35. Matthew the Apostle – Ancient Manuscripts
A Roman tax booth became an unlikely starting point for spreading a new faith. Matthew left his profitable career collecting taxes to follow Jesus, then went even further. Tradition says he wrote the gospel bearing his name. Ancient church records track his missionary work through Ethiopia and Persia. In Ethiopia, the Gunda Gundē Monastery still has an old manuscript called GG 00039 that shows the first part of Matthew’s Gospel. This suggests Christians were active early on in places where Matthew supposedly taught. Over in Persia, archaeologists have found Christian objects in the Fars region, including the Church of St. Mary in Anbar from around 200-300 CE.
