MATTHEW. Matthew, the apostle of Jesus Christ, is with sufficient certainty iden tified with Levi, the son of Alphaeus, whose call by Jesus to discipleship is described in Mark and Luke in terms practically identical with a story of the call of Matthew in Matthew. It was not uncommon among the Jews for a man to have two names and sometimes both names were of Hebrew, or Aramaic origin. The der ivation and consequently the meaning of the name Matthew is uncertain, though it is com monly interpreted to mean "Gift of God." The mere mention of his father's name does not identify his family to us. He is first spoken of as being in his office as a "publican,* or col lector of taxes, presumably near Capernaum on the great highway between Damascus and the Mediterranean. While as such officer he would be in the service of the Tetrarch Herod, and not directly in Roman employ, yet he must have shared the obloquy which attached to this office among strict Jews, and it has accordingly been reckoned a mark of his humility that we find him designated as "the publican" in the Gospel which bears his name. After his call to discipleship he made a great feast of fare well, .gathering his former friends and business associates to meet his new-found Master and the disciples attending him. The name of
Matthew stands in all the lists of apostles, al ways the seventh or eighth in order, but of his activities as an apostle we have no record. No other name than his has ever been associated with the authorship of the first Gospel, and while this view has been discredited by many critics, because of the difficulty of considering the Gospel in its present form the work of an apostolic eyewitness, it is possible to conserve the historical value of this strongly confirmed tradition by holding that he was the author of the Discourse Document which constitutes such an important and characteristic element in Matthew. (See article Marrttw, Gomm. Ac CORDING TO). There are many variant tradi tions as to the missionary labors of Matthew, Macedonia, Egypt, Ethiopia and Parthia having been named as places where he worked. There is no sufficient reason for accepting any of these traditions, though perhaps the last is tLe most probable. Some traditions assert that he died as martyr and this has been accepted in the Western Church, but according to other traditions perhaps no less reliable he died a natural death.