by Neil Rees, Christian Today
21 September is St Matthew’s Day. But who was St Matthew and what do we know about him? This is the story …
Meaning of the name
There is only one person the Bible called Matthew. The name is originally Hebrew וּהיָ תְתִּמ (Mattityahu), which means “gift of God”. The English name of Matthew comes from the Greek Ματθαῖος (Matthaios). The reason for the double t in English is because the Greek spelling has a τ (tau), equivalent of “t” followed by a θ (theta) which is transliterated “th”.
Matthew the Tax Collector
Matthew is recorded as a tax collector. There were two types of tax collectors at the time of Jesus. Taxes were paid to the Temple authorities and to the Roman authorities. In the King James Version tax collectors were called “publicans” from the Latin “publicani,” although these days to most people that word implies you run a pub. The Romans told tax collectors to collect a certain amount of tax, but they often collected much more.
Luke records that when tax collectors came to be baptised by John the Baptist, and asked what they should do, he did not tell them to stop being tax collectors, but rather he told them to collect no more than they were required to (Luke 3:12-13). Jesus was once asked a trick question whether the Jews should pay taxes to God or to Caesar. He did not regard it as an either or scenario, but recognised it as a false dichotomy meant to trap him and he replied, “Render unto God what is God’s, render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” (Mark 12:17).
Matthew worked as a tax collector in the service of King Herod. Those who collected taxes for the Romans were seen as collaborators with the occupying forces. They were often despised but we know from the stories of Jesus with Matthew and in another story with Zacchaeus (Luke 19:2) that Jesus did not hold this prejudice. When Zacchaeus repented he said he would repay people fourfold (Luke 19:8) which reflected his knowledge of the Mosaic law which required a fourfold compensation after theft (Exodus 22:1).