The
Infuence of the Gospel of Saint Matthew on Christian Literature before Saint
Irenaeus, 3 volumes
By Édouard Massaux, translated by Norman
J. Belval and Suzanne Hecht,
edited and with an introduction and
addenda by Arthur J. Bellinzoni
The question of
the Gospel of Matthew on second century Christian literature is central to an
understanding of the development of the church’s fourfold Gospel canon. Such a
study is also closely related to a study of early church history and the
history of early Christian theology.
The use of
first-century Christian writings in second-century Christian literature is, of
course, not identical to the question of the canon or the canonical status of
individual books. The development of the New Testament canon was a long and
protracted process that extended into the fifth century. However, the period
leading up to Irenaeus was clearly the most critical in establishing the core
of the New Testament canon, in particular the emergence of the quadriform
gospel, thirteen letters of Paul, the Acts of the Apostles, and 1 Peter, and 1
John. By the beginning of the third century, twenty of the twenty-seven books
of the New Testament canon were widely cited by many of the church fathers
alongside the already canonical Old Testament.
The history of the
New Testament canon involves much more than an examination of the citation of
individual books. Yet a study of the citation of individual documents is a
useful place to begin any study of the history of the canon.
Édouard Massaux’s The Influence of the Gospel of Matthew on
Christian Literature before Saint Irenaeus first appeared in French in 1950
and was reprinted with additional bibliographical entries in 1986. In this
monumental book, Massaux identifies the Gospel of Matthew as the New Testament
book that most influenced early Christian literature.
Not all scholars
agree with Massaux’s contention that the Gospel of Matthew was both known and
used by the end of the first or the early part of the second century, and with
increasing frequency as time has passed. Nevertheless, Massaux’s volume is
still seminal to the question, and no other study has attempted to cover so
much material so thoroughly.
Massaux’s original
volume did not provide translations of those Greek passages in the Apostolic
Fathers in which literary dependence is either doubtful or to be dismissed. To
make this English edition of Massaux’s work more useful, Arthur Bellinzoni has
provided English translations for all of these passages.
Bellinzoni has
also provided, at the end of each chapter, an addendum listing those passages
in the Apostolic Fathers that are judged to contain citations of allusions to
the Gospel of Matthew according to Helmut Köster (Synoptische Überlieferung bei den apostolischern Vätern),
Wolf-Dieter Köhler (Die Rezeption des
Mattäusevangeliums in der Zeit vor Irenäus), and Biblia Patristica. These addenda make this English edition more
useful to the contemporary study of the subject than Massaux’s original French.
Massaux’s study is
divided into three books, which are published in English in three volumes.
Book 3: The Apocrypha and the Didache contains
Massaux’s study of Aristides of Athens, Justin Martyr, Tatian, Apollinaris of
Hierapolis, Athenagoras, Theophilus of Antioch, and the Didache