[snip]
Normally, when maing tax reports, Matthew would then
> translate his notes into Greek and send them to Rome.
Before this thread gets ruled out of bounds (no doubt rightly), might I
ask for a clarification? Are you assuming Matthew was a Galilean tax
collector? If so, why would he be sending notes to Rome rather than to
the client-king of Galilee, for whom he was collecting taxes? Please
reply off-list if Carl or Edward is lowering the boom :-).
It would therefore be
> natural for him to translate his own notes taken during Christ's ministry
> into Greek after Pentecost when 'this gospel was to be preached in all the
> world' (Matt 26:13). The early Fathers date it eight or ten years after the
> resurrection. This would be during the expansion beyond Samaria into the
> Greek world; Matthew would see the necessity as indicated in Matthew 28:12-20,
> 'Go therefore and make disciples of all nations... teaching them to observe
> all things whatever I gave to you in command'.
>
> "It comes as a surprise to learn from Roman records that Matthew would be
> taking it all down in shorthand-- a tax collector's shorthand script. Then he
> would rewrite it in the vernacular (Aramaic), then translate it into a Greek
> report to Rome. Is that why we get the fullest records of Christ's brilliant
> preaching from Matthew? Rome had a very elaborate and detailed tax system
> so that no one would escape.
Perhaps, but where is the evidence that tax collectors of client-kings
were directly a part of the various tax collecting systems either of
imperial or promagisterial provinces? I'm not claiming there is no such
evidence; offhand I simply don't know what it is.
Best, Tom Kopecek
There were 111 categories of tax. As a tax
> collector Levi (an appropriate name before he became a disciple) would have
> full particulars -- long before he became Matthew -- of every household."
> (Pearce, /Op cit./, pp 130f).
>
> In Christ,
> --
> Revd Ben Crick, BA CF
> <ben.crick@argonet.co.uk>
> 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
> http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm