Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ

by David Francis Bacon

HIS RANK AND NAME.

In his own gospel, Matthew is not ranked immediately after the preceding apostle, but numbers himself eighth on the list, and after his associate, Thomas; but all the other lists agree in giving this apostle a place immediately after Nathanael. The testimony of others in regard to his rank has therefore been adopted, in preference to his own, which was evidently influenced by a too modest estimation of himself.

In connection with this apostle, as in other instances, there is a serious question about his name and individual identity, arising from the different appellations under which he is mentioned in different parts of the sacred record. In his own gospel, he is referred to by no other name than his common one; but by Mark and Luke, the circumstances of his call are narrated, with the details almost precisely similar to those recorded of the same occurrence by himself, and yet the person thus called, (in the same form of words used in summoning the other apostles,) is named Levi, the son of Alpheus; though Mark and Luke record Matthew by his common name among the twelve, in the list of names. Some have thought that the circumstance of their mentioning Matthew in this manner, without referring at all to his identity with the person named Levi, proves that they too had no idea that the former name was applied to the same person as the latter, and on the contrary, were detailing the call of some other disciple,——perhaps Jude, who also is called by the similar name, Lebbeus, and is known to have been the son of Alpheus. This view is not improbable, and is so well supported by coinciding circumstances, as to throw great uncertainty over the whole matter; though not entirely to set aside the probabilities arising from the almost perfect similarity between Matthew’s call, as related by himself, and the call of Levi, the son of Alpheus, as given in the other gospels.

On the question of Matthew’s identity with Levi, Michaelis is full. (Introduction, III. iv. 1.) Fabricius (Bibliotheca Graeca, IV. vii. 2,) discusses the question quite at length, and his annotators give abundance of references to authors, in detail, in addition, to those mentioned by himself, in the text.

HIS CALL.

The circumstances of his call, as narrated by himself, are represented as occurring at or near Capernaum. “Jesus, passing out of the city, saw a man named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom, and he said to him,——‘Follow me.’ And he arose, and followed him.” This account shows Matthew’s occupation, which is also known from the title of “the tax-gatherer,” annexed to his name, in his own list of the apostles. This was an occupation which, though unquestionably a source of great profit to those employed in it, and consequently as much sought after as such offices are in these days, and in this country, was always connected with a great deal of popular odium, from the relation in which they stood to the people, in this profitable business. The class of collectors to which Matthew belonged, in particular, being the mere toll-gatherers, sitting to collect the money, penny by penny, from the unwilling people, whose national pride was every moment wounded by the degrading foreign exactions of the Romans, suffered under a peculiar ignominy, and were supposed to have renounced all patriotism and honor, in stooping, for the base purposes of pecuniary gain, to act as instruments of such a galling form of servitude, and were therefore visited with a universal popular hatred and scorn. A class of men thus deprived of all character for honor and delicacy of feeling, would naturally grow hardened, beyond all sense of shame; and this added to the usual official impudence which characterizes all mean persons, holding a place which gives them the power to annoy others, the despised publicans would generally repay this spite, on every occasion, which could enable them to be vexatious to those who came in contact with them. Yet out of this hated class, Jesus did not disdain to take at least one,——perhaps more,——of those whom he chose for the express purpose of building up a pure faith, and of evangelizing the world. No doubt, before the occasion of this call, Matthew had been a frequent hearer of the words of truth which fell from the divinely eloquent lips of the Redeemer,——words that had not been without a purifying and exalting effect on the heart of the publican, though long so degraded by daily and hourly familiarity with meanness and vice. And so weaned was his soul from the love of the gainful pursuit to which he had been devoted, that at the first call from Jesus, he arose from the place of toll-gathering, and followed his summoner, to a duty for which his previous occupation had but poorly prepared him. With such satisfaction did he renounce his old vocation, for the discipleship of the Nazarene, that he made it a great occasion of rejoicing, and celebrated the day as a festival, calling in all his old friends as well as his new ones, to share in the hospitable entertainment which he spread for all who could join with him in the social circle. Nor did the holy Redeemer despise the rough and indiscriminate company to which the grateful joy of Matthew had invited him; but rejoicing in an opportunity to do good to a class of people so seldom brought under the means of grace, he unhesitatingly sat down to the entertainment with his disciples,——Savior and sinners, toll-gatherers and apostles, all thronging in one motley group, around the festive board. What a sight was this for the eyes of the proud Pharisees who were spitefully watching the conduct of the man who had lately taken upon himself the exalted character of a teacher, and a reformer of the law! Passing into the house with the throng who entered at the open doors of the hospitable Matthew,——they saw the much glorified prophet of Nazareth, sitting at the social table along with a parcel of low custom-house collectors, toll-gatherers, tide-waiters and cheats, one of whose honorable fraternity he had just adopted into the goodly fellowship of his disciples, and was now eating and drinking with these outcast villains, without repelling the familiar merriment even of the lowest of them. At this spectacle, so degrading to such a dignity as they considered most becoming in one who aspired to be a teacher of morals and religion, the scribes and Pharisees sneeringly asked the disciples of Jesus,——“Why eateth your Master with tax-gatherers and sinners?” Jesus, hearing the malicious inquiry, answered it in such a tone of irony as best suited its impertinence. “They that are whole, need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what this means,——‘I will have mercy, rather than sacrifice;’ for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

HIS GOSPEL.

After the history of his call, not one circumstance is related respecting him, either in the gospels, the Acts or the epistles. In his own gospel, he makes not the slightest allusion to anything either said or done by himself; nor does his name anywhere occur except in the apostolic lists. Even the Fathers are silent as to any other important circumstances of his life, and it is only in the noble record which he has left of the life of Christ, in the gospel which bears his name, that any monument of his actions and character can now be found. Yet this solitary remaining effort of his genius is of such importance in the history of revealed religion, that hardly the most eminent of the apostles is so often brought to mind, as the evangelist, whose clear, simple, but impressive testimony to the words and deeds of his Lord, now stands at the head of the sacred canon.

On the history of this portion of the Christian scriptures, the testimony of the Fathers, from very early times, is very decided in maintaining the fact, that it was written in the vernacular language of Palestine. The very earliest testimony on this point, dating within seventy-five years of the time of Matthew himself, expressly declares that Matthew wrote his gospel in the Hebrew language; and that each one interpreted it for himself as he could. It is also said on somewhat early authority, that he wrote his gospel when about to depart from Palestine, that those whom he left behind him might have an authentic record of the facts in the life of Christ. So that by these and a great number of other testimonies, uniformly to the same effect, the point seems well established that Matthew wrote in Hebrew; and that what is now extant as his gospel, is only a translation into Greek, made in some later age, by some person unknown.

I. In what language did Matthew write his Gospel?