|
|
Encyclopedia entry: Matthew
- Article from:
- The Oxford Guide to People and Places of the Bible
- Author:
Copyright© The Oxford Guide to People and Places of the Bible 2001, originally published by Oxford University Press 2001. (Hide copyright information)
|
Matthew.
Matthew is named as one of the original disciples, and he has traditionally been identified as the author of the first (but not the oldest) Gospel in the New Testament. In the other Gospels and Acts, the name Matthew simply appears in a list of followers of Jesus, but in the Gospel that bears his name, Matthew is mentioned twice as a tax collector. This association has stuck through subsequent Christian history, although in the parallels to Matthew 9.9 in both Mark 2.14 and Luke 5.27, the tax collector is called Levi, not Matthew.
According to Papias (ca. 130 CE), “Matthew made an ordered arrangement of the sayings in the Hebrew dialect, and each one translated it as he was ...