seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Luke 5:27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Ok, I confess, I had to bing it! Yes... Levi and Matthew [the author of the Gospel] are one and the same. Now, about the banquet and the guest list. There was a large crowd of tax collectors and others. I could understand the tax collectors. After all, construction workers hang out with construction workers, cops hang out with cops, so it makes sense that tax collectors would hang out with others of the same profession. They have something in common.
According to one site I went to, tax collectors were mostly roman. However, the article I read said they had locals working for them. These, according to the article, were called "tax farmers". These tax farmers would go out and collect the tax and fees from the people. The fees were decided at the time of collection. If you owed $1 for example, and they knew you had $5, then the fee was $4. Then the tax farmer would pay the tax collector $4 and keep a dollar, and the tax collector [like a handler] would keep $3 and pay the Roman Government $1.
So, the people at this party were probably the tax collectors and their tax farmers. Right? They were all thieves.... just trying to make a living.
When I was a kid, I was taught the government was as perfect as it could get. Daddy was in the Navy. Government was good. That, however, was back in the 50's and 60's. It was before Vietnam.
So, this is where Dr. Luke, who wrote this Gospel, introduces the next Apostle, Levi... also known as Matthew, who also wrote a Gospel.
Meet the tax guy!
