τελώνης
telōnēs
tax collector
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
SupportedThe Greek word τελώνης (telōnēs) translates to "tax collector." Based on its occurrences in the New Testament, this term describes a person responsible for collecting taxes on behalf of a government or authority. The significance of this word lies in its 21 appearances throughout the Bible, primarily in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The context often portrays tax collectors as individuals who collect levies from their fellow citizens, which may evoke negative associations with the Roman occupation or oppressive taxation. Given the frequency and range of its usage, τελώνης emerges as a crucial socioeconomic and occupational designation in the ancient Jewish context, reflecting the complexities of Roman rule and local administration in 1st-century Palestine.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
21 total occurrences across the text
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?
Matthew 9:10As he sat in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples.
Matthew 9:11When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Matthew 10:3Philip; Bartholomew; Thomas; Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus; Lebbaeus, who was also called Thaddaeus;
Matthew 11:19The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”
Matthew 18:17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. If he refuses to hear the assembly also, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector.
Matthew 21:31Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said to him, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Most certainly I tell you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into God’s Kingdom before you.
Matthew 21:32For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn’t believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. When you saw it, you didn’t even repent afterward, that you might believe him.
Mark 2:15He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners sat down with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him.
Mark 2:16The scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?”
Mark 2:16The scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?”
Luke 3:12Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what must we do?”
Luke 5:27After these things he went out, and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and said to him, “Follow me!”
Luke 5:29Levi made a great feast for him in his house. There was a great crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them.
Luke 5:30Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?”
Luke 7:29When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they declared God to be just, having been baptized with John’s baptism.
Luke 7:34The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man, and a drunkard; a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
Luke 15:1Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming close to him to hear him.
Luke 18:10“Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector.
Luke 18:11The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
Luke 18:13But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’