In the lists of
the Twelve disciples who are recorded in the New Testament, the name Matthew is
mentioned. He calls himself this in the list of disciples he quotes in his
Gospel (Matth. 10, 3), and also in the narrative of his call to the role
of apostle. In the narrative of his call, he talks about a man who was sitting
at his tax booth, which is why he calls himself “Matthew the Tax-Collector
[Publican]”. In Mark’s Gospel (2, 4), this tax-collector is called “Levi, the
son of Alpheus” and in Luke’s (5, 27) he is called simply “Levi”. We should
mention that in the list of disciples, the apostle James is also called “the
son of Alpheus”, but he was not Matthew’s brother. Had he been, this would have
been mentioned in the Gospels, as is the case with other apostles who were
brothers, such as Peter and Andrew, and James and John.
Matthew the tax-collector and Levi are the
same person [in this instance]. The name Matthew, which he received after the
call from Jesus, means “Gift of God”. It is a contraction of the Hebrew Mattityahu. At Matth. 10, 3, Tatian adds “also
the Lebbaeus”. We do not know when or why the Lord gave him the name by which
he is now best known in the Church. Out of respect for their fellow apostle,
neither Luke nor Mark mentions Matthew’s profession, because tax-collectors
were hated. Matthew himself, however, reports that the Lord “saw a man called
Matthew, sitting at the tax-booth”, that is a man already known as Matthew. As
Saint John Chrysostom notes: “The apostle is deserving of admiration for not
concealing his former life, and also giving his name, which the others
concealed with another appellation”. The apostle does not deny his former life,
but acknowledges his alteration after being called. This demonstrates his
humility.
Matthew lived
in Capernaum, a city that belonged to the jurisdiction of Herod. As a clerk, he
would have been in the service of some larger employer who had paid the tax
revenues of the city, or even the region, to the Romans and then had the right
to keep whatever monies he had raised. Matthew would certainly have known the
Aramaic spoken by the Jews in the area, and Greek as well.
When the Lord
said: “Follow me”, he left immediately, abandoning everything without
hesitation This indicates that he already knew and respected the Lord. He, too,
belonged to the tax-collectors who approached the Lord and concerning whom the
Pharisees condemned Him for being “a friend of tax-collectors” (Luke 7, 35; 15, 1). Matthew must have
been a rich man. This is apparent from the fact that he had his own house. It
was there that, to celebrate his call and the abandonment of his profession, he
gave a farewell meal, to which he invited a good many people. It is not clear
from the Gospels whether he, too, was a disciple of Saint John the Baptist, as
other disciples of Christ seem to have been.
After his call, he was not prominent among
the circle of disciples. Not when the Lord was alive, nor after the resurrection.
His name is not mentioned anywhere in the New Testament [except as we have
indicated above]. This was almost certainly because of his humility. Clement
the Alexandrian provides us with details of his strictly ascetic life: “ For
the Apostle Matthew ate cereals, nuts and vegetables, without meat”.
Clement,
Efsevios [Eusebius] and Irinaios [Irenaeus] report that, after the Lord’s
resurrection, Matthew preached Christ for about eight years to the Jews.
It was here
that, between 60-66 A.D., he wrote the Gospel, originally in Aramaic, and then
either translated it himself or had it translated into Greek [There is also a
school of thought that the Gospel was written first in Greek. While it is
certainly true that some of the expressions are Hellenized versions of Aramaic
equivalents, it is not possible to know whether this is because of the
translator or because they had passed into the ordinary Greek of the region and
were therefore included in an original text. Rather like using, say, “a blank
slate” [tabula rasa] in English. WJL]. It contains narratives of the events in
the life of the Lord and also teachings which He used in His catechesis. Irinaios
is the first to mention that “the Gospel according to Saint Matthew was written
to the Jews”, meaning that the recipients were Jews who had become Christians
or, as Origen says: “those who believed from Judaism”.
The purpose behind the writing of the
Gospel of Saint Matthew was to make manifest that Christ came “from the seed of
Abraham”, which is why the narrative begins with His nativity. As Saint John
Chrysostom says: “He wanted nothing more than to show that He was of the
seed of Abraham and David… for nothing would soothe a Jew so much as to know
that Christ was the descendant of Abraham and David”. This is why he
selects important events in the life of Christ, compiles His sayings and
presents them in such a way that they demonstrate that Jesus Christ is, indeed,
the Messiah Who was foretold for the Jews. By quoting the prophecies of the Old
Testament, he makes it clear that they were fulfilled in the person of Christ.
As for his
later activities, we cannot regard what has been handed down to us as either
accurate or historical. Rufinus, Gregory the Great and the Church historian
Socrates, all declare that he went to Ethiopia. Paulinus of Nola mentions that
he converted the pagan Parthians to Christ, while Saint Nikodimos the Athonite
declares that: “later he was put to death by fire by the infidels”, in
Ierapolis, in Syria. It may be that this is confirmed by a verse in his Life: “‘Jesus You also save
tax-collectors; grace belongs to You’. This is what Matthew cried, when he was
in the midst of the fire”.
By the prayers
of Your apostle, God, have mercy upon us. Amen.
Source:http://pemptousia.com/2014/11/a-tax-collector-apostle-and-evangelist-saint-matthew-16-november/
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