Tax Collector

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.[261] 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. In the end, Jews of the first century carried a combined tax burden that was near or slightly exceeded 50 percent of their income.[262]

Within certain regions, a portion of these taxes was collected by tax farming. In this case, the state collected bids from enterprising individuals who contracted to pay the taxes owed by a region. The chief tax collector with the highest bid was awarded the contract, and he then hired a second-tier staff of regular tax collectors to do the actual collection from the residents in that region. The state largely remained on the sidelines, allowing the tax farming system to provide the income they demanded.[263]

Tax collectors had always faced a public relations challenge, but the tax farming system and the connotations linked to it really made it difficult for Jewish tax collectors to find sympathy from the general public. They were perceived as dishonest (Luke 3:12–13), and their strong-arm tactics used to collect and even over-collect what was due made them feared. What is more, and maybe worse, their business required regular contact with Gentiles; thus they were perceived as collaborators with the Romans who occupied the Promised Land. Matthew had personally felt the unpopularity of his position as tax collector. Yet in his Gospel he attempted no repair of the tax collectors’ reputation; he lumped them in with abusers of alcohol, gluttons, pagans, public sinners, and prostitutes (Matt. 9:10; 11:19; 18:17).

Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector in Jericho when Jesus entered his home and his life.

Tax collectors were part of the real-world life of Jesus’s day; they also became an important element in the communication of the Gospel writers. Jesus used their low social status to make a point on several occasions. Because they were seen as such disreputable characters, little good was expected of them. Consequently, Jesus taught that if the way we love does not exceed that of tax collectors, then we have learned little about the kind of love he encourages us to show. “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?” (Matt. 5:46). On another occasion, Jesus outlined a procedure for calling attention to the danger of impenitence. The final and most dramatic step requires us to treat the recalcitrant person in the same way an observant Jew of the first century would treat a tax collector (Matt. 18:17). 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. In this context, Jesus offered this stunning appraisal: “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you” (Matt. 21:31).

The plaza of the Dome of the Rock resides on the location of the first-century temple courtyards, where Jesus spoke these stunning words to Jewish leaders: “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you” (Matt. 21:31).

But perhaps the largest rhetorical role that tax collectors play in the Gospels is linked to our understanding of just how large the kingdom of God is and consequently just how far the forgiveness of Jesus extends into the culture of a sin-ruined world. From the world’s perspective, Jesus was going about building a popular following in all the wrong ways. Instead of courting popular leaders, he courted those of lowest social status, spending considerable time with and even eating with the likes of tax collectors and other publicly shunned sinners (Matt. 9:10–12; Luke 19:5–7). Jesus then invited Matthew, a tax collector, to become one of his disciples. The Gospel of Matthew does not hide the fact but parades it about for all to see (Matt. 9:9; 10:3). And in Luke 19 it is Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector in Jericho, who seems to get all the attention. Jesus invited him to come down from the sycamore tree and then invited himself into Zacchaeus’s home for dinner, much to the chagrin of all the people who muttered about Jesus going to be the guest of a sinner. Yet it was this sinner in whom we see a remarkable change. Zacchaeus promised to give half of his possessions to the poor and repay those whom he had defrauded at a rate of 400 percent.[264] Of all those in Jericho, Jesus called this chief tax collector a “son of Abraham” (Luke 19:9). Why did the Gospel writers give all this attention to Jesus’s connection with tax collectors like Zacchaeus? Because it says something about the kingdom of God; if they are in, there is no one who is ruled out.