Philip is a Greek name. Traditionally Bartholomew is identified with Nathanael (John 1.46).

Thomas (the word means “twin”) is here joined with Matthew, identified as the tax collector. This identification links Matthew with the one mentioned in 9.9.

Since Matthew was presumably no longer a tax collector, some translators say “Matthew who used to be a tax collector” or “Matthew who had collected taxes before.”

A second James (the son of Alphaeus) is mentioned. As we have seen elsewhere (1.1 and 4.21), the son of Alphaeus will be “Alphaeus was his father” in many languages.

James is joined with Thaddaeus. There is textual evidence that the name Thaddaeus should be replaced by the name Lebbaeus, and some Greek manuscripts even combine the two forms of the text (“Thaddaeus who was called Lebbaeus” or “Lebbaeus who was called Thaddaeus”). TC-GNT, however, believes the strongest evidence supports the text that has Thaddaeus, which is also followed by most all modern English translations; one exception is New English Bible, which has “Lebbaeus” in the text and “Thaddaeus” in the margin.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .