Who is greater St John or St Matthew?

Answer 1

Let's consider Jesus words to his disciples in Luke 22:24-27 after there were a heated argument concerning which one of them where the greatest. Jesus patiently stressed the importance of serving others. Did the apostles get the point? Evidently so. Neither John, Matthew nor any of the faithful apostles ever got caught up in the pursuit of fame, power, or position. (1 Peter 3:8)

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Answer 2

The choice of these two saints from among many suggests the view that John and Matthew were the authors of the gospels that now bear their names. This is probably not the case, as all the New Testament gospels were originally anonymous and were not attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John until later in the second century, when the Church Fathers sought to establish who, in their view, probably wrote the gospels. Modern scholars point out that non of the gospels could have been written by an eyewitness to the events portrayed, which thereby rules out authorship by Matthew and John.

The synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) describe John, son of Zebedee as one of Jesus' three closest disciples, along with his brother James and Peter. On the other hand, he is scarcely mentioned in John's Gospel, although many believe the "beloved disciple" might have been John. Matthew is an enigma, because he is scarcely mentioned outside Matthew's Gospel, which in fact appears to be why this Gospel was named after Matthew.

To conclude: John should be seen as a greater disciple than Matthew.