Matthew: An Apostle Named in Every List

Who Matthew Is

Matthew is an apostle, a man of the New Testament era, placed around 4 BC to AD 33 (era placed on Ussher's chronology, 1650). His father is named Alphaeus. Eight verses across four books carry his name or his story: Matthew, Mark, Luke and Acts. That is a small footprint for a man whose name every reader of the Gospels knows, and the smallness is worth sitting with rather than filling in.

A Name in the Lists

Most of what Scripture says about Matthew is that he was there. Mark places him among those Jesus gathered: "Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot;" (Mark 3:18). Luke gives nearly the same roll: "Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Simon, who was called the Zealot;" (Luke 6:15). He appears again in Matthew 10:3.

Then, after the Gospels close, his name is still standing. "When they had come in, they went up into the upper room where they were staying; that is Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James" (Acts 1:13). No speech of his is recorded, no question he asked, no failure of nerve reported. He is simply named, and named again, in the room where the followers of Jesus were staying.

That kind of witness is easy to undervalue. Scripture does not hand Matthew a scene of his own with dialogue and consequence. What it hands him is continuity: present at the calling, present in the list, present in the upper room after everything that happened in between.

The Call at the Tax Office

The one narrative moment the dossier attaches to him is a call and a meal. Luke tells it this way: "After these things he went out, and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and said to him, 'Follow me!'" (Luke 5:27). Mark tells it with a father's name attached: "As he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, 'Follow me.' And he arose and followed him" (Mark 2:14). The call is two words. The response is one sentence with no hesitation in it, and no negotiation.

What follows is a party. "Levi made a great feast for him in his house. There was a great crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them" (Luke 5:29). The man called away from the tax office does not abandon the people he knew there; he sets a table for them and puts Jesus at it. Matthew 9:9 records the calling as well.

It should be said plainly that in the passages quoted here the man at the tax office is called Levi, while the apostle lists call him Matthew. The name Alphaeus stands behind both Levi in Mark 2:14 and a different apostle, James the son of Alphaeus, in Mark 3:18, Luke 6:15 and Acts 1:13. Scripture as cited here does not explain the relationship between those names, and neither will I.

Failures

The record contains no sin, no denial, no dispute laid at Matthew's door. That is not a compliment to him so much as a silence. The one thing Scripture does report about his former life is his trade: he was a tax collector sitting at the tax office (Luke 5:27), a man whose company was tax collectors and others (Luke 5:29). Readers of the Gospels know what that description carried. The text here reports it without comment, and so should we.

What We Do Not Know

No children of his are named. No tribe or people is given for him. Beyond the call and the feast, no extended scene belongs to him: every other mention is a list or a passing note. We are not told how he died, where he went, or what he said. His mother is unnamed. Whether he wrote anything is not stated in these passages. The dossier is honest about the size of the record, and honesty about a small record is better than a large story built on air.

The Line to Christ

Everything we know of this man runs through Jesus. He is found by Jesus at his work and addressed with two words, "Follow me!" (Luke 5:27), and he arose and followed him (Mark 2:14). He opens his house to Jesus and to a crowd of tax collectors (Luke 5:29). He is numbered among the apostles Jesus gathered (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15). And when the Gospels give way to Acts, he is still in the room with the others (Acts 1:13). A man whose own words Scripture never records is nevertheless carried, from the tax office to the upper room, by the call of Christ.