Matthew
Life
Calling
Matthew 9:9 And Yahshua passing from there sees a man sitting at the tax office, called Maththaios, and says to him “Follow Me”, and arising he followed Him.
Here Matthew records the moment in his own Gospel where he was beckoned to be an apostle. It is possible that Matthew was a Levite. This is circumstantial, because in Hebrew tradition it was customary for a son to take up the vocation of his father. Therefore it would make sense that Matthew, being a tax collector, had ancestors who were tax collectors, and in the ancient kingdom of Israel, it was the role of the Levite to collect the tithe. Of course, so long a time later that must not necessarily be the case for Matthew, but it is plausible that he was a Levite.
The publicans of ancient Rome occupied a solid position among the classes despised most by the people. They were notorious for extortion, since they all had quotas to meet and would often take the short route and meet them dishonestly. The more dishonest publicans worked partly for the government and mostly to line their own pockets. In any case, they were seen as traitors much as people today see IRS agents as traitors, working against the working man for the sake of a tyrannical government.
Gospel
Matthew was a eyewitness of many of the events throughout Yahshua Christ's ministry.