Exegesis:

auton … autou ‘he … his’: there is some disagreement as to who is referred to in the opening clause. Luke 5.29 expressly says it was Levi’s house, and there is general agreement that that is the meaning here: ‘his house’ is Levi’s house. Although some think that ‘he sat at table’ refers also to Levi, the majority understand this to be a reference to Jesus, an interpretation supported throughout by Marcan usage (cf. Translator’s New Testament).

katakeisthai (14.3; cf. 1.30) ‘recline (on a couch at table),’ ‘dine’ . Lagrange says that this manner of eating was universal in the time of Jesus, but others, e.g. Jeremias, insist that such was not the case. With the same meaning of ‘recline at meal’ or ‘dine’ Mark uses other verbs as well: anakeimai (6.26; 14.18; 16.14), anaklinō (6.39), anapiptō (6.40; 8.6), sunanakeimai (here and 6.22).

telōnai kai hamartōloi (Mt. 9.10, 11, 11.19, Lk. 5.30, 32, 7.34, 15.1, 18.13) ‘tax collectors and sinners.’

telōnai (2.16) ‘tax collectors’: these are to be thought of as the portitores, men who actually collected the dues, rather than the publicani to whom the revenues were farmed out .

hamartōloi (2.16, 17; 8.38; 14.41) ‘sinful (men)’: the adjective is always used in Mark (with the exception of 8.38) in the plural, as a noun, hoi hamartōloi ‘the sinners.’ There is widespread agreement that ‘sinners’ were people in general who were not so careful in their observance of the Law, especially with regard to dietary laws, as were the Pharisees. “The ʿam ha-ʾarets (people of the land) who are sinners, not because they transgress the law, but because they do not hold the Pharisaic interpretation of it” (K. Grayston).

kai tois mathētais autou ‘and his disciples’: this is the first mention of the disciples as such, in Mark. The word mathētēs ‘disciple’ occurs some 43 times in Mark and should always be translated ‘disciple,’ ‘follower,’ ‘adherent,’ while ‘apostle’ should be kept exclusively for apostolos, in Mark only at 6.30 and, perhaps, 3.14.

ēsan gar polloi kai ēkolouthoun autō ‘for they were many and they were following him’: who is referred to by ‘the many’ who were following Jesus? Some (Rawlinson, Taylor, and others) understand it to refer to a large company of disciples who were now following Jesus; Turner observes that this is the first mention of the disciples, and “we are told that they were now many and that they were beginning to ‘follow him about.’” Others (Swete, Moffatt, Manson, The Modern Speech New Testament, O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada) understand that publicans and sinners are referred to. Although there is no way by which definitely to prove one or the other interpretation, it would seem that the context favors the second interpretation.

kai ēkolouthoun autō ‘and they were following him’: this clause has been interpreted in two ways: (1) as suggested by Tischendorf, some connect this clause to the next verse, by making it the beginning of the sentence, as follows: “And there were following him also the scribes of the Pharisees….” (2) The majority, however, like Revised Standard Version, connect the clause with what precedes, and translate it as a relative clause, in accordance with normal Semitic syntax: ‘who also were following him’ (Rawlinson, Lagrange, Manson, The Modern Speech New Testament, Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale, Zürcher Bibel).

Translation:

Because of the confusion of pronominal reference in the first clause of this verse (a confusion which also exists in the Greek, but which needs to be resolved in order for the passage to be intelligible in some languages and which if not made more specific may give an entirely wrong meaning in other languages), it is advisable in many instances to translate, ‘and as Jesus was dining in Levi’s house….’

The rendering sat at table is an obvious adjustment to the requirements of the English cultural setting, since in the Greek the verb means ‘to recline.’ However, the important thing is that this verb means ‘to eat’ or ‘to dine.’ The particular position assumed by the participants surrounding the table, whether reclining or sitting, is not important. What matters is the function.

The tax collectors are the ‘ones who take the money’ (Cashibo-Cacataibo) or as in some instances ‘those who take the money for the government,’ in order to specify their function as being different (at least officially) from those who steal, rob, or cheat.

There is no doubt about the special meaning of sinners in this context, for undoubtedly the essential meaning is ‘those people who consistently violated religious regulations,’ in contrast with the Pharisees and others who scrupulously kept all the detailed requirements of the law. However, in most languages it is almost impossible to find a term which accurately describes such persons, without introducing certain alien concepts. Accordingly, for the most part translators have used one word for sinners throughout the Scriptures, whether the context happens to imply those who were morally reprehensible or those who violated certain religious taboos. For a treatment of the lexical problems in words for sin see 1.4.

Terms for disciple are generally of three types: (1) those which employ a verb ‘to learn’ or ‘to be taught,’ (2) those which involve an additional factor of following, or accompaniment, often in the sense of apprenticeship, and (3) those which imply imitation of the teacher. Expressions which are based on the first class of semantic base include: ‘word searchers for’ (Ngäbere), ‘those who learned from Jesus’ (Yaka), ‘those who learned’ (Navajo, Western Highland Purepecha, Tepeuxila Cuicatec, Lacandon), ‘those who studied with Jesus’ (Mixteco Alto), ‘the ones Jesus taught’ (Northern Grebo); Toraja-Sa’dan ‘child (i.e. follower) of the master’; Indonesian and Javanese ‘pupil.’ There is, however, always a danger in this first type of expression, namely, that the reader will think that the disciples were simply school boys that Jesus was teaching. Accordingly, in order to convey something of the meaning of continued association and fellowship which was involved in the rabbi-disciple relationship of N.T. times, the Central Mazahua has ‘companions whom Jesus taught.’ Kipsigis, Loma (Liberia), and Copainalá Zoque use a form which means essentially ‘apprentices,’ implying continued association and learning. In Cashibo-Cacataibo the meaning is ‘those who followed Jesus’ and in Huautla Mazatec the expression ‘his people’ means essentially his followers and is used of the political adherents of a leader.

In Highland Puebla Nahuatl the word for disciples is based on the root ‘to imitate,’ and as such has a good deal to recommend it.

If in the last clause of this verse one follows the second interpretation noted above (one strong support for this interpretation is the occurrence of many with tax collectors and sinners in the second clause), one must make certain that the reference is clear. In some instances one may have to repeat ‘tax collectors and sinners,’ but in many instances languages possess pronominal elements which refer to the earlier of two such third person plural referents. The confusing element in this last clause, however, is the word followed, which is generally used in speaking of disciples, not of tax collectors and sinners.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .