19:2a

And there was a man named Zacchaeus: This clause introduces a man named Zacchaeus, who is an important person in this section. In Greek the clause begins with a phrase that is sometimes translated as “And look!” or “And listen!” Use an expression that is natural in your language to introduce a new character and give his name. Some other ways to do this in English are:

A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus… (New International Version)
-or-
A man named Zacchaeus lived there.

19:2b

a chief tax collector: Zacchaeus was called a chief tax collector. This implies that he had other tax collectors working under him. Other ways to translate chief tax collector are:

a principal tax collector
-or-
a leader/head of the tax collectors

tax collector: The term tax collector refers here to men who collected tax money from people for a government. Zacchaeus was a Jewish man, but he collected taxes for the Roman government that often oppressed the people. Most Jewish people hated tax collectors like Zacchaeus because:

(a) They collected taxes for the Roman government that oppressed the people.

(b) They often collected more money than the government required. They kept the extra money for themselves.

If you do not have a word in your language for “tax collectors,” you may use a phrase to describe them. For example:

men who collected tax money for the government

If you use footnotes in your translation to explain background information, you may want to include one about tax collectors. For example:

The Jewish people hated tax collectors because they worked for a foreign government that oppressed them. The tax collectors often cheated the people by charging them too much.

Tax collectors are also mentioned at 3:12, 5:27–30, 7:29, 7:34, 15:1 and 18:10–14.

who was very wealthy: Zacchaeus was a rich man. He had probably become rich by collecting taxes from people. The word wealthy can also be put earlier in this verse. See the General Comment for an example.

General Comment on 19:2a–b

In some languages it may be more natural to change the order of some of the information in this verse. For example:

2bA wealthy man 2anamed Zacchaeus lived there. 2bHe was a leader of the people who collected taxes in the city.

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