07 — The Mission
After Pentecost the New Testament loses sight of Matthew, and his later life passes into tradition. These files gather what the early Church reported of his apostolic mission — the field most consistently named is Ethiopia, with other strands sending him to Parthia, Persia, Syria, and beyond — and the apocryphal Acts and Martyrdom of Matthew, set out and pinned to their attestation, reported and not endorsed.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle and Evangelist)
The canonical record carries Matthew no further than the upper room (Acts 1:13). For everything after, the Church depends on later and uneven testimony: a notice in Eusebius that Matthew preached first to the Hebrews before going “to others” (HE 3.24.6); the patristic mission-lists that variously assign him Ethiopia, Parthia, Persia, or the lands of the “man-eaters”; and a body of apocryphal acts. This section treats that material as the methodology requires (§3.5): the traditions are reported as the claims of the sources that carry them, the earliest attestation is named, the variants are laid side by side without forcing a harmony, and the legendary and the historically plausible are distinguished. The apocryphal Acts of Andrew and Matthias and the Martyrdom of Matthew are described as the late, novelistic texts they are, valuable as witnesses to devotion rather than as biography.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Mission Traditions | The fields assigned to Matthew: the dominant Ethiopia tradition, and the variants (Parthia, Persia, Syria, Macedonia, the “man-eaters”); Eusebius (HE 3.24) on his preaching to the Hebrews first; the patristic and Byzantine apostolic-lists; and how the strands diverge. |
| The Apocryphal Acts | The Acts of Andrew and Matthias among the man-eaters, the Martyrdom of Matthew, and related texts: their late date, novelistic character, and confusion of Matthew with Matthias; what they attest and why they are reported, not endorsed. |
See Also
- The Martyrdom and Relics — where the mission traditions end
- The Jewish Gospel — “to the Hebrews first” (Eusebius, HE 3.24)
- Veneration and the Evangelist Symbol — the cult that grew from the mission memory
- The Pre-Schism Church — the apostolic missions in context
References
- Eusebius of Caesarea. The Ecclesiastical History 3.24.5–6. Trans. McGiffert. NPNF II/1.
- The Acts of Andrew and Matthias; The Martyrdom of Matthew. In Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8 (Apocrypha of the New Testament).
- Elliott, J. K. The Apocryphal New Testament. Oxford: Clarendon, 1993.
- Lipsius, R. A. Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten und Apostellegenden. Braunschweig, 1883–1890.