Origen

(230 A.c,) a erts that, in the Hebrew Gospel, the brethren of Jesus (Matt. xiii, 55) were said to be sons of Joseph by a former marriage. Clement of Alexandria (200 A.c.) says (Strom., II, ix): “So also in the Gospel of the Hebrews it is written.” Irenus states (185 a.c., Her., i, 26) that the Ebionites “ use the Gospel of Matthew only, and repudiate Paul”: and again (Her., v, 1, 3) that these Jewish Christians “a erted that Jesus was begotten by Joseph,” and “do not — choose to understand that the Holy Ghost came upon Mary.” Even ~ - Eusebius relates (Hist. Eccles., iii, 39) that Papias ‘‘also gives a story © of a woman who was accused of many sins before the Lord, which | is to be found in the Gospel according to the Hebrews.” It seems — that the Hebrew Gospel included also the statements that Christ was — baptised with fire in Jordan, and that his “mother the Holy Ghost” — carried him by a lock of his hair to Mt. Tabor. Hence it appears that the Hebrew Gospel (whether in Hebrew or Aramaik) contained — no account of the Virgin Birth of Christ, and was not identical with our text of the Gospel according to Matthew in Greek. Jerome | was a sound scholar, but evidently regarded the Hebrew Gospel © as uncanonical. Some scholars are now disposed to agree, not with / Epiphauius, but with the Ebionites, and to regard the first two | chapters of the Greek Matthew as later additions. The genealogy © of Christ in this gospel is quite different to that in the third Gospel, — though both trace his descent from David through Joseph. Nothing © is known of Matthew beyond what is to be found in the Gospels and | Acts, and we have no text (save a short fragment of our 2nd century | on a papyrus in Egypt) that dates earlier than our 4th century, 80 — that the question of text and language remains in great doubt. The | account of Christ’s childhood disagrees with that in Luke, and that of the Resurrection is equally different. In Matthew alone do we hear | that the graves then opened and the dead came out (xxvii, 52), and | here only are the Logia or sayings of Christ arranged as a single © “Sermon on the Mount.” The old Syrian version recently recovered N reads (i, 16): “Jacob begat Joseph, and J oseph begat Jesus, by Mary a virgin.” Matuta. A title of Juno, apparently as gode of “ morning.” King Servius (579 to 535 B.C.) erected a temple to her, which the Dictator Camillus restored in 395 B.c., when he captured the Etruskan city of Veii. Mater Matuta (“ mother dawn ”) is noticed in connection with the festival of the Matralia, on 11th June, and her rites resembled those of Leukothea the “light gode ” of the Greeks. Mau. Egyptian: “cat” (see Bas). Mau. The god of sky and light among Polynesians and New Zealand Maoris. He was baptised in the waters, but was vulnerable like other sun gods, and died in the lap of his ancestre Hineniu-tepo, the “woman of night.” Another ancestre , Muri-rangawhenna, gave him a jawbone as a weapon, wherewith he wounded the “great man sun,” making him move slowly; he also fished up with it the island of New Zealand, which is still called Te-ika-a-Maui or ** Mau’s fish.” He once grasped fire and sprang into the sea, when the world became dark; but at dawn he rose again like a fish. He burns in the volcanoes, and brought new fire to earth, at the request of his mother Mahuika, or Ta-ranga. His father made an error in the baptismal prayer, which is the cause of most of the evils in the world. He was the youngest of four brothers, each of whom is called a Maui. He hid himself till night, seeing his mother rise at dawn; and then crept ont and closed every crevice, so that Ta-ranga slept till he was high in heaven. When Mau (or Maui) was very little he was aided by Ru—the dawn—to lift the sky, or the covering of darkne , off the earth: when this was partly done he killed Ru, and scattered his bones, which are found in the hills and vales of Mangaia. The murdered Ru was his father (Gill, Polyn. 542