Jerome. Lives of Illustrious Men 3
3 Matthew, surnamed Levi PL 23, 598
Matthew, also called Levi, apostle and aforetimes publican, composed a gospel of Christ at first published in Judea in Hebrew for the sake of those of the circumcision who believed, but this was afterwards translated into Greek though by what author is uncertain. The Hebrew itself has been preserved until the present day in the library at Cæsarea which Pamphilus so diligently gathered. I have also had the opportunity of having the volume described to me by the Nazarenes of Berœa, a city of Syria, who use it. In this it is to be noted that wherever the Evangelist, whether on his own account or in the person of our Lord the Saviour quotes the testimony of the Old Testament he does not follow the authority of the translators of the Septuagint but the Hebrew. Wherefore these two forms exist “Out of Egypt have I called my son,” and “for he shall be called a Nazarene.”
Porro aliorum testimonia percensere si velim, longior sim. Gennadius eumdem laborem ad sua tempora persecutus cognomine libro cap. 1, de Jacobo Nisibeno agens, hunc, inquit, virum beatus Hieronymus in libro Χρονικῶν velut magnarum virtutum hominem nominat; cur in Catalogo Scribarum non posuerit, facile excusabitur, etc, quae infra suo loco expendemus. Facundus Hermianensis lib. VI defensionis trium Capitulorum cap. 2: Hieronymus noster, vir admodum doctus, qui etiam tantae fuerat lectionis, ut omnes, aut pene omnes, sive in Graeco, sive in Latino eloquio divinarum Scripturarum tractatores legeret, scripsit librum, cujus est titulus de Viris Illustribus, in quo non solum catholicos, sed etiam haereticos memoravit, qui de Scripturis sanctis in utraque lingua aliquid conscripserunt: non tacuit qui haeresum fuerint conditores, quive assertores, vel qui etiam a quibusdam ut haeretici accusarentur, aliis contra defendentibus. Denique Cassiodorius Divinar. Instit. cap. 17: Lege librum de Viris Illustribus S. Hieronymi, ubi diversos labores atque opuscula eorum breviter et honoravit et tetigit. Quibus adde S. Isidorum Hispalensem Originum lib. VI et capite 6. Marcellinum Comitem in Chronico, Joannem Sarisberiensem epist. 172, aliosque secutis temporibus prope innumeros.