rakovsky wrote: ↑Sat Jan 26, 2019 9:24 am
Still another tradition maintains that Matthias was stoned at Jerusalem by the Jews, and then beheaded (cf. Tillemont, "Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire eccl. des six premiers siècles", I, 406-7). It is said that St. Helena brought the relics of St. Matthias to Rome, and that a portion of them was at Trier. Bollandus* (Acta SS., May, III) doubts if the relics that are in Rome are not rather those of the St. Matthias who was Bishop of Jerusalem about the year 120, and whose history would seem to have been confounded with that of the Apostle.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10066a.htm
I think it's interesting that Mattai is mentioned first in the list of Jesus' five disciples who were executed. Even if we were to say that their names are made up based on the OT, it is curious that someone with a name like Matthew tops the list. I wonder if it could have anything to do with Matthew being a Jewish Christian gospel and thus the one that Rabbinic Jews would have been most familiar with (like the medieval Hebrew Matthews).
Here is what San. 43a says about Mattai again:
Apropos the trial of Jesus, the Gemara cites another baraita, where the Sages taught: Jesus the Nazarene had five disciples: Mattai, Nakai, Netzer, Buni, and Toda. They brought Mattai in to stand trial. Mattai said to the judges: Shall Mattai be executed? But isn’t it written: “When [matai] shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalms 42:3). Mattai claimed that this verse alludes to the fact he is righteous. They said to him: Yes, Mattai shall be executed, as it is written: “When [matai] shall he die, and his name perish?” (Psalms 41:6).
You wrote in another post above:
Toda could be related to Thaddeus, and Buni or Naki could be related to Nicodemus.
I'm becoming inclined to see the names of Jesus' five disciples the way it is put in this part of DC's citation above:
The last, Thodah, is not unlike Thaddeeus ; but in Hebrew that name would be Thaddai, not Thodah. The others, Naqi, Netzer, and Buni, have no parallels in the list of the Twelve; indeed, it is doubtful whether they, and Thodah, were ever names of persons at all. At most they may have been nick-names, and they certainly raise the suspicion that they have been chosen for the sake of the texts. I suggest that the case stands thus: five disciples of Jesus, i.e. five Christians, were on some occasion condemned to death, that their real names, if known, were not mentioned, that one of them was designated Matthai with reference to the name attached to the first Gospel, that the play upon his name suggested a similar device in the case of the others, and that for them other names were invented, each of which had some reference to Jesus, as regarded of course by Christians.
And while I don't know what to make of it, that Nakidimon is called Buni in the Talmud is very interesting,
It is, however, worthy of note that in b. Taan. 19b, 20a, is related a story of Naqdimon b. Gorion, a rich citizen of Jerusalem, and it is added in a note that his real name was not Naqdimon, but Buni. Now Naqdimon is equivalent to Nicodemus. There may, therefore, be an allusion to Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night (John iii. 1).
You also wrote:
A) An early version of the "Acts of Pilate" or (B) the Clementine Recognitions & Homilies (or both A and B), describes Nicodemus' killing by the rabbinical community for Christianity.
Interesting. I want to look into this.