After ¹  they arrived in Capernaum, ²  the collectors of the temple tax ³  came to Peter and said, “Your teacher pays the double drachma tax, doesn’t he?”

After ¹  this, Jesus ²  went out and saw a tax collector ³  named Levi ⁴  sitting at the tax booth. ⁵  “Follow me,” ⁶  he said to him.

Now all the tax collectors ¹  and sinners were coming ²  to hear him.

Show me the coin used for the tax.” So ¹  they brought him a denarius. ² 

Philip and Bartholomew; ¹  Thomas ²  and Matthew the tax collector; ³  James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴ 

Tax collectors ¹  also came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?”

“Two men went up ¹  to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee ²  and the other a tax collector. ³ 

Now ¹  a man named Zacchaeus was there; he was a chief tax collector ²  and was rich.

When the experts in the law ¹  and the Pharisees ²  saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ³ 

Then ¹  Levi gave a great banquet ²  in his house for Jesus, ³  and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting ⁴  at the table with them.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors ¹  do the same, don’t they?

As ¹  Jesus ²  was having a meal ³  in Matthew’s ⁴  house, many tax collectors ⁵  and sinners came and ate with Jesus and his disciples.

(Now ¹  all the people who heard this, even the tax collectors, ²  acknowledged ³  God’s justice, because they had been baptized ⁴  with John’s baptism.

When the Pharisees ¹  saw this they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ² 

But ¹  the Pharisees ²  and their experts in the law ³  complained ⁴  to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” ⁵ 

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him, ¹  a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ ² 

Then there were those who said, “We have borrowed money to pay our taxes to the king ¹  on our fields and our vineyards.

The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ¹  ‘God, I thank ²  you that I am not like other people: ³  extortionists, ⁴  unrighteous people, ⁵  adulterers – or even like this tax collector. ⁶ 

The tax collector, however, stood ¹  far off and would not even look up ²  to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful ³  to me, sinner that I am!’ ⁴ 

An edict was sent throughout Judah and Jerusalem requiring the people to bring to the Lord the tax that Moses, God’s servant, imposed on Israel in the wilderness. ¹