Chapter 1

About The Human Author

The story of the Last Supper is a well known story in modern day
Christianity. Its accounts can be seen in the Bible in the four Gospels of
Mark, Luke, and Matthew and in Pauls first letter to the Corinthians.

This paper will focus more on Matthews account of the Last Supper
and therefore will talk more about this human author of the account.

Matthew, also known as Levi, son of Alpheus, was a 1 st century

Galilean. He was also a tax collector which meant that he should have
been literate in Greek and Aramaic. Being a tax collector, Matthew was
despised by his fellow Jews for what was seen as collaborating with the
Roman occupation force.

Matthew was among the early followers and apostles of Jesus Christ.
He was a publican, who, while sitting at the receipt of customs in
Capernaum, was called to follow Jesus as response to this he invited Jesus
to feast with him in his home along with other tax collectors.

Matthew soon became one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. In the

gospels of Mark and Luke, he was chosen but without identification of his
background.

The New Testament records that as a disciple, he followed Jesus,

and was one of the witnesses of the Resurrection and the Ascension of
Jesus. Afterwards, the disciples withdrew to an upper room in Jerusalem.

The disciples remained in and about Jerusalem and proclaimed that Jesus
was the promised Messiah.

In the Babylonian Talmud "Mattai" is one of five disciples of "Jeshu".

Later Church fathers such as Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria

claim that Matthew preached the Gospel to the Jewish community in
Judea, before going to other countries. Ancient writers are not agreed as to
what these other countries are. The Roman Catholic Church and the
Orthodox Church each hold the tradition that Matthew died as a martyr,
although this was rejected by the gnostic heretic Heracleon as early as the
second century.

Matthew is recognized as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Eastern

Orthodox, Lutheran and Anglican churches. His feast day is celebrated on
21 September in the West and 16 November in the East. He is also
commemorated by the Orthodox, together with the other Apostles, on 30
June, the Synaxis of the Holy Apostles. His tomb is located in the crypt of
Salerno Cathedral in southern Italy.

Like the other evangelists, Matthew is often depicted in Christian art

with one of the four living creatures of Revelation 4:7. The one that
accompanies him is in the form of a winged man. The three paintings of
Matthew by Caravaggio in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome,
where he is depicted as called by Christ from his profession as gatherer,
are among the landmarks of Western art.