Ca 82

The Roman Christian Gospel of Matthew is the first of the Roman Gospels published with the public in mind to re-write and put its own spin on the ‘Gospel According to the Hebrews’ with which the Gentile converts are being confronted with.  The author could very well have been Epaphroditus in Rome who constructs a geneology and the virgin birth theology to counter Jewish accusations that Jesus was born out of wedlock to a Roman soldier.  Jesus is spun in the direction of a Greek god, also, to avoid the Roman perception of his being a magician.  The mystic kiss in the two previous works of James which over-write the mystery school tradition of Simon/Jesus kissing Mary Magdalene/Queen Helen are themselves over-written and transposed in the kiss of Judas.  The “thirty pieces of silver” Judas is bribed with are transposed from the bribe to Pilate in the Gospel of Peter so as not to embarrass the Romans.  The hand-washing incident where Pilate says: “I am innocent of the blood of this just person” is taken from the First Apocalypse of James where disciples of Jesus hear of the plot to kill James involving other disciples and say: “We have no part in this blood, for a just man will perish through injustice”.