AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES
The apostles of Christ were the foundation stones of His Church. In Revelation 21:14 we are told that the twelve foundations of the wall of the new Jerusalem will have in them the names of the twelve apostles. It is evident, therefore, that our Lord attaches great importance to these men.
As we study these courageous first-century lives, and what apostleship meant in the time of Christ, we may expect to be aided in developing a Spirit directed 21st-century discipleship as Christ must have meant it to be, along similar lines of vital experience, responsibility, consecration, and achievement.
The information compiled herein utilizes the New Testament accounts of these men, and the most respected legends and traditions. We do not mean to infer, thereby, that legend and tradition constitute historical fact. We do feel, however, that they do have value in the study of the lives of these men who ".....upset the world..."
8th Apostle: Matthew
Matthew, or Levi, son of Alphaeus, lived in Capernaum. He was a publican or tax collector. He wrote the Gospel that bears his name. He died a martyr in Ethiopia.
The call of Matthew to the apostolic band is mentioned in Mark 2:14, Matt. 9:9; and Luke 5:27-28. From these passages, we learn that Matthew also was called Levi. It was a common custom in the Middle East at the time of Christ for men to have two names. Matthew's names mean "a gift of God. " The name Levi could have been given to him by Jesus. It is likely that James the Lesser, who was one of the twelve apostles, was Matthew's brother, also the son of Alphaeus. Although we know little about Matthew personally, the outstanding fact about him is that he was a tax collector.
Of all the nations in the world, the person were the most vigorous haters of tax gatherers. To the devout person, God was the only one to whom it was right to pay tribute in taxes. To pay it to anyone else was to infringe on the rights of God. The tax collectors were hated not on religious grounds only but because most of them were notoriously unjust.
In the minds of many honest, Jewish men, these tax collectors were regarded as criminals. In the New Testament times they were classified with harlots, Gentiles, and sinners (Matt. 9:10; 18:17; 21:31, 32; Mark 2:15, 16; Luke 5:30). Tax collectors had been known to assess duty payable at impossible sums and then offer to lend the money to travelers at a hight rate of interest. Such was Matthew. Yet, Jesus chose a man all men hated and made him one of His men. It took Jesus Christ to see the potential in the tax collector of Capernaum.
Matthew was unlike most of the other apostles, who were all fishermen. He could use a pen, and by his pen he became one of the first men to present to the world an account of the teachings of Jesus. It is clearly impossible to estimate the debt that Christianity owes to this despised tax gatherer. The average man would have thought impossible to reform Matthew, but to God all things are possible. Matthew became the first man to write down the teachings of Jesus. He was a missionary of the gospel, who laid down his life for the faith of his Master. The apostolic symbol of Matthew is three money bags which remind us that he was a tax collector before Jesus called him.
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