The Jimmy Akin Podcast | Episode 105 (October 12, 2026)

Jimmy hated the Gospel of Matthew when he first read it. Today it may be his favorite. In this episode he traces the man behind it: why a tax collector carries two Hebrew names, why Matthew ranks as a mid-range apostle, and why tax collectors were despised. Then he takes up the hard question—did Matthew write the Gospel at all? Jimmy works through the objections from date, literacy, and Matthew’s use of 90% of Mark, and argues that the strongest evidence for his authorship is the one thing a forger would never have chosen: his name.

Timecodes
00:00 – Coming Up
00:17 – Intro
00:42 – 1 How I Came to Matthew
03:07 – 2 Levi and Matthew
06:02 – 3 The Lists of the Twelve
09:20 – 4 Why Two Jewish Names?
11:37 – 5 A Brother of James?
12:49 – 6 Tax Collectors Were Despised
15:47 – 7 A Popular Gospel
16:30 – 8 Matthew’s Interest in Money
19:36 – 9 The Objection from Date
21:09 – 10 The Objection from Literacy
24:06 – 11 The Objection from Mark
28:46 – 12 The Argument from the Name
31:09 – 13 Did Matthew Write in Hebrew?
33:15 – 14 A Sayings Document?
35:22 – 15 Fulfillment Notices
36:38 – 16 Jesus as the New Moses
39:16 – 17 The Five Discourses
43:19 – 18 What Happened to Matthew?
45:36 – 19 Conclusion
45:50 – Closing/Outro
46:54 – End