MATTHEW'S BIBLE

the fulfilment (Jn 21'»'-, the death of St. Peter). It is, of course, possible that the Discourse was written down as we have it in Mt . before a.d. 70, and that a later writer incorporated it unchanged. But would not the later writer have betrayed some consciousness of the fulfil-ment of the prophecy? For these reasons a date before A.D. 70 is probable. But this conclusion is much dis-puted, and in any case we must acknowledge that the authorship and date of the First Gospel are among the most perplexing of all NT problems.

A. J. Maclean.

MATTHEW'S BIBLE.— See English Vehsions, § 20.

IlIATTHIAS ('gift of Jehovah').— The disciple who was nominated against Joseph Barsabbas (see Joseph [in NT], No. 6) and chosen to fill the place of Judas. Of his antecedents the NT records nothing beyond the fact that he had been a disciple from the beginning of the Lord's ministry; and of liis subsequent career it tells nothing whatsoever.

Tradition is more lavish of information. Matthias, it is said, had been one of the Seventy (cf . Lk 10^) , and he justified his election by evangelizing the savages of Etliiopia and writing two books — a Gospel and a work entitled ' Traditions' iParadoseis) . From the latter Clement of Alexandria quotes two sayings; (1) 'Wonder at the tilings before you' ('making this,' lie explains, 'the firet step to the knowledge beyond.' Cf . Plato's doctrine that wonder is the beginning of phil-osophy); (2) 'If an elect man's neighbour sin, the elect man has sinned.

It is thought by some that the election of Matthias was a blunder, due to the impetuosity of St. Peter; and there is reason tor the opinion. (1) It was a hasty step. It was taken during the season when the disciples were waiting, according to the Lord's command (Ac 1'), for 'the promise of the Father,' the Baptism of the Spirit. (2) The method was objectionable, (o) The quaUfication required in the new Apostle was not a spiritual one: he must be a man who had been with Jesus all along. It was his lack of this quaUfication that made the Jewish Christians deny St. Paul's Apostleship. (6) They prayed for guidance, and then, instead of trusting to Divine direction, they had recourse to the superstitious practice of casting lots — a practice nowhere else observed in the Apostolic Church. Had they waited until they were endued with power from on high, they would have acted otherwise. As a matter of fact the election of Matthias was set aside by God. The true successor to the vacant ofiice was St. Paul. David Smith. .

MATTITHIAH.— 1. One of the sons of Nebo who had married a foreign wife (Ezr 10<'); called in 1 Es 9" Mazitias. 2. A Korahite Levite (1 Ch 9='). 3. A Levite of the guild of Jeduthun (1 Ch 15"- » 25'- "). 4. An Asaphite Levite (1 Ch 16°). 5. See Mattathias, No. 2.

MATTOCK.— The mattock of Is y^* is rather the hoe with which land inaccessible to the plough was hoed — noun and verb being the same here, cf. 5' RV 'hoed' for AV 'digged.' For descriptions and illustrations of the triangular hoe and the mattock, or pick, of modern Palestine, see PEFSt, 1901, p. 110 f., and Hastings' DB iii. 306. The passage 1 S IS™'- is very corrupt, and in v.™ at least ' mattock ' should probably be ' goad.' The same appUes to 2 Ch 34", where AVm suggests 'mauls,' and RV has 'ruins.' A. R. S. Kennedy.

MAUL. — See AuMonR and Arms, § 1 (f).

MAUZZHH.— The Heb. phrase 'eWah ma'uzzlm (Dn 1138) has been very variously understood. We need not discuss the different renderings that have been pro-posed, as there is now practical agreement to tr. with RV 'god of fortresses,' and 'fortresses' for ma'uzzim again in v.". It is not so easy to decide wliichgod is intended. Antioohus Epiphanes is the king re-ferred to. He had begun to build a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus in Antioch (Livy, xli. 20). Holtzmann (Guthe's BibelwSTterlmch, s.v.), and others, therefore.

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MEALS

conclude that he is the god meant. But Antiochus also sent 'an old man from Athens' to 'pollute the temple in Jerusalem, and to call it the temple of Jupiter Olympius' (2 Mac 6^). Hence some have claimed consideration for the Olympian Jupiter. On the available data, no certain decision is possible.

W. EWINQ.

MAW. — This Old Eng. word for the stomach is used by AV in Dt 18^ and by RV in Jer 51». Coverdale tr. 1 K 22'', ' A certayne man bended his bowe harde and shott the kynge of Israel betwene the mawe and the longes.'

MAZITIAS (1 Es 9«) =Mattithiah, Ezr 10".

MAZZALOTH, MAZZAROTH.— See Staeb.

MAZZEBAH.— See Pillar.

MAZZOTH. — See Leaven, Passoveb.

MEADOW.— This word disajipears from RVin the only two places where it is found in AV (Gn iV- '«, Jg 20"). In the former passages the Heb. reads ocftc, an Egyptian word which probably means 'reed grass' (RV), and may possibly cover the natural pasture lands of old Egypt. It occurs again in Job 8" (EV 'rush,' RVm ' papyrus ' ) . In Jg 20=^, where RV simply transUterates 'Maareh-geba,' it is practically certain that we should read ma'arab, and translate 'from the west of Gibeah'; see Gibeah, No. 2. In RV ' meadows' stands tor 'Sr8(ft (Is 19', AV 'paper reeds'), where it is possible that 'BrBth may be a misreading tor aclUSth. W. Ewinq.

MEAL.— See Food, § 2.

MEAL-OFFERING.— See SACKmcE, § 11.

MEALS. — In the art. Food attention was confined to the various articles of diet suppUed by the vegetable and animal kingdoms. It now remains to study the methods by wiiich these were prepared for the table, the times at which, and the manner in wliich, they were served.

1. Preparation of food. — The preparation of the food of the household was the task of the women thereof, from the days of Sarah (Gn 18") to those of Martha. Only the houses of royalty and the great nobles had apartments specially adapted for use as kitchens, with professional cooks, male (1 S 9^) and female (8"). At the chief sanctuaries, also, there must have been some provision for the cooking of the sacrificial meals (1 S 2"5), although Ezekiel (46« RV) is the first to mention 'boiling -houses' in this connexion (cf. Ex 29", Lv 831).

The usual method of cooking and serving meat can have differed but Uttle from that most commonly observed at the present day in Syria. The meat is out into larger or smaller pieces (1 S 2", Ezk 243"-; cf. Micah's telUng metaphor 3'), and put into the cooking- pot with water. It is then left to stew, vegetables and rice being added. Such a stew — with perhaps crushed wheat in place of rice — was the ' savoury meat ' which Rebekah prepared for her husband trora 'two kids of the goats' (Gn 27'). When meat was boiled in a larger quantity of water than was required for the more usual stew, the result was the broth of Jg 6"'-, from which we learn that the meat and the broth might be served separately. The cooking-pots were of earthenware and bronze (Lv 6^*. For an account of coolring utensils generally, with references to illustrations, see House, §9).

In addition to boiling, or, as in EV more frequently, seething ('sod,' 'sodden,' Gn 25», Ex 12= etc.; but Amer. RV has ' boil ' throughout), roasting was much in vogue, and is, indeed, the oldest of all methods of prepar-ing meat. Originally the meat was simply laid upon hot stones from which the embers had been removed, as in the parallel case of the 'cake baken on the coals' (1 K 19' RVm). The fish of which the disciples partook by the Sea of Galilee was cooked on the charcoal itself. A more refined mode of roasting was by means of a spit