Mark 2 - Calling of Levi

Calling of Levi

Jesus, while teaching a large crowd by the lake, finds Levi at the tax collector's booth and says "Follow me!" Luke 5:27-29 also calls him Levi. Matthew's version of this story clearly lists him as Matthew, the tax collector and apostle, in 9:9,10:3. Mark lists him as the son of Alphaeus, although Alphaeus is also listed as the name of the father of James. A few manuscripts say James and not Levi, but most think this is an attempt by a copyist at correction. Some just assume he had two names, Matthew-Levi, maybe a middle or nickname, and both father's had the same name. Mark does not list a Levi as one of the Twelve Apostles in 3:16-19, so if one only considers Mark it is not clear this Levi was an Apostle.

A tax collector could mean two things. He could have been an independent contractor with the Roman government, who paid taxes to Rome and then got the right to extract taxes from the people in a certain area, with an added fee for the collector and people he would hire. He might have also been a toll collector for Herod Antipas, extracting the tolls people had to pay to enter parts of Palestine, and Capernaum was an area with a high traffic of movement of people and merchants. Either way, Levi would have been a very unpopular and even despised person.

Jesus and his disciples eat with Levi and his disreputable friends and the "teachers of the law who were Pharisees" (2:16) ask his disciples why. Teaching the law was a profession, and the Pharisees were a group of men who were considered pious, so Mark states these people are both Pharisees who also taught the law. Whether they were at the dinner or passing by and saw this meal is unclear. The proper preparing and eating of food are very important in Judaism. It was even considered dangerous to eat with those who did not observe the same dining customs by some Jews like the Pharisees. See also the "Incident at Antioch" Gal 2:11-21.

Most think, and most translations say, that this was at Levi's house, although the original texts state this was at "his" house, which could be Levi's or perhaps Jesus' house, maybe the one he was teaching in already mentioned. Mark says many people are now following Jesus, more than the four disciples he has already listed. See also Mark 6#Healing of the sick of Gennesaret. In contrast to the many followers Jesus attracted, it is not clear how many actual disciples (students) he recruited, only Luke 6:17 calls it a "great crowd of ... disciples" and John 6:66 says many left.

Psalm 119 and 101 speak of God's disfavor of sinners. Jesus replies the famous "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Matthew has him say "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice." between the two sentences in Mark's version. Luke says "...but sinners to repentance." Jesus compares himself to a doctor to show that, as a doctor fights disease by working with the sick, so Jesus must go to sinners in order to help them overcome their sins. Jesus said he was seeking repentance in 1:14-15.

The Oxyrhynchus Gospels 1224 5:1-2 also record this episode of "dining with sinners".

Jesus thus ends the debate with a pithy statement with no rebuttal by his opponents. Many see this as Mark's way of telling the story to set up Jesus for his memorable words, which Mark uses in the next two incidents and others as well. Scholars have labeled this method of narration an apophthegm, chreia or pronouncement story. All three synoptics have this occur after the healing of the paralyzed man.