John Eveleigh claims Matthew published shortly after Stephen’s death

In 1792, John Eveleigh delivered the annual Bampton Lectures at Oxford.¹ At the time, Eveleigh was the provost of Oriel College, one of the colleges of Oxford, and prebendary of Rochester Cathedral. The lectures were published under the title: A View of Our Religion: With Regard to its Substance, With Regard to the Arguments by Which It Is Confirmed, and with Regard to the Objections by Which It Is Opposed.

Here again, we have a scholar who subscribed to an early date for Matthew’s Gospel. In his second lecture of the series, he accepts the AD 37 date proposed by Thomas Townson:

Within a short time* after the descent of the Holy Spirit it pleased the divine Providence that St. Matthew should publish an account of the life, doctrines, death, resurrection, and ascension of his great Master. Thus was a foundation laid for similar and supplemental writings, which ensued in their respective seasons. About twenty years after the publication of St. Matthew’s Gospel, St. Mark,** the disciple of St. Peter, abridged (as it appears) in many instances the Gospel of St. Matthew, and by the addition of some particular circumstances adapted it more fully to general use.²

* I might mention different opinions concerning the time when the Gospels were written; but, for the sake of precision, I shall mention only that of Townson, who is among the latest approved writers on the subject. He supposes, with Cosmas of Alexandria, that St. Matthew wrote his Gospel about the time of the persecution upon St. Stephen’s death. And again he says, “we may rest secure that St. Matthew’s Gospel was written by the year 37.” [Townson, Discourses, 25, 113.]

** Townson says that St. Mark’s Gospel was written by the year 56, or of the year 60. [Townson, 168.]

The proposed AD 37 date for the publication of Matthew recognized the need for an early account of the story and teachings of Jesus, in support of Jewish Christians who had scattered due to the persecution following Stephen’s death. The date was favored by Townson,³ Eveleigh, Goodhugh,⁴ etc., and would eventually be reported in the 1909 Scofield Bible.⁵ On similar assumptions, Owen, Tomline, and others proposed AD 38.⁶ In the US, John Witherspoon (died 1794) proposed AD 39 (six years after the death of Christ) and this date was published in many American Bibles during the first half of the 1800s.⁷ This period of persecution which followed Stephen’s martyrdom is described in Acts 8–9.⁸

These dates not only recognized the need of the early scattered church, but also leveraged the rather late testimony of sixth-century Cosmas of Alexandria. Perhaps this Acts 8–9 time frame is correct; however, given my approach to second-century Irenaeus,⁹ that Matthew published “while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome [the empire],” I align the publication of Matthew to the period of missionary work in Caesarea Maritima and Antioch, as described in Acts 10–11.¹⁰

Either way, the story and teachings of Jesus were inscripturated within roughly a decade of the ascension, well before memory concerns might undermine the perceived credibility of such. These dates also affirm the availability of Matthew’s Gospel prior to Paul and Barnabas’s missionary journey to Cyprus and lower Galatia, as described in Acts 13.

1. For a bit more history on the Bampton Lectures, refer to “Walter Shirley and the Supremacy of Scripture.” ↩︎
2. John Eveleigh, A View of Our Religion: With Regard to Its Substance, With Regard to the Arguments by Which It Is Confirmed, and with Regard to the Objections by Which It Is Opposed, Bampton Lectures (Oxford, 1792), 40. ↩︎
3. See “Thomas Townson’s arguments for an early Matthew.” ↩︎
4. See “Historical Champions.” ↩︎
5. See “John Witherspoon and Your Family Bible.” ↩︎
6. See “Historical Champions.” ↩︎
7. See “John Witherspoon and Your Family Bible.” ↩︎
8. For my response to even earlier publication proposal, see “AD 32? James Knowles, thou dost go too far!” ↩︎
9. See “Irenaeus’ “at Rome” affirms an early Matthew!” ↩︎
10. There are an abundance of historic authors listed on this website who subscribe to a publication date within this time frame. ↩︎

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