources.
The Bible is the Word of God before
it is a source of theological, historical,
archaeological or linguistic puzzles.
During his homily for the opening
Mass of the World Synod of Bishops
(October 5-26, 2008) on “The Word of
God in the Life and Mission of the
Church,” Pope Benedict XVI reflected
on that Sunday’s Gospel, the parable of
the workers in the vineyard (Matthew
21:33-43).
He asked whether people today in
proclaiming “themselves the absolute
proprietors of themselves and the sole
masters of creation, can they truly build
a society where freedom, justice and
peace prevail? Does it not happen
instead—as the daily news amply illustrates—that arbitrary power, selfish
interests, injustice and exploitation and
violence in all its forms are extended?”
After citing other biblical texts on
Christ as the vine, the pope said: “The
comforting message that we gather
from these biblical texts is the certainty
that evil and death do not have the
last word but that it is Christ who wins
in the end. Always!”
Q: A prayer booklet distributed in my
parish last year for the Advent and
Christmas season contained these words:
“The Church placed the feasts of St.
Stephen, the Holy Innocents and St. John
all within the octave of Christmas to
acknowledge the ‘first martyrs’: Stephen
(martyr by will, love and blood), St. John
(martyr by will and love) and the Holy
Innocents (martyrs by blood).”
I am puzzled by the expressions in
parentheses. Can you shed any light on
them?
A: I wonder if the categories of
“will, love and blood” were
inspired by 1 John 5:6-8, which reads:
“This is the one who came through
water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by
water alone, but by water and blood.
The Spirit is the one that testifies, and
the Spirit is truth. So there are three
that testify, the Spirit, the water and the
blood, and the three are of one accord.”
I would take the passage you cited to
mean: St. Stephen was an actual adult
martyr, St. John was a virtual adult
martyr and the Holy Innocents were
infant martyrs.
St. Stephen the deacon is the first
follower of Jesus whose martyrdom is
recorded in Acts of the Apostles 7:54-60. His service as a deacon and his
defense before the Sanhedrin are
described in Acts 6:1—7:53.
According to one tradition, after the
Roman authorities unsuccessfully
attempted to boil John the Apostle in
oil, they exiled him to the island of
Patmos in the Aegean Sea. Ephesus in
nearby western Turkey contains the
ruins of a church said to be the burial
place of the only apostle not to die as
a martyr.
The Catholic Church has long spoken
of Baptism by water, by desire (not
formally baptized) or by blood (martyred).
The December 2007 “Ask a Franciscan”
column affirmed that the Holy
Innocents were truly martyrs.
Q: I have been a St. Anthony Messenger subscriber for many years
and would like to ask: During Sunday or weekday Mass, why do
we not honor the Blessed Mother by saying a Hail Mary? She has
always prayed for our needs!
A: Mary the mother of Jesus is mentioned in the Roman Canon
and in every eucharistic prayer used at Mass. I count 14 Marian
feasts on the Church’s worldwide liturgical calendar. In
the United States, we also celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
on December 12.
Some people privately recite the Hail Mary before Mass, after Holy Communion
or after Mass. Mary is the first and most perfect disciple, yet the
Church has not chosen to make the Hail Mary a prayer at Mass.
The
November “Ask” column cited Michael
La Civita’s September 2006 article about
the Armenian Apostolic Church in ONE magazine (www.cnewa.org). That
Church is one of the Oriental Orthodox
Churches. Michael’s article on the
Armenian Catholic Church appears in
ONE’s September 2008 issue. The text is
available at the same Web site.
If you have a question for Father Pat, please submit it here.
Include your street address for personal replies enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope, please. Some answer material must be
mailed since it is not available in digital form. You can still send questions to: Ask a Franciscan, 28 W. Liberty Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202.
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Can You Identify These Three New Testament People?
