Tax Collectors

[dairygirl4u2c]

so are tax collectors sinning by being tax collectors?
are people like tax collectors sinning?

jesus said that he came to save not the righteous, but the sinners, like the prostitutes and tax collectors.

what are we to make of that?
it seems the typical response is to say it's a figure of speech, or, many tax collectors are doing bad but not to generalize to all. but if we take it at its word much like how all prostitutes are doing bad?
is there a historical context i'm missing?

[dairygirl4u2c]

i see the consensus is that the historical thought of them was generally taht they took more than they deserved to line their own pockets.
but, still generalization, etc.

[CatherineM]

Tax collectors in Jesus' time were different than the ones today. They worked for the Romans, so they were what we would today call collaborators. That also meant that under Jewish law they were unclean because they did business with Gentiles. Many took more money than they needed to, and it was like forced bribes.

To be similar to today's IRS agents, they would come out to your house, take twice as much money as you owed, and if you didn't have it, they would take your possessions, and maybe even one of your kids. We may not like the IRS, but they don't actually take our first born kids, even if it feels like it at times.

[Didymus]

Yeah, I had heard that it was common for tax collectors to inflate individual rates to skim off some of the money for themselves, which obviously would be stealing.

[Nihil Obstat]

How does the sin of usury (sp?) apply today?

[dairygirl4u2c]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1798798' date='Mar 6 2009, 02:18 AM']How does the sin of usury (sp?) apply today?[/quote]

i would argue that's a good question in regards to tax collectors, or any collectors, today.
i'd also add, that excessive taxes for the government, might also be bad. eg, if it was bad for king george or whoever to excessively tax, then it's bad for the US who's just as bad if not worse. and by extension, arguably, the collectors.

i wasn't even lookin for this passage or this topic, but i happened upon this verse per john the baptist saying it:
[quote]9"Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so (N)every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

10And the crowds were questioning him, saying, "(O)Then what shall we do?"

11And he would answer and say to them, "The man who has two tunics is to (P)share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise."

12And some (Q)tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?"

13And he said to them, "Collect no more than what you have been ordered to."[/quote]

we see that we cannot be simpltons in reading it, "it says tax collectors are bad. what more do you need?"
that would seem to indicate that all tax collectors are not bad. even though we read in a simple statement that they are, and put in the same category as prostituties arguably, that it's just a generalization.

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='dairygirl4u2c' post='1798880' date='Mar 6 2009, 08:48 AM']i would argue that's a good question in regards to tax collectors, or any collectors, today.
i'd also add, that excessive taxes for the government, might also be bad. eg, if it was bad for king george or whoever to excessively tax, then it's bad for the US who's just as bad if not worse. and by extension, arguably, the collectors.

i wasn't even lookin for this passage or this topic, but i happened upon this verse per john the baptist saying it:


we see that we cannot be simpltons in reading it, "it says tax collectors are bad. what more do you need?"
that would seem to indicate that all tax collectors are not bad. even though we read in a simple statement that they are, and put in the same category as prostituties arguably, that it's just a generalization.[/quote]
I think a key phrase in that passage is "collect no more [b] than you have been ordered to[/b].

[Socrates]

While the tax collectors of Jesus' time were thieves and sinners for stealing more than their share from the subjects, so I would argue today that the government itself takes a sinfully large share from American citizens for its own bloated enrichment.

We once fought a war with King George over much smaller taxes; today we put up with oppressive taxation from our own government on a scale which would make King George and all his horses and men blush.
Time for a second revolution I say!

[nkkh]

In general, tax collectors are honest people trying to make an honest wage like anyone else.