The apostle Matthew is also known as Levi,
son of Alpheus (Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27),1 whether Levi is a personal
name or a tribal designation.2 The name Matthew (Hebrew Mattityahu, Greek Matthaios) means “Gift of Yahweh.”3 He was a telōnēs (tax collector or revenue
officer) from Capernaum in Galilee (Matt. 9:9; 10:3), probably gathering
revenue for the tetrarch Herod Antipas.4 “There was never a more
unlikely candidate for the office of apostle than Matthew” (W. Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew 1:329).
The story of Matthew’s call to
discipleship is documented in Matt. 9:9-13; Mark 2:13-17; and Luke 5:27-32. He
was afforded the opportunity to hear Jesus preaching near the coast of the Sea
of Galilee, where the tax office was located. Having accepted the invitation to
join the Lord’s band of followers, Matthew hosted a banquet in his house for
the Lord (Luke 5:29), perhaps functioning as a going-away celebration for Matthew’s
upcoming adventure as an apostle. Other tax gatherers were present along with a
group described as hamartōloi (“sinners”).5
The Lord’s justification for associating with these dodgy characters was
threefold: (a) like a physician aiding the sick, these were precisely the type
of persons he ought to have consorted with; (b) it is God’s desire to
extend mercy to those who need it (Hosea 6:6); and (c) Christ’s message of
repentance (cf. Matt. 4:17; 11:20-21; 12:41) is exactly what sinful people
need to hear (Matt. 9:11-13; Luke 5:32). Thanks to Matthew’s extensive
connections and his intermediary role, a number of tax
collectors and sinners became penitent followers of Jesus (Mark 2:16).
Matthew is one of only two apostles to
have authored a Gospel,6 and his humble character is indirectly
revealed therein. The host who gave the feast for Jesus is not identified by Matthew
(9:10), whereas Luke explicitly (5:29) and Mark implicitly (2:15) recognize
Matthew [Levi] himself as the host. In the listings of the apostles according
to Mark and Luke, “Matthew and Thomas” appear as the fourth pair, whereas the
order is reversed in Matthew’s record. And it is only in Matthew’s list that
reference is made to “Matthew the tax collector” (10:3), which is intriguing,
seeing that tax
collectors were particularly despised among the Palestinian Jews of his day
(see 5:46, 47; 9:10-11; 11:19; 18:17).7 This would be comparable to
Paul’s recollections of his own sordid past (Acts 22:4; 1 Cor. 15:9;
1 Tim. 1:13; etc.), which served to deepen his appreciation of God’s grace while
motivating him to continued faithfulness in the service of Christ. Matthew knew
firsthand what it was like to be detested, disparaged, and ostracized as an
outcast in orthodox Jewish society but still accepted and loved by the Lord
anyway.
Considering
his background, Matthew would have been accustomed to writing and reasonably
fluent in both Aramaic and Greek. This would explain the “Jewishness” of his
Gospel, his proficiency in the Greek language, and his attention to detail.8
In the dispute over paying taxes, Mark (12:15) and Luke (20:24) use the common
term dēnarion, whereas Matthew alone
(22:19) uses the more precise nomisma
(state coin), indicative of a tax gatherer’s experience. A number of financial
transactions are depicted in Matthew’s Gospel (17:24-27; 18:23-35; 20:1-16;
26:15; 27:3-10; 28:11-15).
Beyond
his ministry in Judea, there is no definitive record of where else Matthew
labored for the Lord or how he died. It is commonly believed that he went on to preach
the gospel in other countries and eventually suffered death as a martyr (cf. Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. 3.24.6). William Barclay observes, “He lost a comfortable
job, but found a destiny. He lost a good income, but found honour. He lost a
comfortable security, but found an adventure the like of which he had never
dreamed” (The Gospel of Matthew
1:331).
As an apostolic representative of God’s
Son, surely Matthew was a dubious candidate. But Matthew went on to prove that
no one is incapable of meaningful transformation under the influence and
guidance of Jesus Christ. Matthew’s disreputable past neither kept him down nor
held him back. In fact, the following sentiment from Paul could just as easily
have been written by Matthew: “For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an
apostle …. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was
not in vain …” (1 Cor. 15:9-10 NKJV).
Despite the aberrant lifestyles and seedy
reputations of Matthew’s friends and associates, by introducing them to Jesus, Matthew
contributed to lives being changed, souls being saved, and the Lord’s flock
increasing. Through the Gospel he penned, Matthew has aided generations of
readers in getting to know Jesus, coming to adore Jesus, and obeying all things that Jesus has
commanded (28:20). Truly Matthew is a “Gift of Yahweh”! If God can love,
transform, and effectively work through a loathsome tax collector like Matthew,
imagine what he is capable of doing with you and me.
--Kevin L. Moore
Endnotes:
1 Since
Matthew is called “Levi the son of Alphaeus” in Mark 2:14 (cf. Matt. 9:9;
10:3), it is possible that he was the brother of James the son of Alphaeus
(Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18), but this is not certain since Alphaeus was a fairly
common name. If the connection is valid, Matthew’s mother was Mary and he had
another brother named Joses or Joseph (Mark 15:40).
2 Cf.
Neh. 11:15-17. R. T. France comments, “a Levite turned tax-collector might
expect to earn the special disdain of his more orthodox fellow-Levites, and so
be liable to record with greater emphasis Jesus’ conflicts with ‘orthodoxy’, as
much for his own self-defence as for the guidance of other potential converts”
(The Gospel According to Matthew
[TNTC] 33).
3 See
2 Kings 24:17; Neh. 11:17, 22; cf. 1 Chron. 9:31; Neh. 8:4; Acts 1:23.
4
Since Matthew’s tax office was by the sea (Mark 2:13-14), he could have been
involved in the taxation of fishermen (and potentially acquainted with Simon,
Andrew, James and John), or he may have served as a customs official taxing
goods that arrived in Herod Antipas’ territory. Following the death of Herod the Great, Antipas became
tetrarch of the combined territories of Galilee and Perea, reigning from 4 BC
to AD 39. See Jesus on Divorce & Remarriage: Contextual Insights.
5
These might have been Jews who were not diligent students and practitioners of
the law and traditions (cf. John 7:49).
6 See Authorship of NT Gospels; also K. L.
Moore, A Critical Introduction to the NT
60-63. “It was the Gospel that made Matthew famous, and not the other way
around” (J. P. Lewis, The Gospel
According to Matthew 1:12).
7 In
the Synoptics those who held the position of ho telōnēs were “not holders (Lat. publican) of the ‘tax-farming’
contracts themselves, but subordinates (Lat. portitores) hired by them; the
higher officials were usu[ally] foreigners, but their underlings were taken
fr[om] the native population as a rule. The prevailing system of tax collection
afforded the collector many opportunities to exercise his greed and unfairness.
Hence they were particularly hated and despised as a class . . . . The strict
Jew was further offended by the fact that the tax-collector had to maintain
continual contact w[ith] Gentiles in the course of his work; this rendered a
Jewish tax-collector ceremonially unclean” (BAGD 812).
Related Posts: The Lineage of Jesus According to Matthew, The 12 Apostles (Part 1), Matthew's 'Two' Vs Mark & Luke's 'One'
Image credit: http://www.biography.com/imported/images/Biography/Images/Profiles/S/St-Matthew-9402679-1-402.jpg
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