Who were Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John? (pt. 1): Matthew

Photo from The New York Public Library

This is the first of a four-part blog series on the four Gospel authors. Today's post is on Matthew. Tomorrow I will look at Mark.

My recommendation to anyone beginning to explore learning more about Jesus is to read the four Gospels in the New Testament of the Bible. Those books are called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It might help to understand who these four guys were.

But first, about the word gospel. It is an Old English word that basically meant good news or a good story. So the four Gospels are the good news about Jesus. Actually, Mark's Gospel starts with the words, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Some versions say, "The beginning of the good news about Jesus."

So, to start today, who was Matthew?

Matthew was one of the 12 original followers (or disciples) of Jesus, who spent time with him during his public life at the end of his life on earth. Matthew was a Jewish man, but he served the Roman Empire as a tax collector. This is important information because, like today, people then also did not like tax men. But it was even worse for someone like Matthew.

That's because the areas now known as Israel were called Judea in the south and Galilee in the north at the time of Jesus, and they were part of the Roman state. (Matthew, like Jesus, lived in Galilee.) The Jews, therefore, viewed themselves as an occupied nation, and the Romans were their captors and enemies. So, for a Jewish man like Matthew to become a tax collector for the Romans was seen as a betrayal of his people. Chances are good that Matthew faced significant shame and relational strain as a tax collector.

On top of that, these tax collectors were considered thieves because many of them collected additional money to make themselves wealthy. In another story about another tax collector named Zacchaeus who meets Jesus, when he expresses belief in Jesus, he says, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." (Luke 19) Matthew may have been viewed with suspicion since tax collectors generally had a reputation much like that of Zacchaeus for defrauding people.

You can see Matthew's Jewish perspective shine through in his gospel, which takes a particularly Jewish approach, assuming a lot of knowledge of the Old Testament, which primarily tells the history of Israel. This is why Matthew's Gospel starts, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." Matthew emphasizes in his Gospel that Jesus is a descendant of two of the most important figures in Jewish history to whom God made promises about his descendants. From there, Matthew makes many points to demonstrate that Jesus fulfills Old Testament promises and is superior to figures like Moses.

In Mark and Luke's Gospels, Matthew is referred to as Levi. Chances are good that both Matthew and Levi were his names. This was common among the Jews at the time, just as double names are common in the American South today! This is because one, Matthew, is a Greek name, and the other, Levi, is a Hebrew name. Greek (not Latin) was the primary language the Romans spoke in the Eastern region of the Empire (where both Judea and Galilee were located). Peter, another of the 12 original disciples, was known as Simon, Cephas, and Peter. Simon was his Hebrew name, Cephas was his Aramaic name, and Peter was his Greek name.

A final thought on Matthew's backstory is that we see, through it, an important character trait of Jesus. How reassuring that one of the 12 men Jesus chose to closely follow him and associate with him was a Jewish tax collector! If you think you are too despicable for any reason to approach God, you are wrong. Jesus called someone like Matthew, someone his own people would have despised and viewed with suspicion. Like Zacchaeus, he may even have been a thief. But Jesus tells Matthew to follow him, and he leaves his tax booth behind, dropping everything to spend his life with Jesus.

To see the story of how Jesus calls Matthew, you can read it in Matthew here, Mark here, and Luke here. Also, take a look at the parable Jesus tells about a tax collector in Luke's Gospel here to better understand the view of tax collectors and the possible internal state of someone like Matthew when Jesus called him.

If you appreciate this post and think someone else might find it helpful, please share it. And read tomorrow's post to learn more about Mark.