Καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἐξῆλθεν καὶ ἐθεάσατο τελώνην ὀνόματι Λευὶν καθήμενον ἐπὶ τὸ τελώνιον, καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ, Ἀκολούθει μοι.
Jesus Calls Levi
27After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.”
The Greek that is translated as “Follow me” in English is translated as “Be my disciple” in Ojitlán Chinantec and “Don’t forsake me” in Tenango Otomi (the latter is used in John 21). (Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
In Kaingang it is translated as “run with me and do as I do.” (Source Ursula Wiesemann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 65).
See also come after me / follow me.
The Greek and Ge’ez that is translated as “tax collector” in English is translated in Tagbanwa as “money-grabbing official receivers of payment” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation) and in Noongar as mammarapa boya-barranginy or “people taking money” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation). Likewise, in Cashibo-Cacataibo, it is the “ones who take the money” (source: Bratcher / Nida 1961).
In Mairasi it is translated as “the people who collect money pertaining to head payment.” (Source: Enggavoter 2004)
See also Matthew.
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Tax Collectors and Sinners .
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 5:27:
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
See also pronoun for “God”.
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, todome-rare-ru (留められる) or “keep” is used.
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Exegesis:
kai meta tauta exēlthen ‘and after this he went out.’ tauta refers to what has been told in vv. 17-26. exēlthen ‘he went out,’ presumably out of the town as the parallel text Mk. 2.13 suggests.
kai etheasato telōnēn ‘and he saw a tax collector.’ For telōnēs cf. on 3.12. Here the word refers probably to a custom-house officer since the great commercial route from Acre to Damascus passed the lake near Capernaum and it may well be that on this route was the custom-office of Levi.
theaomai ‘to see,’ often synonymous with horaō.
onomati Leuin ‘named Levi.’ In v. 29 the nominative Leuis occurs but the usual transliteration is ‘Levi.’
kathēmenon epi to telōnion ‘sitting at, or by, the custom-office.’ The participle kathēmenon goes with telōnēn as an accusative and participle after a verb of perception (etheasato ‘he saw’).
telōnion (only here and the parallels Mk. 2.14 and Mt. 9.9) ‘custom-office,’ ‘revenue office.’
akolouthei moi ‘follow me’ without introductory words or an indication of the circumstances under which Levi was called to follow Jesus.
Translation:
He went out. Where a literal rendering would restrict the meaning to leaving the house it may be preferable to say ‘he departed’ (Sundanese), or more explicitly, “he left the town” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation).
Saw a tax collector, …, sitting …, or, ‘saw a tax collector, …, who was sitting, or, as he sat.’ Because an unrelated character is introduced here (cf. on 1.5) the clause structure may have to be changed, e.g. ‘Now there was a tax collector, … sitting…; Jesus saw him (or, looked at him) and said….’
Tax collector, see on 3.12.
Tax office. Sometimes the rendering is a locative derivation built on the term for ‘tax/customs’ or ‘to gather-tax/customs.’ In the present verse, however, it is also possible simply to say, ‘in his office’ (Tae’), the possessive serving to identify the kind of office meant.
Follow me, see on v. 11.
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.
Section 5:27–32
Jesus chose Levi to become one of his disciples
In this section, Jesus asked a man named Levi to be his disciple. For the meaning of “disciple,” see the note at 5:30a.
Levi was a tax collector. Jews hated tax collectors for at least two reasons:
(a) Tax collectors worked for the Roman government or for Herod’s government. These were foreign governments that ruled the Jews.
(b) Tax collectors sometimes collected more money than necessary. Then they kept the extra money and became rich.
This story also tells about another conflict that Jesus had with the Jewish religious leaders. After Levi became Jesus’ disciple, Jesus came to have dinner at his house. Levi’s friends, who were also tax collectors or other sinners, also came to the dinner. During the dinner, the religious leaders criticized Jesus for associating with such people. Jesus answered that it is people who know they are sinners who need him, not people who believe themselves to be righteous.
Some other possible headings for this section are:
Jesus called Levi to be his disciple and ate with sinners
-or-
Jesus loves sinners
There are parallel passages for this section in Matthew 9:9–13 and Mark 2:13–17.
Paragraph 5:27–28
5:27a
After this: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as After this is literally “After these things” (as in the King James Version). This means “after the events in the previous section occurred.” Some other ways to translate this phrase are:
After these things happened
-or-
Later (Contemporary English Version)
Jesus went out: The Greek text does not say from where Jesus went out. The meaning may be that he went out of the house where he had healed the paralyzed man. It may also be that he went out of the town. (Mark 2:13 indicates that Jesus went out of the town.) Tax booths were often located just outside of a town or city.
If it is necessary in your language, make explicit from where Jesus went out. For example:
Jesus left ⌊the house⌋
-or-
Jesus went out ⌊from the town⌋
5:27b
saw a tax collector named Levi: This part of the verse introduces Levi and says that Jesus saw him. In some languages it may be more natural to use more than one statement to do this. For example:
There was a man there named Levi who was a tax collector…. Jesus saw him…
saw: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as saw means to “look at intently or pointedly.” It implies that Jesus did not just look at Levi briefly. He continued to observe him. Here is one way to express this in English:
looked straight at (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
tax collector: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as tax collector refers to a man whose job was to gather money from people. This money was called a tax. Then he gave this money to the government. People paid different types of taxes. For instance, people had to pay taxes based on their wealth and property. They also had to pay a tax for using certain roads and to bring goods into the country.
Levi probably collected fees on goods and produce that people brought into Herod’s kingdom. He possibly also collected fees for using the road.
If you do not have a word in your language for tax collector, you may need to use a descriptive phrase. For example:
someone who collects money
-or-
a money collector for the government
You may want to include a footnote to explain the meaning of this word. You may also want to explain it in a glossary. For example:
Tax collectors worked for the Romans or King Herod. Tax collectors often cheated people by forcing them to pay more money than they owed. As a result, many Jews hated tax collectors.
sitting at the tax booth: The phrase sitting at the tax booth implies that Levi was doing his work. He was collecting taxes for the government. See the discussion about this in the introduction to Section 5:27–32.
tax booth: The tax booth was probably some sort of small table under a shelter where Levi sat to receive taxes from the people. Some other ways to translate the phrase tax booth are:
the place where taxes are collected
-or-
the place for paying taxes (Contemporary English Version)
5:27c
“Follow Me,” He told him: In Greek this part of the verse begins with the words that the Berean Standard Bible translates as He told him. The Berean Standard Bible places these words after the phrase Follow Me. Put these phrases in a natural order in your language.
Follow Me: In this context the phrase Follow Me means “Become my disciple.” Jesus was inviting Levi to be with him every day, listen to his teaching, observe his actions, and learn from him.
Some ways to translate this are:
Be/become my disciple
-or-
Come, follow me wherever I go, and learn from me
You may choose to translate this as Follow Me but include a footnote to explain the idea of a disciple. For example:
Jesus was inviting Levi to become a disciple. A disciple was someone who was always with a teacher and learned from him constantly, both from his teaching and from his actions.
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