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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas

The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.

Tolls and tax collectors

Local men who collected tolls and taxes for rulers backed by Rome, distrusted as collaborators and cheats.

Greek and Roman worldKings, rulers and courts

First, in plain English

Nobody loves the man at the toll booth, and everyone assumes he is skimming. Taxes and tolls went to rulers who worked with Rome. The men who collected them were locals, so their neighbors saw them as traitors working for the other side.

What it meant then

Most people in the empire disliked tax collectors, and Jews saw them as traitors (Keener). Collectors could search property and seize anything not declared, and people sometimes paid bribes to avoid worse. Each tariff was small, but they multiplied at every border. Customs income usually went to local governments run by elites who cooperated with Rome. Later rabbis set the Pharisees, the godliest people one would meet, against tax collectors, the most ungodly. The ESV Study Bible says Levi collaborated with Herod Antipas, who collaborated with Rome, and that the system was corrupt and most collectors skimmed. The Roman coin of 12:14 was required for poll taxes in all the provinces. Wright adds that Galileans paid local taxes, temple taxes and taxes to Herod on top of Rome's. Keener thinks a collector at Capernaum was more likely a customs agent, charging duties on goods along the trade routes, in a secure and well-paid post. Across the empire people paid a tax on property, often around 1 percent, and a tax on each person. Local taxes and customs duties came on top. The money paid for roads, armies and temples of the emperor's cult. The rabbis even allowed lying to a tax collector to protect one's property (Garland; Strauss, citing the Mishnah). A tax collector was thought to have given up his place as a son of Abraham (Strauss).

The bridge to today

An analogy: a local man hired by an occupying army to collect fees at a checkpoint. He may need the work, but his neighbors see whose uniform he wears.

What it changes in the reading

Tax collectors stand for people seen as traitors and cheats, so Jesus' welcome of them, as in Mark 2:15-16, scandalized the observant. Calling one to be a disciple, as in Matthew 9:9, took such a man into the inner circle. In Luke 19:8 Zacchaeus promises fourfold repayment.

Where the analogy breaks

Not a wage earner in a foreign uniform. A checkpoint hand draws a fixed wage from the army. Levi likely served Herod Antipas, a Jewish ruler who answered to Rome, and collectors could search goods, seize what went undeclared and skim for themselves.

Where scholars disagree

What Levi collected. Keener gives two views: some scholars see a customs officer charging tariffs on goods passing through Capernaum, others a collector of local taxes for agents of Antipas. Wright places the toll at Capernaum as the border town between the lands of Antipas and Philip. The ESV Study Bible reads the booth by the sea as taxing fishermen. Garland combines the views: a customs house near the border with Philip's territory, in Antipas's service, which may also have taxed the fishing trade.

Passages where it appears

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-5-33-48\/","n":"Matthew 5:33-48, No oaths, the other cheek, the second mile","s":"Jesus tells his hearers not to swear at all, not to resist an evildoer, to go a second mile with a soldier who forces one, and to love their enemies.","r":"Matthew 5:33-48"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-9-1-17\/","n":"Matthew 9:1-17, A paralyzed man, Matthew's table and the wedding guests","s":"Jesus forgives and heals a paralyzed man, calls Matthew from the tax booth and eats with tax collectors and sinners, and is asked why his disciples do not fast.","r":"Matthew 9:1-17"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-18-15-20\/","n":"Matthew 18:15-20, Two or three witnesses and the assembly","s":"Jesus sets out how to deal with a brother who sins: privately, then with witnesses, then before the church. What they bind on earth is bound in heaven, and he is present where two or three gather in his name.","r":"Matthew 18:15-20"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-2-13-22\/","n":"Mark 2:13-22, Levi and the party","s":"Jesus calls a tax collector from his booth and eats with tax collectors and sinners. He is questioned about eating with them and about not fasting.","r":"Mark 2:13-22"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-12-13-17\/","n":"Mark 12:13-17, The coin with Caesar's face","s":"Pharisees and Herodians ask whether it is right to pay tax to Caesar. Jesus asks for a coin and asks whose image is on it.","r":"Mark 12:13-17"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-3-1-20\/","n":"Luke 3:1-20, John's answers for toll men and soldiers","s":"In the fifteenth year of Tiberius, John preaches repentance around the Jordan. He tells the crowds to share, tax collectors to take no more than is set, and soldiers not to extort, and Herod Antipas shuts him in prison.","r":"Luke 3:1-20"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-5-17-39\/","n":"Luke 5:17-39, Through the roof, then a feast with toll men","s":"Friends lower a paralyzed man through the roof and Jesus forgives his sins. Then Levi leaves his tax booth and gives a banquet for Jesus with other tax collectors, and Jesus is asked why his disciples do not fast.","r":"Luke 5:17-39"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-15-1-10\/","n":"Luke 15:1-10, A lost sheep and a lost coin","s":"Pharisees and teachers grumble that Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them. He answers with a shepherd who searches for one lost sheep and a woman who sweeps the house for one lost coin.","r":"Luke 15:1-10"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-18-9-14\/","n":"Luke 18:9-14, Two men go up to the temple to pray","s":"Jesus tells of a Pharisee who thanks God that he is not like other people and a tax collector who stands far off, beats his breast and asks for mercy. The tax collector goes home justified.","r":"Luke 18:9-14"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-18-35-19-10\/","n":"Luke 18:35-19:10, A blind beggar and Zacchaeus at Jericho","s":"Near Jericho a blind beggar calls Jesus Son of David and receives his sight. In the town Jesus invites himself to the house of Zacchaeus, a rich chief tax collector, who promises to give half his goods to the poor and repay fourfold.","r":"Luke 18:35-19:10"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/romans-13-1-7\/","n":"Romans 13:1-7, The sword and the tax","s":"Paul tells believers to be subject to the governing authorities, whom God has put in place. The ruler bears the sword, and they should pay taxes and give honor where it is owed.","r":"Romans 13:1-7"}

Sources

NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Mark 2:14 and 2:16, and note on Matthew 22:19-20
N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, comments on Mark 2:13-17 and Mark 12:13-17
ESV Study Bible, study note on Mark 2:14
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 9:9
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Romans 13:6-7
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Romans 13:6-7
David E. Garland, Mark, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Mark 2:14
Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Luke 19:2 and 19:9

All ideas