Matthew was a Jewish tax collector who became one of the twelve apostles, the close followers Jesus chose and sent to teach. Christian tradition identifies him with Levi (LEE-vye), the tax collector in the similar accounts told by Mark and Luke.
Birth year: Unknown.
Death year: Unknown.
Active during: The first century AD, also called CE, about 2,000 years ago.
Role: Tax collector; later one of Jesus’s twelve apostles.
Setting: Galilee, especially the area around Capernaum.
Main passages: Matthew 9:9–13; Matthew 10:1–4; Mark 2:13–17; Luke 5:27–32; Acts 1:13.
From the booth to the table
Matthew 9 describes Jesus calling him from his tax booth. He got up and followed. The next scene places Jesus at a meal with tax collectors and others called sinners. Some religious teachers questioned that company. Jesus answered with a comparison to a doctor helping sick people and a call to mercy.
Luke’s parallel account names the collector Levi and says he hosted a large meal. These passages describe a response to Jesus; they do not provide a list of this man’s earlier offenses or a record of his income.
Matthew and Levi
The usual Christian reading treats the two names as belonging to the same person because the calling stories closely match. The texts do not explicitly explain the two names. BiblicalTraining notes both the traditional identification and the questions surrounding it. This profile follows that identification without claiming Jesus renamed him.
Where he lived
The calling is set near Capernaum (kuh-PERR-nay-uhm), on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee in today’s northern Israel. Fishing, farming, and trade formed part of village life. Its excavated remains help explain that setting; the location of Matthew’s booth is not known.
What remains uncertain
The New Testament gives no birth or death date for Matthew. The Gospel bearing his name has traditionally been attributed to him, but its authorship is debated. A date assigned to the book should not be presented as a date in his lifespan. The portrait is an imagined historical illustration.
Explore Capernaum and its modern setting.
Read further
Matthew 9, NIV; Mark 2, NIV; Luke 5, NIV; BiblicalTraining: Matthew; Custodia: Capernaum.