Matthew

Matthew is a tax collector sitting at the booth. Jesus says, "Follow Me." He gets up and follows Him. There is a meal in the house with many tax collectors (Matthew 9:9-10). Mark and Luke tell the same call and name him Levi (Mark 2:14, Luke 5:27). Mark adds "son of Alphaeus." He is in the lists as Matthew. One man, two names, which that world used constantly.

The first Gospel does not say "I, Matthew, wrote this." It does not say "I, Levi." The church received the book under Matthew's name from early on. Papias, in the second century, says Matthew arranged the oracles in the Hebrew language, or Aramaic, and everyone interpreted them as he could. The book we have is Greek. How Papias's sentence sits with that Greek book is a real question about the origins of the Gospel. It is not a reason to invent a death, and it is not a tour of his teaching. The book is his in the church's reception. The man did not sign the last page.

Acts lists him and then leaves him. No journey. No death. Later traditions send him to Ethiopia, or to Persia, and they do not agree. Scripture does not choose.