Tax Collector

Occurrences in Scripture

Tax collectors appear mainly in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke).

• Tax collectors who came to John the Baptist: Tax collectors came to John the Baptist to be baptized and asked what they should do. John told them to collect no more than the amount appointed to them (Luke 3:12–13).
• The calling of Matthew: When Jesus called Matthew (called Levi in Mark and Luke), who was sitting at the receipt of custom (the tax booth), he followed Jesus. At the meal that followed, tax collectors and sinners sat at the table together. When the Pharisees criticized this, Jesus answered, "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick" (Matthew 9:9–13; Mark 2:14–17; Luke 5:27–32).
• The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector: A tax collector who smote upon his breast in the temple and prayed, "God be merciful to me a sinner," went down to his house justified (Luke 18:9–14).
• Zacchaeus: Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector of Jericho and a rich man, welcomed Jesus. He declared that he would give half of his goods to the poor and restore fourfold anything he had taken by fraud (Luke 19:1–10).
• In addition, Jesus was denounced as "a friend of publicans and sinners" (Matthew 11:19). He also said that tax collectors and harlots would enter the kingdom of God first (Matthew 21:31–32). Tax collectors also serve as an example of those who love only those who love them (Matthew 5:46) and of those who are put out of the community (Matthew 18:17).

Background

The Greek word translated "tax collector," telōnēs, refers to a person who collected taxes or tolls. Rome widely used a system of tax farming, in which the right to collect taxes was sold for a fixed sum. As a result, collectors are understood to have commonly exacted more than the set amount in order to make a profit. The tax collectors of the Gospels are generally thought to have been local Jews serving as low-level officials who collected tolls and customs duties along roads and at city gates. Capernaum, where Matthew worked, lay within the territory of Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee.

Jews despised tax collectors as people who exploited their own countrymen on behalf of foreign rulers. For this reason, the Gospels mention tax collectors alongside "sinners," "harlots," and "Gentiles."

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

In the Gospels, tax collectors represent the people whom the religious leaders rejected. Jesus' eating with them and calling them as disciples is read as a demonstration of the grace that receives repentant sinners. Luke places three parables, including the Parable of the Lost Sheep, immediately after the scene in which tax collectors and sinners draw near to Jesus (Luke 15:1–7). This arrangement gives the theme particular emphasis.

Interpretation and Points of Discussion

• Matthew and Levi: Church tradition has regarded the two names as referring to the same person. Some scholars question this identification.
• The words of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:8): Most interpreters read his statement as a resolution born of repentance. A minority view, pointing to the present tense in the original Greek, takes it as Zacchaeus defending himself by stating what he had already been doing.
• Accounts outside the biblical text: Later traditions preserve stories about the subsequent lives of Matthew and Zacchaeus. The New Testament, however, says nothing about these matters.
• Matthew 18:17: Presbyterians and a number of other denominations have cited this verse as a basis for church discipline. Some interpreters argue that this verse, too, should be understood not as declaring the tax collector someone to be shunned but as describing someone to be embraced again.

In the Korean Church

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector is frequently cited in sermons on humility and the prayer of repentance. The story of Zacchaeus is a staple text for Sunday school lessons and children's sermons.