Exegesis:

ērōta de tis auton tōn Pharisaiōn ‘one of the Pharisees asked him.’ The new story begins without indication of place or time. The connexion with the preceding verses is that it illustrates what v. 34 says of Jesus, i.e. philos hamartōlōn ‘a friend of sinners.’ The imperfect tense of ērōta represents the act of asking as incomplete until the invitation has been accepted. The next sentence (kai … kateklithē) expresses the result of the asking and is, therefore, in the aorist tense.

hina phagē met’ autou ‘that he would have dinner with him,’ i.e. in his home, as the next clause shows.

kateklithē ‘he reclined at table.’ For the custom of reclining at table cf. IDB III, 317.

Translation:

Asked him to eat with him, or, ‘invited him at his table’ (Bible de Jérusalem), ‘invited Jesus to eat at his house’ (Bahasa Indonesia RC), ‘called him to come to eat with him’ (Sranan Tongo). To eat with him, or, ‘to share his meal,’ ‘to eat from-the-same-dish with him’ (Malay, cf. also Cuyono, lit. ‘to use the same cup as he,’ and Toraja-Sa’dan, lit. ‘to eat sitting-in-a-circle with him’), ‘to be his guest.’ Cf. also on “sit at table with” and “eat and drink with” in 5.29f.

Sat at table, indicating that Jesus accepted the invitation; hence several translations use an expression that comes close to, or is basically the same as, the one used in the invitation. A literal rendering of the Greek, ‘reclined,’ is, as a rule, culturally unacceptable; the rendering ‘sat at table’ is contextually unacceptable because of v. 38, when it would suggest sitting with the feet under the table. Then renderings not specifying the attitude or the exact place are preferable, e.g. ‘sat (down) at the meal, or, to eat’ (cf. Marathi, Good News Translation, Ekari, Javanese), ‘went at table’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘took his place (at table, or, for the meal)’ (cf. New English Bible, Bible de Jérusalem).

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.