Matthew

PROLOGUE

Matthew, when he had first preached the Gospel in Judaea, wishing to pass over to the Gentiles, was the first to write the Gospel in Hebrew: which he left for a remembrance to the brethren from whom he was going. For as it was necessary that the Gospel be preached for the confirmation of the faith, so also that it be written against the heretics. But although many have written a Gospel, only four have the testimony of authority: because through the four quarters of the world they announce the faith of the Trinity, and they are as it were four wheels in the Lord's chariot, which bears him through the preaching of the Gospel, and the human race, destroyed by a fourfold death, was to be quickened by their preaching: whence also the gospels of the others fell away, nor were they received: because they were unwilling that the predetermined number should be brought to an end, on account of the power of the sacrament. The evangelists are also designated by four figures, which are not deceptive, but conscious to themselves of a delightful mystery. Matthew is understood in the man: because he dwells principally upon the humanity of Christ. Mark in the lion, because he treats of the resurrection. Luke in the calf, treating of the priesthood. John in the eagle, writing the sacraments of the Divinity. But Christ, whom they describe, was a man born of a virgin: a calf in the immolation, a lion in the resurrection, an eagle in the ascension. Or in the man is expressed humanity, in the calf priesthood, in the lion kingship, in the eagle the sacrament of the Divinity. *Here begins the Gospel according to Matthew.*