We also find Jesus using the perceptions linked with tax collectors to jolt the Jewish leaders from their complacency. While he was teaching in the temple courts during the final week of his life on earth, Jesus frequently clashed with the Jewish leaders, who questioned his authority and resisted his invitations to know him as their Savior from sin.
Continue reading EVERYDAY LIFE IN BIBLE TIMES (TAX COLLECTOR PT2)
During the Roman era, tax collectors and the manner in which taxes were collected evolved and varied from one region to the next. Here we offer a general picture of the process that will allow us to appreciate the role tax collectors played in the Gospels. Taxes were paid to both the temple and the state, each of which established its own tax code without consideration of the other. First-century Jews paid a religious tithe of their produce, herd, and flock (Lev 27:30-32); they were also required to pay the half-shekel or two-drachma tax for sanctuary upkeep (Exod 30:13; Matt 17:24). The state demanded taxes that included a poll tax levied on males fourteen to sixty-five years of age and females twelve to sixty-five, real estate tax, customs tax collected at road and harbor stations, a tax on produce that amounted to 10 percent on grain and 20 percent on wine, fruit, and oil, a 1 percent income tax, and sales and inheritance taxes.
Continue reading EVERYDAY LIFE IN BIBLE TIMES (TAX COLLECTOR PT1)
This verse is also part of Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. He contrasted the self-righteous attitude of a proud Pharisee with the humble and penitent attitude of a tax collector.
Continue reading BIBLE CUSTOMS & CURIOSITIES (GRIEF OVER SIN)
Matthew, author of the Gospel of Matthew, was a jewish citizen who collected taxes from his countrymen for the Roman government. After Jesus called Matthew to become one of His disciples, Matthew invited some of his tax collector friends to his home for a meal with Jesus and His other disciples.
The Pharisees criticized Jesus for associating with tax collectors and other whom they considered outcasts and sinners. Tax collectors were hated by the Jewish people because they considered them traitors who cooperated with the Romans to drain their country of its resources (read Luke 5:27).
But Jesus replied that His mission was to seek and to save people like Matthew and his friends. “They that be whole need not a physician,” He said, “but they that are sick” (Matthew 9:12).
MATTHEW 9:10- As Jesus sat at meat in the house [Matthew’s house,] behold, many publicans [tax collectors] and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.
MATTHEW 9:12- But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
LUKE 5:27- And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of customs: and he said unto him Follow me.
All three of the synoptic Gospels give an account of Jesus’ selection of His disciples. But only Luke reveals that He spent an entire night in prayer before making His choice (Luke 6:12-16). These were the men who would continue His ministry after Her death, resurrection, and ascension. So He sought God’s will in this decision through fervent prayer. Continue reading THE SELECTION OF THE TWELVE
Matthew, atuthor of the Gospel of Matthew, was a Jewish citizen who collector taxes from his countrymen for the Roman government. After Jesus called Matthew to become one of His disciples, Matthew invited some of his tax collector friends to his home for a metal with Jesus and His other disciples. Continue reading BIBLE CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES (EATING WITH TAX COLLECTORS)
Today we know Matthew as the one of the four beloved writers whom God used to chronicle the life of Jesus so we would have it, could refer to it, and could be transformed by it. But Matthew wouldn’t have felt the love during his era. He was from Galilee, and while Rome occupied the area, collaborators like Matthew were the ones who collected taxes for them. Tax collectors were also known to becomes rich by charging more than was due. Continue reading MEN OF THE BIBLE (MATTHEW: TAX COLLECTOR TURNED EVANGELIST)