What was the life of Matthew in biblical days?<\/p>\n\t
“As Jesus passed by from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax collection office. He said to him, “Follow me.” He got up and followed him. It happened as he sat in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples.\u00a0 When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”<\/em>” (Matthew 9:9-13).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We know that Matthew’s occupation was a tax collector. But beyond the fact that he became an apostle and wrote the book of Matthew, we do not know much else about him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: What was the life of Matthew in biblical days? Answer: “As Jesus passed by from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax collection office. He said to him, “Follow me.” He got up and followed him. It happened as he sat in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[170,708],"class_list":["post-13258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-apostles","tag-matthew"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40562,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-ate-with-publicans-and-sinners\/","url_meta":{"origin":13258,"position":0},"title":"Jesus Ate with Publicans and Sinners","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton There is no doubt that Jesus was among publicans and sinners and ate with them. What was He doing? Was he gambling with them? Was He smoking with them? Drinking intoxicating drinks with them? Cursing and laughing at dirty jokes? Was He being complicit with them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93177,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/trusting-self-or-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":13258,"position":1},"title":"Trusting Self or God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 13, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Jesus told a parable \"to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt\" (Luke 18:9). What a statement! Jesus targeted head-on an attitude that was common enough that He wanted this parable to be known by future generations. \"Two men went\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13690,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-attend-a-birthday-party-where-people-involved-in-sin-will-be\/","url_meta":{"origin":13258,"position":2},"title":"Should I attend a birthday party where people involved in sin will be?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 21, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What would you do if going to a family birthday with people you love a lot meant you would be around a gay couple? Half of our family are not Christians and will say we are too judgmental. Answer: \"Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62638,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/he-got-up-and-followed-him\/","url_meta":{"origin":13258,"position":3},"title":"He Got Up and Followed Him","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Think about this for a moment. Jesus passed by \"Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, 'Follow Me!' And he got up and followed Him\" (Mark 2:14). What an impression Jesus must have already made on Levi (Matthew) to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47469,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-say-god-bless-you-to-a-group-that-includes-non-christians\/","url_meta":{"origin":13258,"position":4},"title":"Is it wrong to say “God bless you” to a group that includes non-Christians?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, Thanks very much for your insightful teachings and encouragement through this website. I attended a recent gospel meeting and the preacher ended it with 'God bless you' and 'Godspeed' to the audience. I remember one Bible class teacher mentioned that Christians must use the term 'God bless you'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83844,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-broken-mold\/","url_meta":{"origin":13258,"position":5},"title":"A Broken Mold","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 30, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores Jesus broke the mold of how a rabbi should act. At least, He didn't act in a way that the religious, holy-toity leaders in His day thought He should. It was bad enough to have accepted a (gasp) tax collector as a follower after He was seen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}