Scripture · Acts 9:1-9
Acts 4:13
Saint Matthew and the Angel (first version)
When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they marveled and took note that these men had been with Jesus.
In a surviving black-and-white photograph, an angel guides Matthew’s pen hand while the seated evangelist holds an open book.
About the artwork
The contact between the two hands is the image’s central action. Matthew’s crossed legs and bare feet give the seated figure a physical immediacy, while the angel leans close to the page. This differs from Caravaggio’s surviving replacement in the Contarelli Chapel, where the airborne angel gestures without touching the writer.
The painting is presumed destroyed in the Berlin flak-tower fires of 1945. An early account by Bellori says the priests rejected it for its lack of decorum, although modern scholars dispute aspects of the original installation story. The photograph preserves the composition and some lettering on the page, but it cannot establish the original colors or make every written character legible.
Featured in: Caravaggio’s Bible Paintings: The Painter Who Killed a Man and Kept Painting Grace
What does Acts 4:13 mean?
Acts 4:13 describes the authorities’ surprise at Peter and John’s boldness after a healing and their testimony about Jesus. They recognize the two as ordinary men without formal schooling and remember that they had been with Jesus. The verse concerns these apostles before the council, not Matthew writing a Gospel.
The pairing is therefore thematic: authority to bear witness does not depend only on public educational standing. The guided hand in Caravaggio’s image gives that theme a different visual form. It should not be used to claim that Acts calls Matthew illiterate or describes an angel dictating his book; neither assertion appears in the passage.
Acts 4:13 offers a theme of unexpected authority in witness; it does not describe Matthew’s literacy or the scene of writing.
Sources
Formerly Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, Berlin (lost 1945, presumed destroyed).
Caravaggio’s Bible Paintings: The Painter Who Killed a Man and Kept Painting Grace. Artwork reading adapted from this guide.
Acts 4 — Berean Standard Bible. Context for Acts 4:13.
Also from Acts:The AscensionThe Ascension of Christ
Continue looking:Peter and John Heal the Lame Man at the Beautiful GateThe Death of AnaniasThe Incredulity of Saint Thomas