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.

Luke 18:10

18:10 “Two men went up ⁸  to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee ⁹  and the other a tax collector. ¹⁰ 

Luke 5:27

The Call of Levi; Eating with Sinners

5:27 After ¹¹  this, Jesus ¹²  went out and saw a tax collector ¹³  named Levi ¹⁴  sitting at the tax booth. ¹⁵  “Follow me,” ¹⁶  he said to him.

Luke 5:29-30

5:29 Then ¹⁷  Levi gave a great banquet ¹⁸  in his house for Jesus, ¹⁹  and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting ²⁰  at the table with them. 5:30 But ²¹  the Pharisees ²²  and their experts in the law ²³  complained ²⁴  to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” ²⁵ 

Luke 7:34

7:34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him, ²⁶  a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ ²⁷ 

Luke 18:11

18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ²⁸  ‘God, I thank ²⁹  you that I am not like other people: ³⁰  extortionists, ³¹  unrighteous people, ³²  adulterers – or even like this tax collector. ³³ 

Luke 18:13

18:13 The tax collector, however, stood ³⁴  far off and would not even look up ³⁵  to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful ³⁶  to me, sinner that I am!’ ³⁷ 

[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.

[18:10]  ⁴ sn The temple is on a hill in Jerusalem, so one would go up to enter its precincts.

[18:10]  ⁵ sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.

[18:10]  ⁶ sn See the note on tax collectors in 3:12.

[5:27]  ⁵ tn Grk “And after.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[5:27]  ⁶ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:27]  ⁷ sn See the note on tax collectors in 3:12.

[5:27]  ⁸ sn It is possible that Levi is a second name for Matthew, because people often used alternative names in 1st century Jewish culture.

[5:27]  ⁹ tn While “tax office” is sometimes given as a translation for τελώνιον (telwnion; so L&N 57.183), this could give the modern reader a false impression of an indoor office with all its associated furnishings.

[5:27]  ¹⁰ sn Follow me. For similar calls on the part of Jesus see Luke 5:10-11; 9:23, 59; 18:22.

[5:29]  ⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[5:29]  ⁷ sn A great banquet refers to an elaborate meal. Many of the events in Luke take place in the context of meal fellowship: 7:36-50; 9:12-17; 10:38-42; 11:37-54; 14:1-24; 22:7-38; 24:29-32, 41-43.

[5:29]  ⁸ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:29]  ⁹ tn Grk “reclining.” This term reflects the normal practice in 1st century Jewish culture of eating a meal in a semi-reclining position. Since it is foreign to most modern readers, the translation “sitting” has been substituted.

[5:30]  ⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the implied contrast present in this context.

[5:30]  ⁸ sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.

[5:30]  ⁹ tn Or “and their scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 5:21.

[5:30]  ¹⁰ tn Or “grumbled”; a term often used in the OT for inappropriate grumbling: Exod 15:24; 16:7-8; Num 14:2, 26-35; 16:11.

[5:30]  ¹¹ sn The issue here is inappropriate associations (eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners) and the accusation comes not against Jesus, but his disciples.

[7:34]  ⁸ tn Grk “Behold a man.”

[7:34]  ⁹ sn Neither were they happy with Jesus (the Son of Man), even though he was the opposite of John and associated freely with people like tax collectors and sinners. Either way, God’s messengers were subject to complaint.

[18:11]  ⁹ tn Or “stood by himself and prayed like this.” The prepositional phrase πρὸς ἑαυτόν (pros eauton, “to/about himself”) could go with either the aorist participle σταθείς (staqeis, “stood”) or with the imperfect verb προσηύχετο (proshuceto, “he prayed”). If taken with the participle, then the meaning would seem at first glance to be: “stood ‘by himself’,” or “stood ‘alone’.” Now it is true that πρός can mean “by” or “with” when used with intransitive verbs such as ἵστημι ({isthmi, “I stand”; cf. BDAG 874 s.v. πρός 2.a), but πρὸς ἑαυτόν together never means “by himself” or “alone” in biblical Greek. On the other hand, if πρὸς ἑαυτόν is taken with the verb, then two different nuances emerge, both of which highlight in different ways the principal point Jesus seems to be making about the arrogance of this religious leader: (1) “prayed to himself,” but not necessarily silently, or (2) “prayed about himself,” with the connotation that he prayed out loud, for all to hear. Since his prayer is really a review of his moral résumé, directed both at advertising his own righteousness and exposing the perversion of the tax collector, whom he actually mentions in his prayer, the latter option seems preferable. If this is the case, then the Pharisee’s mention of God is really nothing more than a formality.

[18:11]  ¹⁰ sn The Pharisee’s prayer started out as a thanksgiving psalm to God, but the praise ended up not being about God.

[18:11]  ¹¹ tn Here the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) is used as a generic and can refer to both men and women (NASB, NRSV, “people”; NLT, “everyone else”; NAB, “the rest of humanity”).

[18:11]  ¹² tn Or “swindlers” (BDAG 134 s.v. ἅρπαξ 2); see also Isa 10:2; Josephus, J. W. 6.3.4 [6.203].

[18:11]  ¹³ sn A general category for “sinners” (1 Cor 6:9; Lev 19:3).

[18:11]  ¹⁴ sn Note what the Pharisee assumes about the righteousness of this tax collector by grouping him with extortionists, unrighteous people, and adulterers.

[18:13]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “standing”; the Greek participle has been translated as a finite verb.

[18:13]  ¹¹ tn Grk “even lift up his eyes” (an idiom).

[18:13]  ¹² tn The prayer is a humble call for forgiveness. The term for mercy (ἱλάσκομαι, Jilaskomai) is associated with the concept of a request for atonement (BDAG 473-74 s.v. 1; Ps 51:1, 3; 25:11; 34:6, 18).

[18:13]  ¹³ tn Grk “the sinner.” The tax collector views himself not just as any sinner but as the worst of all sinners. See ExSyn 222-23.