The world behind the page
What a Tax Collector Did
Luke introduces Zacchaeus as "the chief among the publicans," and rich. To the crowd, those two facts told the whole story: a collaborator who had grown wealthy off his own people.
“And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.”Luke 19:2
The reality
The reality. Tax and toll collecting in the Roman world often worked through a system in which the right to gather certain taxes or tolls was farmed out; a collector paid or contracted for the position and then recouped his money, plus profit, from the people he taxed. This built overcharging into the very structure of the job. Collectors and their agents sat at tollbooths on roads and at trade points, or gathered various dues, and had considerable power to demand more than was owed. In Judea and Galilee this made tax collectors doubly despised. First, they were seen as collaborators with the occupying power, taking money from their own countrymen for the benefit of Rome or its clients. Second, their constant contact with Gentiles, with money bearing pagan images, and with a trade steeped in dishonesty, marked them as ritually and socially unclean in the eyes of the observant. They were commonly grouped with sinners, as the Gospels repeatedly show, "publicans and sinners" (Luke 15:1). The details of exactly how the system operated varied by place and period, and we should not assume a single uniform scheme, but the social reality is consistent across the Gospels: tax collectors were rich, resented, and treated as traitors to their people and their faith.
Why it matters for reading the Bible
Why it matters for reading the Bible. When Luke 19:2 calls Zacchaeus a chief tax collector who was rich, and then says Jesus invited himself to that man's house, the crowd's murmur in Luke 19:7, that Jesus had "gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner," is the natural reaction of people who saw him as a collaborator grown fat on their taxes. Zacchaeus' promise to give half his goods to the poor and to restore fourfold anything taken by false accusation (Luke 19:8) is the specific repentance of a man whose trade ran on overcharging. The same background lights up the call of Matthew, also called Levi, who left his tax booth to follow Jesus (Matthew 9:9), and the parable of the Pharisee and the publican, where the tax collector who dares not lift his eyes goes home justified (Luke 18:13 to 14). In each case the shock is that Jesus welcomes the very people everyone agreed were beyond the pale.
How it helps you see Christ
How it helps you see Christ. Christ deliberately sought out the tax collectors, the group most despised as traitors and cheats, and he ate with them, called one to be an apostle, and made another the hero of a parable about mercy. When the religious complained that he received sinners and ate with them, he answered with the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son (Luke 15). He said plainly, "the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10), spoken over Zacchaeus. In going to the tax collector's house, Christ crossed the sharpest social and religious boundary of his day to show that no one is past the reach of grace. The man everyone had written off came down from his tree and down from his fraud, changed by being wanted.
Questions people ask
Why were tax collectors so hated?
They were seen as collaborators with Rome who taxed their own people, and the tax-farming system built overcharging into the job. Their contact with Gentiles and pagan coinage also made them ritually unclean in the eyes of the observant.
What did Zacchaeus promise?
In Luke 19:8 he pledged to give half his goods to the poor and to restore fourfold anything taken by false accusation, the specific repentance of a man whose trade ran on cheating.
Was Matthew a tax collector?
Yes. Matthew, also called Levi, was called by Jesus from his tax booth (Matthew 9:9), which is part of why his fellowship with Jesus scandalized the religious leaders.