Theopedia

Matthew (apostle)

Overview

Matthew was a Jewish tax collector called by Jesus to be one of the Twelve, appearing in every New Testament list of the apostles (Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). The Gospels of Mark and Luke call him Levi, son of Alphaeus, and church tradition from the second century onward names him as the author of the Gospel that bears his name.1

Life and Ministry

Before his call, Matthew worked as a tax-gatherer under the Roman government, an occupation that required literacy in both Greek and his native Aramaic, and Luke’s account of the feast Matthew held in his own house afterward implies he was a man of some means (Matt. 9:9-10; Mark 2:14-15; Luke 5:27-29).1 Elijah Porter Barrows suggests he may have adopted the name Matthew only upon his call to the apostleship, much as Saul took the name Paul.1 The Gospels’ own vocabulary for his former trade shows the offense the Pharisees took at the meal in his house: they asked why Jesus would eat with “tax collectors and sinners” (Matt. 9:11).

Theological Contribution

Church tradition holds that Matthew wrote the first Gospel, and the earliest witness to that tradition is Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, writing around AD 125 on the authority of an elder who had known the apostles: “Matthew collected the oracles in the Hebrew language, and each interpreted them as best he could.”2 Later fathers, including Irenaeus, Origen, and Eusebius, likewise held that Matthew originally wrote in Hebrew, a claim modern scholarship has debated at length without settling.3 In the Gospel itself, Matthew presents Jesus as heir to David’s line and the fulfillment of Israel’s own scriptures, opening his account with a genealogy patterned on Old Testament genealogical histories such as the one that opens Chronicles.4

Historical Significance

The patristic chain running from Papias through Irenaeus, Origen, Eusebius, and Epiphanius formed the church’s basis for receiving Matthew’s Gospel as apostolic testimony rather than as an anonymous or later composition.1 No source consulted for this article records a later missionary career or martyrdom for Matthew.

Related Doctrines

References

  1. Elijah Porter Barrows, Companion to the Bible (New York: American Tract Society, 1867), chap. 29, “The Four Gospels,” 420: “The unanimous testimony of the ancient church is that the first gospel was written by the apostle Matthew, who is also called Levi. With his call to the apostleship he may have assumed the name of Matthew, as Saul took that of Paul. He was of Hebrew origin, the son of Alphaeus, and a tax-gatherer under the Roman government… He was evidently a man of some means (Luke 5:29), and his office must have required for its proper discharge a knowledge of the Greek as well as of his native Hebrew.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Michael J. Kruger, The Question of Canon: Challenging the Status Quo in the New Testament Debate (Nottingham: Apollos, 2013), chap. 5, “The Date of Canon,” 155-203, quoting Papias in Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.39.16. ↩

  3. Barrows, Companion to the Bible, 421-422, citing Papias (in Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 3.39), Pantaenus and Origen (in Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 5.10; 6.25), Irenaeus (Against Heresies 3.1), Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. 3.24), and Epiphanius (Heresies 29.9; 30.3). ↩

  4. Michael J. Kruger, The Question of Canon (Nottingham: Apollos, 2013), chap. 4, “The Authors of Canon,” 144-146. ↩