MATTHEW, or Gospel of St MATTHEW, a canonical book of the New Testament.
St MATTHEW wrote his gospel in Judea, at the request of those he had converted; and it is thought he began in the year 41, eight years after Christ's resurrection. It was written, according to the testimony of all the ancients, in the Hebrew or Syriac language; but the Greek version, which now passes for the original, is as old as the apostolical times.
St MATTHEW the Evangelist's Day, a festival of the Christian church, observed on September 21st.