Saint Matthew

The Man Sitting at the Tax Desk

The Gospel according to Matthew recounts in chapter 9 that Jesus sees a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector's desk. He tells him to follow, and Matthew gets up. The account is brief, but its setting carries powerful significance. Tax collectors worked in a system where taxes were poorly received and some agents had a reputation for profiting from their position.

Capernaum, near the Sea of Galilee, lay at the crossroads of trade routes and territories administered under different authorities. The tax office belonged to this economic world. Jesus therefore does not meet Matthew in a purely religious setting: he enters an activity connected with money, public obligations, and the region's social tensions.

The call is presented without lengthy explanations. Matthew gets up and follows Jesus, an expression that marks a change in the direction of his life in the narrative. The text became one of the great Gospel testimonies about vocation: Christ calls someone whose social reputation is not necessarily favorable.

Matthew and Levi in the Three Gospels

The parallel accounts in Mark 2 and Luke 5 give the man who was called the name Levi. Christian tradition brought Levi and Matthew together, but the texts do not explicitly explain the shift from one designation to the other. This difference belongs to the study of the Gospel sources: it invites readers to consider each account in its own composition before harmonizing them.

Luke particularly emphasizes the meal offered by Levi, where Jesus is with tax collectors and people held in low regard. Some interlocutors criticize this closeness. Jesus replies that he came to call sinners to repentance. In Matthew, the account of the call likewise leads to the question of the meal and mercy.

The scandal therefore lies not only in choosing a tax collector as a disciple. It also comes from the way Jesus shares the table with those whom society keeps at a distance. Matthew's identity is illuminated by this scene of encounter, welcome, and transformation.

The Group of the Twelve and Apostolic Memory

Matthew appears in the lists of the twelve apostles transmitted by the Gospels and Acts. The first Gospel explicitly designates him as “the tax collector” in this list, linking the vocation recounted in chapter 9 to his place among Christ's companions. By contrast, the other episodes of Jesus' ministry provide few personal details about his life.

This biblical silence explains the later development of traditions about his travels and death. Different regions claimed his preaching or martyrdom, without allowing a certain itinerary to be reconstructed. These accounts belong to the Christian reception of the apostolic group and must be distinguished from the information provided directly by the canonical texts.

Matthew is honored as a witness to the life of Jesus. His figure received a particular place because the first Gospel bears his name. The relationship between this person and the book remains an important point in the history of Christian tradition.

The Attribution of the First Gospel

Ancient tradition attributes the first Gospel to the apostle Matthew. Authors such as Papias, known through Eusebius of Caesarea, and Irenaeus of Lyon transmitted information about his writing activity. Historians of the texts nevertheless study the Gospel's Greek composition, its relationship with Mark, the traditions it takes up, and the context of its community.

The work does not present itself in its text as a signed autobiography by the apostle. Its attribution is therefore part of the history of transmission. This nuance makes it possible to respect ecclesial tradition while reading the literary data precisely. Modern studies generally distinguish the historical figure of the disciple from the question of the book's final author.

The title “Gospel according to Matthew” expresses a strong link between an apostolic name and a written tradition recognized by the Churches. It does not require us to regard every detail of the composition as directly known by the evangelists themselves.

The Great Discourses and the Sermon on the Mount

The Gospel according to Matthew gives considerable space to Jesus' words. The Sermon on the Mount, in chapters 5 to 7, brings together the Beatitudes, teaching on prayer, forgiveness, and relationships with others. The Lord's Prayer appears in this context. The text connects everyday life with the justice of the Kingdom, emphasizing the importance of a faithfulness that involves intentions as much as actions.

Other collections of sayings structure the work: the missionary discourse, the parables, teachings about community life, and the discourse concerning the future. This literary construction helps make the Gospel a great teaching text. It should not be understood merely as a collection of isolated memories.

The evangelist also returns to the fulfillment of Israel's Scriptures. The quotations from the prophets connect Jesus' life with an older history. The opening genealogy, the infancy narratives, and the sayings about the Law give the book a clearly defined theological identity.

The Winged Man and Caravaggio's Calling of Saint Matthew

Matthew's symbol is generally a winged man, represented as an angel in Christian art. It belongs to the series of the four living creatures associated with the evangelists, whose iconographic history draws on the vision of Ezekiel and the Apocalypse. The man particularly recalls the genealogy and humanity of Jesus, which are especially present in the book's opening pages.

Caravaggio gave Matthew's calling a famous representation in the Church of Saint-Louis-des-Français in Rome. There, Christ points toward a group of men gathered around a table covered with silver. The light organizes the scene and conveys the sudden arrival of the call in the setting of an ordinary activity. The work does not seek to reproduce a 1st-century Galilean location, but to make the event vivid for its viewers.

In other works, Matthew is seated with a book, accompanied by the angel who inspires his writing. The coins or purse recall his activity as a tax collector. These attributes thus bring together his Gospel vocation, his association with a book, and the traditions of his preaching.

Matthew's Feast Day and the Place of Mercy

The feast of Saint Matthew is celebrated on September 21 in the Roman calendar. Prayer to the apostle forms part of the memory of the group of the Twelve, but readers can discover his figure directly by returning to the encounter recounted in Matthew 9 and the parallel accounts in Mark and Luke.

The theme of mercy is a thread linking the tax collector scene to the rest of the Gospel. The call does not erase human responsibility; it opens a possibility for change. The meal shared with marginalized people makes this orientation visible. Matthew's identity is therefore not reduced to his former occupation or to the symbol of the winged man.

Finally, studying the first Gospel helps explain why this name carries particular weight in Christian tradition. It refers both to the call of a disciple and to a major work devoted to Christ's teaching and the fulfillment of Scripture.

The tax collector's encounter with Jesus is examined more closely in the article on Matthew among the Twelve. It makes it possible to compare the accounts of the call in the Gospels with the history of the tradition that attributes his name to the first Gospel.