Matthew

One of Jesus's original disciples and apostle, Matthew was a tax-collector until Jesus called him (Matt 9:9). He was then known as Levi (Matt 9:9; Mk 2:14; Lk 5:27). Jews often marked decisive moments in their lives by a change of name, which was apparently what he did, though we have no way of knowing when or why; it may possibly have been as a result of his encounter with Jesus. Matthew is contraction of the Hebrew name Mattathias, which means 'gift of God.' It is interesting that he chose to keep the Hebrew form of the name rather than Theodore, the Greek form. Matthew is listed in all the list of apostles as such, not Levi (Matt 10:3; Mk 3:18; Lk 6:15; Acts 1:13). He is better remembered as the author of the gospel than for any other thing that the NT has to say about him.