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NASB | Mark 2:14 As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He *said to him, "Follow Me!" And he got up and followed Him. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Mark 2:14 As He was passing by, He saw Levi (Matthew) the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax collector's booth, and He said to him, "Follow Me [as My disciple, accepting Me as your Master and Teacher and walking the same path of life that I walk]." And he got up and followed Him [becoming His disciple, believing and trusting in Him and following His example]. [Matt 9:9-17; Luke 5:27-39] |
Bible Question: Were tax collectors Jewish or were they Roman as well? |
Bible Answer: Good answers, Angel and Ed. One thing that might help to understand the resentment towards tax collectors is that they were not paid a salary or a fee. They had specific amounts they were expected to collect. In exchange, they could keep whatever amount they collected over and above the minimum given to Rome. Although Rome did invest some taxes in local regions in ways that might increase revenues (like roads and other infrastructure improvements), it wasn't quite what we think of as taxes. It helped Rome cover some of the expenses of its army, etc. but it was primarily a means of enriching the empire. I sort of think of it like what mobsters call "fire insurance" (i.e., "Pay us the premium or your house will burn down.") In addition, the Roman currency had the image of Caesar on it. Any image was an offense to the Jews, but especially the image of someone who claimed to be god. Since taxes could only be paid in Roman currency, this chafed on the Jews even more. Furthermore, for a "small fee," tax collectors would change your money from local currency to Roman currency. By the way, you couldn't use Roman currency to donate money in the temple because of this image business. This afforded another opportunity to profit by changing money from Roman currency to local Judaic currency. Hence all the "money changers" in the temple. |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Mark 2:14 | Author | ||
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wist ye not | ||
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Songbirdca | ||
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EdB | ||
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JCrichton | ||
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DocTrinsograce |