It may be necessary to indicate in general terms the shift in temporal setting. For example, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch begins “Later Jesus was the guest of Matthew.” Another rendering would be “Later, Jesus went to Matthew’s house.”
It should be clear that he refers to Jesus, not Matthew.
The RSV footnote indicates that sat at table may also be translated “reclined at table.” What the footnote is referring to is the manner in which people positioned themselves with one elbow on the floor while eating from a low table. They would not have been sitting in chairs.
One very natural way to translate sat (or, reclined) at table is “and as he was sitting at the table to eat.” Another way is “while he was eating.”
In the house … sat down with Jesus: this ambiguous construction is translated by Good News Translation to indicate specifically that the meal was “in Matthew’s house.” However, the alternative rendering of Good News Translation provides the other possible meaning: “in his (that is, Jesus’) home.” Most translations retain the ambiguity: “When Jesus was at table in the house” (New English Bible) and “While he was at dinner in the house” (Jerusalem Bible). New American Bible is explicit: “while Jesus was at table in Matthew’s home.” Some scholars think that with Jesus and his disciples implies that Jesus was the host and that the meal must have been in his home.
Translators who can retain the ambiguity may want to do so, translating in the house literally. In cases where this is not possible, translators usually specify “in Matthew’s house,” but obviously they can also follow the alternative rendering of Good News Translation, as in “in his house” or “at his home.”
For behold, see comments on 1.20 and 8.2.
Tax collectors were regarded as sinful because their business brought them into constant contact with non-Jews (see comments on 5.46).
And sinners: in order to indicate that tax collectors were also regarded as sinners by the Jews, one may need to translate “and other sinful people” (Good News Translation “and other outcasts”). The term sinners would have included not only persons of immoral character, but also Jews who ignored the stricter requirements of the Law as interpreted by the Pharisees in particular. Anchor Bible has “non-observant (Jews),” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “others who had just as bad a profession.”
To retain sinners in the context of the Gospels is often misleading, since modern readers tend to understand it in the narrower sense of immoral people. But as we pointed out, the Jews used the term to cover a much wider group than that. “Outcasts” of Good News Translation is sometimes a good model, but many translators have followed Barclay, “people with whom no respectable Jew would have had anything to do.”
The tax collectors and other sinners sat down with Jesus and his disciples. It is clear from the context that they sat down to eat also, but in some languages this will have to be stated explicitly.
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .