Luke 5:27

ἐθεάσατο. ‘He observed.’

ὀνόματι Λευείν. It may be regarded as certain that Levi is the same person as the Evangelist St Matthew. The name Matthew (probably a corruption of Mattithjah) means, like Nathanael, Theodore, Dositheus, Adeodatus, &c., ‘the gift of God,’ and it seems to have been the name which he himself adopted after his call (see Matthew 9:9; Matthew 10:3; Mark 2:14).

ἐπὶ τὸ τελώνιον. See note on Luke 3:12. It should be rendered as in the R.V[122] “at the place of toll,” not as in A.V[123] “at the receipt of custom.” Wyclif rightly renders it tolbooth. Matthew seems to have collected toll (perhaps for Herod Antipas) from cargoes of boats which crossed the lake. Herod Antipas paid a certain annual sum to the Romans, but was allowed to collect the revenue himself. Matthew may have been a tax-gatherer for Herod Antipas—who seems to have been allowed to manage his own taxes—(see Jos. Antt. XIV. 10 § 8) and not for the Romans; but even in that case he would share almost equally with a man like Zacchaeus the odium with which his class was regarded. For the Herods were mere creatures of the Caesars (Jos. Antt. XVII. 11 § 6). Probably the “toll” was connected with the traffic of the Lake, and St Matthew is rightly described in Hebrew as ‘Baal abarah’ ‘lord of the passage.’

[122] R.V. Revised Version.
[123] A.V. Authorised Version.

ἀκολούθει μοι. In appointing alike a Publican and a Zealot to be His Apostles our Lord shewed His divine independence and large-hearted love for all men. The Apostolate of a Publican would excite religious rancour; that of a Zealot would involve political suspicion. It might, too, have seemed impossible that men who were in such violent opposition to each other should ever work together. But Christ’s controlling power fused all antagonisms into a common zeal, and at His touch each character gave out its peculiar spark of light.