St. Matthew

St. Matthew
Name	Matthew the Apostle
Birth date	c. 1st century
Death date	traditional accounts vary
Feast day	21 September (Western), 16 November (Eastern)
Titles	Apostle, Evangelist
Attributes	Writing equipment, tax collector's box, winged man
Patronage	Accountants, bankers, customs officers, tax collectors, Wales

St. Matthew

Matthew the Apostle is traditionally identified as one of the Twelve Apostles and the principal figure associated with the Gospel of Matthew. Early Christian tradition, patristic testimony, and medieval scholarship linked him to missions across Judea, Ethiopia, and the Mediterranean, shaping liturgical calendars and theological debates in Rome, Alexandria, Constantinople, and beyond. His persona intersects with figures and institutions central to early Christianity, patristics, and Western art.

Life and identity

Traditional accounts place Matthew among the Twelve Apostles alongside Peter, James the Greater, John the Apostle, Andrew the Apostle, Philip the Apostle, Bartholomew (Nathaniel), Thomas the Apostle, James the Less, Jude Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot. Sources such as Matthew (tax collector) tradition, later patristic writers like Papias of Hierapolis, Irenaeus, Origen, and Eusebius contributed to the composite identity connecting Matthew with the tax collector called at the Sea of Galilee. Medieval compendia in Byzantium, Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch elaborated missionary legends linking Matthew to missions in Ethiopia, Parthia, and Persia. Liturgical calendars in Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, and Anglican Communion fixed feast days, while relic traditions in Salerno, Salerno Cathedral, Padua, and Zagreb Cathedral influenced cultic geography. Scholarly debates engage archaeological finds in Capernaum, textual citations in Didache, and mentions in Acts of the Apostles.

Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel of Matthew appears in canonical collections alongside the Gospels of Mark, Luke the Evangelist, and John the Evangelist and forms part of the New Testament as preserved in manuscripts such as Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, Codex Alexandrinus, and Codex Bezae. Its Matthean composition interacts with sources like the hypothetical Q source, the Gospel of Mark, and M material unique to Matthew. The Gospel shaped doctrinal formations in councils such as Council of Nicaea and Council of Chalcedon by providing pericopes used in Christological debate and liturgical proclamation. The Sermon on the Mount includes teachings paralleled in Beatitudes themes found in Didache and Pistis Sophia references, while the infancy narratives parallel traditions in Protoevangelium of James and Gospel of Luke.

Authorship and historicity

Patristic attributions to Matthew derive from statements by Papias, Irenaeus of Lyons, and Origen of Alexandria, debated by modern scholars employing methods from Textual criticism, Source criticism, and Form criticism. Questions about authorship invoke comparisons with the synoptic problem, reliance on Markan priority theories, and hypotheses such as the Two-Source Hypothesis and the Farrer hypothesis. Historicity assessments reference contemporaneous sources including Josephus, Philo of Alexandria, and apocryphal texts like the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. The relationship between the Matthean community and institutions in Antioch and Jerusalem is inferred from redactional features and pericope distribution, while manuscript traditions trace transmission through Vulgate revisions by Jerome and Greek witness preserved in Patristic citations.

Theological themes and teachings

Key theological emphases include Christology, typology, and ecclesiology: Matthew presents Jesus as the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy with explicit citations to the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint. Themes such as the Kingdom of Heaven engage with ritual and ethical formulations echoed in Rabbinic Judaism debates and in patristic exegesis by Augustine of Hippo, John Chrysostom, and Gregory the Great. Ecclesial instructions, including the binding and loosing paradigm, influenced canonical law and sacramental theology in institutions like the See of Rome, monastic reforms in Benedict of Nursia’s tradition, and medieval scholasticism in schools such as University of Paris and University of Bologna. Eschatological discourse in Matthew links to texts and events like Apocalypse of John traditions and Jewish–Roman Wars contexts that informed early Christian expectation.

Veneration and legacy

Veneration developed through relic cults, liturgical hymnography, and iconography in centers including Constantinople, Rome, Florence, Venice, Cologne, and Canterbury Cathedral. Medieval pilgrimages incorporated Matthew’s relics into routes associated with Santiago de Compostela and Marian shrines. Scholarly legacies extend through medieval exegetes like Bede, Hildegard of Bingen, and Thomas Aquinas, Reformation critiques by Martin Luther and John Calvin, and modern scholarship in Bultmann’s form-critical program and N. T. Wright’s historical Jesus research. Patronage associations with accountants and tax collectors influenced guilds, confraternities, and civic rituals in Genoa, Bruges, Amsterdam, and Lisbon.

Artistic and cultural depictions

Artistic representations range from early Christian catacomb frescoes in Rome to mosaics in Ravenna, panel paintings in the Italian Renaissance by artists such as Caravaggio, Titian, and Domenico Ghirlandaio, and baroque works in Madrid and Vienna. Iconography uses the winged man symbol from Ezekiel and Revelation traditions; illuminated manuscripts like the Book of Kells and Lindisfarne Gospels include Matthew’s portrait. Music and drama preserve his influence in compositions by Gregorian chant repertoires, oratorios by Handel and Bach, and liturgical settings in Byzantine chant. Modern portrayals appear in film and literature referencing figures like Pier Paolo Pasolini’s cinematic Gospel, scholarly works by E. P. Sanders, Raymond E. Brown, and cultural treatments in museums such as the Vatican Museums and the British Museum.

Category:Apostles Category:Evangelists