The four Evangelists enjoy special honor in the Church because, together with the other authors of the books of the Holy Bible, they were the instruments of the Holy Spirit for the recording of divine revelation for the salvation of the world. One of them is the Holy Evangelist and Apostle Matthew.
He was Jewish by origin and the son of Alphaeus (not Jacob's father). His name means "gift of God", that is Theodoret. But in the Evangelists Mark (12,14) and Luke (5,27) is referred to by the name Levi ή Leviticus, since Jews used to have more than one name. The fact that he uses the name Matthew in his own Gospel, means, according to some scholars, his first name was Levi, but when he met Christ and followed Him, he changed his name to Matthew (= gift of God), as a sign of gratitude to God and from then on he maintained this name throughout his life.
He practiced the lucrative profession of publican, that is, tax collector. He lived in Capernaum, which administratively belonged to the Herod and their taxes were collected by him and not by the Romans. This means that he was probably an employee of Herod and did not have his own tax collection company. He knew the Aramaic and Greek languages very well, because Greek was spoken in the area. In general, tax collectors were considered hated persons by the people, for the thefts, extortions, and usury they practiced. Because they were considered sinful people, they avoided association with them and therefore the tax collectors only associated with each other.
It seems that Matthew had not been completely worn out by the sinful profession he practiced and was a pious man and was eagerly awaiting the Messiah. He had probably heard about Him and His miracles and that is why he followed Him with eagerness. As Matthew himself tells us in his Gospel, the Lord on one of his tours in Capernaum, while walking on the road, «"He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office." (Matthew 9:9). This man was Matthew. And it continues: "and he says to him, follow me." And he arose and followed him." (Matthew 9:9). The rich tax collector Matthew obeyed the Lord's call, left his lucrative job and followed Him, becoming one of His most devoted disciples.
To show Christ his gratitude for the honor he had done him, to anoint him as his disciple, he prepared a rich meal and invited Him to his house. And Christ, expressing His pleasure in Matthew, accepted and lodged in his house. Matthew also invited many of his friends, tax collectors and sinners, to the table. Perhaps he invited them to meet the Teacher and repent like him. But this fact scandalized the hypocritical Pharisees, who found the opportunity, trying to diminish Him in the eyes of His disciples, saying, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?", to receive the eloquent and meaningful answer from the Lord, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick... for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Matthew 9:11-13). In this short dialogue, Christ revealed the purpose of His incarnation, which is to heal sinners from the spiritual disease of sin.
He therefore faithfully followed the Lord and lived near Him in humility and obscurity, since his name does not appear anywhere else in the New Testament. He experienced all the saving events firsthand, especially the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord. Together with the other apostles, he was enlightened by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and took part in the Apostolic Council of Jerusalem (48 AD).
We know very little about his later life. Ancient tradition states that he was distinguished from the other apostles in his ascetic life. According to his testimony Clement of Alexandria, ate fruits and vegetables and never meat. He was sent by the other apostles to teach the Gospel preferably to the Jews, his fellow Jews throughout Palestine. To convince them that in the Person of Jesus, whom they rejected and killed, all the prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled. In fact, for this purpose he wrote his Gospel of the same name.
But he preached the Gospel with passion and zeal to the Gentiles as well. He preached in ΜακεδονίαIn EthiopiaIn Persia, Media and ParthiaIn Ethiopia he made his follower the first bishop. Plato and baptized the son of the prince of the country and for this he was arrested and suffered a martyr's death. According to another testimony, of Nikiforos Kallistos, preached to an unknown tribe of uncivilized cannibals, where he was captured by their king, Fulvian and suffered a martyr's death. The saint Nicodemus the Athonite reports the information that "was consumed by fire by the unbelievers" At Hierapolis of Syria. His memory is commemorated on 16 November.
Matthew, as we mentioned above, wrote his eponymous Gospel, initially in Hebrew, for the evangelization and use of Jewish Christians. Later, he himself translated it into Greek, for Gentile Christians. However, while the Gospel in Hebrew was lost early on, on the contrary, the Gospel in Greek was preserved and became part of the "New Testament rule" and is the first book of the New Testament. It is distinguished by its clarity and grace. It cites numerous prophetic passages from the Old Testament, which found their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Its main concern was to prove that Jesus Christ is the expected Messiah of the Old Testament prophets.
