St Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist

This month we have a saint who was one of the original twelve apostles. Traditionally, St Matthew was remembered as the tax-collector and as the writer of the first gospel. Modern scholars, however, advise us to distinguish between Matthew the Evangelist and Matthew the Tax Collector � they were two distinct early Christians. !Matthew the Evangelist] wrote his gospel towards the end of the first century. He was a Greek-speaking Jew, from Syria, who wrote very much for Jews who struggled to reconcile the Risen Christ, the Messiah, with the God of the Old Testament. And so, Matthew, in the first chapter of his gospel, was at pains to put Jesus of Nazareth into an exact genealogical setting - 28 generations back to Abraham - so that there could be no doubt about the identity of Jesus. Indeed, this gospel is sometimes called the �Teacher�s Gospel� because Matthew put together the stories and sayings of Jesus in such a way to help the young Christian church of his time.