GETTING READY: Who wrote the gospel of Matthew?

If you want to understand any written document, it is wise to start by learning a little something about it's author. A person writing about events they were close to, is much more likely to be speaking accurately about what actually happened. Matthew - the author of the Gospel of Matthew - was an apostle who walked with Jesus throughout his early ministry. This is a man who saw most of what he was writing about, first-hand!

Since the times of the early church fathers, the apostle Matthew has always been accredited with the authorship of the first gospel (canonically). Even the title “According to Matthew” is found in the earliest manuscripts, and was the most highly regarded and quoted of the gospels by the church fathers. Matthew is also called Levi (Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27), and was the son of Alphaeus (Luke 5:27). He was a tax collector, probably stationed on a main trade route near Capernaum where he would have collected tolls for Herod Antipas from commercial traffic. Additionally, being a tax collector might better qualify Matthew for his role as an official recorder of the life and actions of Christ. After the resurrection there is no other mention of him in the New Testament.