Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Luke 18:9-14, Two men go up to the temple to pray
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.
Luke 18:9-14, in every translation this tool compares.
Jesus aims this story at people confident of their own goodness who hold others in contempt. A Pharisee prays in the temple, listing his fasting and tithing and thanking God that he is better than the toll collector nearby, while the toll collector keeps his distance, will not look up, strikes his chest and asks only for mercy. Jesus says it was the toll collector who went home right with God, because God lowers the proud and raises the humble.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/temple-and-courts\/","n":"The temple and its courts","s":"Herod's huge rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, believed to be God's dwelling, laid out in courts that kept Gentiles, women and Jewish men at set distances.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sacrifice-and-blood\/","n":"Sacrifice and the daily offering","s":"Animals were offered at the temple for sin, for thanks and for cleansing, and blood sealed covenants. Every day a lamb was offered at dawn and again in the afternoon, and Jews everywhere prayed at those hours.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/pharisees\/","n":"The Pharisees","s":"A mostly lay movement devoted to careful keeping of the law and of oral tradition, respected by the people and watchful of new teachers.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/fasting\/","n":"Fasting","s":"Going without food, and often washing and oil, as a sign of mourning, penitence and longing. The law required one fast a year; the devout kept many more.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/tax-collectors\/","n":"Tolls and tax collectors","s":"Local men who collected tolls and taxes for rulers backed by Rome, distrusted as collaborators and cheats.","r":""}
Bailey sets the scene at the daily atonement offering, when a lamb was sacrificed for the sins of Israel; the CSB Study Bible says only that the times around the morning and evening sacrifices were set for prayer. Thanking God for one's righteousness, instead of taking credit for it, counted as pious, so the first hearers would not have heard the Pharisee as a boaster (Keener and his notes), and Strauss, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary, agrees that no first-century Jew would have equated Pharisees with hypocrisy. The most devout fasted on Mondays and Thursdays, and Pharisees tithed beyond what the law required (Keener and his notes; Bailey). Bailey points out that the tax collector's verb is not the usual word for mercy but one meaning to make an atonement. Keener adds that a prayer with no restitution would have struck many as invalid, so the ending would shock. Levine reads it differently: "The parable does not critique the Temple." In her reading the temple welcomes both men, and the Greek allows that both go home justified; Strauss notes, against her, that a tax collector's very presence in the temple was seen as defilement.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Luke 18:10, 18:11, 18:12 and 18:13
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 18:9-10, 18:11, 18:12, 18:13 and 18:14
- CSB Study Bible, note on Luke 18:10-14
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, ch. 27, The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
- Amy-Jill Levine, Short Stories by Jesus, ch. 6, The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
- Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Luke 18:10, 18:11 and 18:12
