Matthew

Who was Matthew?
Notes by Thomas Madron

Son of Alphaeus, he lived at Capenaum on Lake Genesareth. He was a Roman tax collector, a position equated with collaboration with the enemy by those from whom he collected taxes. Because of Matthew's identification as the "son of Alphaeus," it has sometimes been suggested that James (the son of Alphaeus) and Matthew were brothers. It is unlikely, however, that Matthew's father Alpheus was also the father of St. James the Less. Matthew, who was also called Levi, was one of the original twelve Apostles and the traditional author of the first Synoptic Gospel.

The tradition that suggests Matthew the Apostle as the author of the Gospel According to Matthew is likely from early church sources such as a passage from the Apostolic Father Papias of Hierapolis preserved by Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea: "So then Matthew composed the Oracles in the Hebrew language, and each one interpreted them as he could." The Gospel According to Matthew was certainly written for a Jewish-Christian church in a strongly Jewish environment, but that Apostle Matthew is definitely the synoptic author is seriously doubted. The writer of Matthew provided a framework for the early church's picture of Jesus. The writer of Matthew used almost all of Mark, upon which it is to a large extent structured, some material peculiar only to Matthew, and some material that was common to Matthew and Luke (but not to Mark) which includes sayings of Jesus but almost no narrative. It has therefore been suggested that there was once a document (usually called Q), now lost, that is basically a collection of speeches by Jesus. The fall of Jerusalem (AD 70) had already occurred when the Gospel was written and this dates Matthew later than Mark, c. 70-80.

Perhaps the most important thing about the story of the Apostle Matthew for modern times is the manner of his calling and the responses of both Jesus and his contemporaries. One day Jesus was walking and saw a tax collector named Matthew sitting at a tax collection post, and said to him, "Follow me." And Matthew stood up and followed Him, and became one of His twelve apostles (See Matt. 9:9-13; Luke 5:27-32). Matthew made an immediate and unconditional commitment to Jesus and his ministry.

Tax collectors in those days were social outcasts. Devout Jews avoided them because they were usually dishonest (the job carried no salary, and they were expected to make their profits by cheating the people from whom they collected taxes). Patriotic and nationalistic Jews hated them because they were agents of the Roman government, the conquerors, and hated them with a double hatred if (like Matthew) they were Jews, because they had gone over to the enemy, and had betrayed their own people for money. Jesus' contemporaries were surprised to see the Christ with a traitor, but Jesus explained that he had come "not to call the just, but sinners."

Virtually nothing is known of Matthew following Pentecost, although like the other Apostles, legend and tradition have often been offered as a substitute for facts. Writers from the 2nd through the 3rd centuries provide conflicting legends and traditions concerning Matthew including the suggestion that he preached the Gospel among the Hebrews for about fifteen years; that he evangelized Ethiopia to the south of the Caspian Sea (not Ethiopia in Africa), Persia and the kingdom of the Parthians, Macedonia, and Syria. One account suggests that Matthew did not die a martyr, but this opinion conflicts with other ancient testimony.

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