Luke 3:12

3:12 Tax collectors ¹  also came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?”

Luke 15:1

The Parable of the Lost Sheep and Coin

15:1 Now all the tax collectors ²  and sinners were coming ³  to hear him.

Luke 7:29

7:29 (Now ⁴  all the people who heard this, even the tax collectors, ⁵  acknowledged ⁶  God’s justice, because they had been baptized ⁷  with John’s baptism.

[3:12]  ¹ sn The tax collectors would bid to collect taxes for the Roman government and then add a surcharge, which they kept. Since tax collectors worked for Rome, they were viewed as traitors to their own people and were not well liked. Yet even they were moved by John’s call.

[15:1]  ² sn See the note on tax collectors in 3:12.

[15:1]  ³ tn Grk “were drawing near.”

[7:29]  ³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the parenthetical nature of the comment by the author.

[7:29]  ⁴ sn See the note on tax collectors in 3:12.

[7:29]  ⁵ tn Or “vindicated God”; Grk “justified God.” This could be expanded to “vindicated and responded to God.” The point is that God’s goodness and grace as evidenced in the invitation to John was justified and responded to by the group one might least expect, tax collector and sinners. They had more spiritual sensitivity than others. The contrastive response is clear from v. 30.

[7:29]  ⁶ tn The participle βαπτισθέντες (baptisqente") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.