38. "⁶⁷ And, when Jesus passed from thence, He saw a man sitting among the Tax-gatherers, whose name was Matthew; and He said to him, Follow me: and he arose (and) followed Him. And it came to pass that when He was sitting in the house, Behold many Tax-gatherers and Sinners were sitting with Jesus, and with His Disciples." And again, after these things, when passing away, and reciting the number of the rest of the Disciples, He added respecting Himself the name of Tax-gatherer, and spoke thus: "The⁶⁸ names of the twelve Apostles are these: The first, Simon who is called Cephas, and Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, and Thomas and Matthew the Tax-gatherer." Thus therefore Matthew evinces, through the greatness of (his) humility, his truth-loving character, calls himself a Tax-gatherer; conceals not his former mode of life, and counts himself among sinners ! He also numbers himself second to the Apostle who was with him; for he associated (himself) with Thomas, as (he did) Simon with Andrew, James with John, and Philip with Bartholomew ; placing Thomas first, and honouring him as the more excellent Apostle with himself; while the rest of the Evangelists have done the reverse of this⁶⁹. Hear therefore how Luke

bears record of Matthew, not giving him the appellation of Tax-gatherer, nor placing him after Thomas; but, because he considered him the more worthy, numbering him first, and placing Thomas after him, just as Mark has done: His words then, are these: "And⁷⁰, when it was day, He called His Disciples, and chose twelve out of them, those whom He named Apostles: Simon, whom He named Cephas; and

Andrew his brother², James and John, and Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas." Thus therefore Luke honoured Matthew, just as they, who had from the first been eye-witnesses and hearers of the word, had delivered to him⁷¹. ⁷² And thus Matthew, through his humility, made little of himself, confessed that he was a Tax-gatherer, and numbered himself the second (in order), after the Apostle who was (named) with him.