Matthew (Apostle)

Overview

• Testament: New
• Role: Tax collector at Capernaum; called by Jesus to follow; author of the first Gospel
• Family: Son of Alphaeus; no other family details given
• Key Books: Matthew, Mark, Luke

Biography

Matthew, also called Levi, was a tax collector working at a customs post in Capernaum when Jesus called him to discipleship. Tax collectors (publicans) were among the most despised figures in first-century Jewish society — they were Jewish men who collected taxes on behalf of the Roman occupiers, and they were notorious for extortion, typically charging more than what Rome required and keeping the difference. They were considered collaborators with Rome and were ritually unclean through regular contact with Gentiles and their money.

The call of Matthew is one of the most economical conversion narratives in the Gospels: Jesus simply said “Follow me,” and Matthew “rose and followed him” (Matthew 9:9). The immediacy echoes the call of the fishermen (Matthew 4:18–22), but Matthew’s cost was arguably greater — he had a profitable, if hated, career to leave. Almost immediately he hosted a dinner, inviting “many tax collectors and sinners” to meet Jesus — an act of social bridge-building that drew the Pharisees’ criticism and occasioned Jesus’ famous reply: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick… For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:12–13).

Matthew is listed in all four apostolic lists (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13), consistently identified as a former tax collector. Beyond his call narrative and these lists, the Gospel of Matthew itself is his most substantial contribution to Christian history. The first Gospel is addressed primarily to a Jewish-Christian audience, structured around five major discourses (echoing the five books of Moses), and presents Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament in careful, detailed quotation. It is by far the longest and most comprehensively structured of the four Gospels.

Ancient church tradition, from Papias (early 2nd century) onward, consistently attributed the first Gospel to Matthew, though modern scholars debate the precise nature of his contribution (direct authorship, underlying tradition, or apostolic source for a community’s composition). The Gospel’s systematic structure — including the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7) — has made it the most quoted and catechetically used Gospel throughout church history.

Key Events

• Called from his tax collector’s booth at Capernaum (Matthew 9:9; Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27)
• Hosts a dinner for tax collectors and sinners with Jesus (Matthew 9:10–13)
• Listed among the twelve apostles (Matthew 10:3)
• Present at the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16–20)
• Author of the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 1–28; per church tradition)

Relationships

• Jesus Christ - the one who called him and whom he followed
• Peter (Cephas) - fellow apostle
• Alphaeus - father (Mark 2:14)
• Other tax collectors - the community he bridged to Jesus

Important Verses

• Matthew 9:9
• Matthew 9:12–13

Cross-References

• Matthew 9 - Call narrative and the feast with sinners
• Mark 2 - Parallel account using the name “Levi”
• Luke 5 - Parallel account

Notes

• Matthew’s dual naming (Levi in Mark/Luke, Matthew in Matthew) may reflect a renaming by Jesus similar to Simon/Peter — or may be two names used in different social contexts
• The fact that a tax collector authored the Gospel’s most extensive collection of Jesus’ teachings (including the most demanding ethical teaching in the Sermon on the Mount) is one of the great ironies of the New Testament
• Matthew’s community dinner for sinners immediately after his own conversion models a pattern of immediate outreach — the newly called reaching their own social network for Christ