Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey has revealed he and his wife, Camilla Alves, named their son Levi after his "favorite verse in the Bible."
"Levi's another name for Matthew in the Bible," McConaughey said during a recent appearance on Good Morning America, "We had talked about possibly Matthew Jr. if he was a boy. And my favorite [verse] in the Bible is Matthew 6:22."
Matthew 6:22, part of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, says that "the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light." McConaughey also reportedly has this verse engraved on his wedding band.
The "Dazed and Confused" actor said he and his wife didn't know the sex of their baby until he was born, so they hadn't decided on a name for Levi until they met him. Because Levi was born at 6:22 p.m., the name made perfect sense.
"We find out he's a boy when he's born. You're not thinking about the name, right?" he continued. "An hour later, the doctor comes up and he hands you that card to fill out: 'Blank was born at 6:22 p.m.' So we went, 'It's Levi.'"
Throughout his acting career, McConaughey, 47, mostly has kept his personal views private, however, before he became a Hollywood star, the actor used to go to church, saying he considered it important, "even if it was just for the ritual of giving an hour and a half on Sunday to yourself, to pray and to think about others," he was quoted as saying in God Reports.
Just before McConaughey married his wife, a devout Catholic, they made a vow: "Let's go make a covenant, with you, me and God," the actor said he told his soon-to-be wife.
The actor and his 35-year-old wife now have three children: Vida, 7; Levi, 6; and Livingston, 4. Having children brought McConaughey back to church, he told GQ, and he now attends a church in Texas.
"It's non-denominational," he said of his church. "It's based in the faith that Jesus is the son of God, that he died for our sins, but many different denominations come in."
In 2014, he caused a stir in Hollywood when he thanked God in his acceptance speech after winning the Oscars for Best Actor.
"First off I want to thank God, because He's the one I look up to," McConaughey said then. "He's graced my life with opportunities which I know are not of my hand or any other human kind. He has shown me that it's a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates. In the words of the late Charlie Laughton, who said, 'When you got God you got a friend and that friend is you.'"
McConaughey said God to him is someone who could answer all his questions and "who has a hand in all of this miracle we call life, which I believe is a miracle."
