Saint Matthew the Apostle

A job that made him an outsider among his own

Before he was an apostle, Matthew worked as a tax collector in Capernaum, gathering duties on behalf of Herod Antipas from farmers, merchants, and travelers passing through on the main trade road. It was lucrative work, and deeply resented — Jewish tax collectors were widely regarded as collaborators with Rome, frequently assumed (often accurately) to be pocketing more than they were owed. Choosing to associate with one, let alone recruit one, was not a neutral social move.

Two words, no negotiation

That's exactly what Jesus does. Matthew records his own calling with almost startling brevity: "As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. 'Follow me,' he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him" (Matthew 9:9, NIV). There's no recorded hesitation, no bargaining, no explanation offered for why a man in the middle of his workday would simply stand up and leave it behind. The text doesn't dwell on his motives — only on the immediacy of his response.

A recruitment other observant Jews would have questioned

What makes the moment more pointed is what it would have signaled to onlookers. Rabbis and respected teachers were expected to keep their distance from tax collectors, not draw them into their inner circle. Jesus's choice to call Matthew — publicly, at his own booth — was less a quiet gesture and more a visible statement about who exactly he considered worth following him.

From a tax booth to the longest Gospel

Tradition holds that Matthew went on to write the Gospel that bears his name — the longest of the four, and one early Church writers associated with a Jewish Christian audience, with some accounts holding it was originally composed in Aramaic. Whatever the precise details of its authorship, the trajectory remains striking: a man whose profession made him an object of scorn became, in Christian memory, one of the four voices chosen to record the life of the man who called him.

Trivia

What did Matthew do before he was called by Jesus?

He worked as a tax collector in Capernaum, collecting duties for Herod Antipas — a role that made Jewish tax collectors widely regarded as traitors, since they profited by working for Rome and often overcharged those they taxed.

What does the Bible say about his calling?

"As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. 'Follow me,' he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him" (Matthew 9:9) — a response recorded with no hesitation, negotiation, or explanation given.

Why would Matthew's calling have scandalized people at the time?

Choosing a tax collector as a close follower would have struck many observant Jews as a deliberate association with someone considered corrupt and collaborationist — exactly the kind of person a respected teacher was expected to avoid, not recruit.

What did Matthew go on to write?

Tradition credits him as the author of the Gospel of Matthew, the longest of the four Gospels, believed by many early Church writers to have been composed for a Jewish Christian audience and, according to some accounts, originally written in Aramaic.