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Luke5:27–32

Jesus Calls Levi

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Luke 5:27–32 — Jesus Calls Levi. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

27

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me,” He told him,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai meta tauta exēlthen kai etheasato telōnēn onomati Leuin kathēmenon epi to telōnion Akolouthei moi kai eipen autō

Word by word18 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μετὰmetaAfterG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
ταῦταtauta[this]G3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Neuter Plural
ἐξῆλθενexēlthen[Jesus] went outG1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
exerchomai: to issue, go out The aorist ἐξῆλθεν closes the previous scene and opens this one. Benson reads the movement as deliberate pastoral strategy: Jesus leaves the house where the paralytic was healed so that the Pharisees may confer over the miracle in public hearing, and on the way the crowd follows him to the lakeside.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐθεάσατοetheasatosawG2300
√ θεάομαι — to look closely at, iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
theaomai: to look closely at, to gaze The verb of studied looking, in the middle voice. Cambridge corrects the English outright: “Rather, He observed.” What follows is therefore not a chance meeting but a choice made while looking. Gill draws the conclusion the grammar invites: “of all the publicans that were there, he singled out Levi.”
τελώνηνtelōnēna tax collectorG5057
√ τελώνης — a tax-farmer, iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
telōnēs: a tax-farmer The occupational name that carried the stigma. Luke will use this word again for the tax collector who could not lift his eyes (Luke 18:13) and for the crowd of them who drew near to hear him (Luke 15:1). The Verifier records τελώνης across only twenty verses, and it clusters almost entirely in scenes where Jesus is accused of the wrong company.
ὀνόματιonomatinamedG3686
√ ὄνομα — a "name" (literally or figuratively) (authority, character)NounDative Neuter Singular
ΛευὶνLeuinLeviG3018
√ Λευΐς — Lewis (iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
Leuis: Levi A name occurring in only three verses, all of them this call in its three tellings (Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27; Luke 5:29). Poole records the ordinary explanation of the double name: “There was nothing more ordinary amongst the Jews than for persons to have two names.” Cambridge adds that Matthew, “the gift of God,” looks like a name adopted after the call, which would make the two names a before and an after.
καθήμενονkathēmenonsittingG2521
√ κάθημαι — and (to sitVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Masculine Singular
kathēmai: to sit, be seated The present participle holds him in place. The irony of the verse is carried entirely by tense: a man fixed in his seat (present participle) is addressed by a command to keep walking (present imperative), and the next verse answers with a participle of standing up.
ἐπὶepiatG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
τελώνιονtelōniontax boothG5058
√ τελώνιον — a tax-gatherer's place of businessNounAccusative Neuter Singular
telōnion: the tax-gatherer's booth A rare noun, in only three verses of the New Testament, and all three are this same call (Matthew 9:9; Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27). It names the physical office, the place of business. Pulpit locates it plausibly: Capernaum sat on the highway from Damascus to the sea and to Egypt, so its custom house would be a post of some consequence.
ἈκολούθειAkoloutheiFollowG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
akoloutheō: to follow, to be in the same way with Two words in Greek, and the whole call. The present imperative asks for continuous accompaniment, and the lexical root is spatial before it is devotional: to be on the same road. Gill calls the effect of these two words “an instance of powerful, special, and distinguishing grace,” and the next verse supplies the evidence, since the same verb comes back in the imperfect as the thing Levi then did and kept doing.
μοιmoiMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
egō: me Dative of the person followed. The object of the command is not a doctrine or a discipline but a person.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εἶπενeipenHe toldG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτῷautōhimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
28

and Levi got up, left everything, and followed Him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai anastas katalipōn panta ēkolouthei autō

Word by word6 · parsed
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀναστὰςanastas[Levi] got upG450
√ ἀνίστημι — to stand up (literal or figurative, transitive or intransitive)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
anistēmi: to stand up, to raise up An aorist participle of decisive action. The man who was seated (κατήμενον, v. 27) now stands, and the posture reversal is the narrative's whole report of his conversion. Luke gives no speech from Levi at all: the entire response is three verbs.
καταλιπὼνkatalipōnleftG2641
√ καταλείπω — to leave down, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
kataleipō: to leave down, to leave behind The verb of abandonment. Note what the aorist implies commercially: a tax farmer who walks away from his contract cannot walk back to it, unlike fishermen who could return to their boats. Pulpit weighs the cost as “a hard and difficult bit of self-renunciation.”
πάνταpantaeverythingG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
pas: all, every, the whole Accusative neuter plural with no noun. Luke uses this same absolute construction of the first disciples at Luke 5:11, so within twenty verses he has twice recorded a leaving of “all things,” once from the nets and once from the tax booth.
ἠκολούθειēkolouthei[and] followedG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
akoloutheō: to follow The imperfect of what became a life. The same verb Jesus commanded in v. 27 comes back here as the thing done, the command in the imperative answered by the report in the indicative, and the imperfect tense keeps it running past the end of the sentence.
αὐτῷautōHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
autos: him Dative again, matching μοι in v. 27: the object of the command and the object of the obedience are the same person.
29

Then Levi hosted a great banquet for Jesus at his house. A large crowd of tax collectors was there, along with others who were eating with them.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai Leuis epoiēsen megalēn dochēn autō en autou tē oikia kai polys ochlos telōnōn ēn kai allōn hoi ēsan katakeimenoi met’ autōn

Word by word22 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ΛευὶςLeuisLeviG3018
√ Λευΐς — Lewis (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐποίησενepoiēsenhostedG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
poieō: to make, to do Aorist of accomplishment, with the dative αὐτῷ giving the beneficiary. Gill notes the likely interval, that so large an entertainment could hardly have been prepared the same day, so the feast is recorded here for its logic rather than its date.
μεγάληνmegalēna greatG3173
√ μέγας — big (literally or figuratively, in a very wide application)AdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
δοχὴνdochēnbanquetG1403
√ δοχή — a reception, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
dochē: a reception A very rare noun: it occurs in only two verses of the New Testament, this one and Luke 14:13, where Jesus tells a host that when he makes a δοχή he should call the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Luke therefore uses the word twice, once for the party Levi throws and once for the party Jesus commands, and both are parties for people who cannot repay.
αὐτῷautōfor [Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἐνenatG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
αὐτοῦautouhisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
οἰκίᾳoikiahouseG3614
√ οἰκία — properly, residence (abstractly), but usually (concretely) an abode (literally or figuratively)NounDative Feminine Singular
oikia: a house, an abode The scene shifts from the public tax booth to a private house. Cambridge observes that this is why the objectors can be present at all: “The house of an Oriental is perfectly open, and any one who likes may enter it.”
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πολὺςpolysA largeG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ὄχλοςochloscrowdG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounNominative Masculine Singular
ochlos: a throng, a crowd Luke chooses a word for a mass of people, and pairs it with πολύς. The point is scale: this is not a discreet meeting with one repentant man but a room full of the disreputable.
τελωνῶνtelōnōnof tax collectorsG5057
√ τελώνης — a tax-farmer, iNounGenitive Masculine Plural
telōnēs: a tax-farmer The plural, now as a class. Pulpit reads their attendance as Levi's own missionary act, gathering his associates for the Master “for whose sake he had given up everything,” and Gill and Benson read it the same way.
ἦνēnwas thereG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
καὶkaialong withG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἄλλωνallōnothersG243
√ ἄλλος — "else," iAdjectiveGenitive Masculine Plural
allos: other, another Luke's chosen euphemism. Where Matthew and Mark write “sinners,” Luke writes “others,” and Ellicott takes this as evidence of the Gentile evangelist declining a word that his readers' neighbours used of them.
οἳhoiwhoG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Plural
ἦσανēsanwereG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
κατακείμενοιkatakeimenoieatingG2621
√ κατάκειμαι — to lie down, iVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Plural
katakeimai: to lie down, to recline The formal table posture. Reclining together at one table was, in that culture, the strongest available public statement of fellowship, which is exactly the offence registered in v. 30. The complaint is not that Jesus spoke to sinners but that he lay down to eat with them.
μετ’met’withG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
αὐτῶνautōnthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
30

But the Pharisees and their scribes complained to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai hoi Pharisaioi kai autōn hoi grammateis egongyzon pros autou tous mathētas legontes Dia ti esthiete kai pinete meta tōn telōnōn kai hamartōlōn

Word by word23 · parsed
καὶkaiButG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ΦαρισαῖοιPharisaioiPhariseesG5330
√ Φαρισαῖος — a separatist, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
Pharisaios: a separatist The lexical gloss is itself the argument of the scene. A party whose very name means separated finds itself objecting to a table at which no one is separated. Cambridge describes what their authority had become: a “tyranny of pseudo-orthodoxy” enforced by “insolent terrorism.”
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αὐτῶνautōntheirG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
γραμματεῖςgrammateisscribesG1122
√ γραμματεύς — scribe, town-clerkNounNominative Masculine Plural
grammateus: a scribe, a town-clerk The copyists and expounders of the Law, a body that arose after the exile. Pulpit and Cambridge both note the textual question at this point: many older authorities omit αὐτῶν, “their,” and the best reading is probably “the Pharisees and the scribes among them,” meaning the local Capernaum teachers. JFB reads the phrase as a mark of Luke's Gentile audience.
ἐγόγγυζονegongyzoncomplainedG1111
√ γογγύζω — to grumbleVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
gongyzō: to grumble, to murmur An onomatopoeic verb in the imperfect: not one protest but a running undertone. In the Greek Old Testament this is the standard verb for Israel murmuring against the Lord in the wilderness, and Luke's only other cluster of it is at John 7:32, where the crowd murmurs about Jesus and the Pharisees hear it. The word is rare, in seven verses, and it almost always names a complaint that turns out to be against God.
πρὸςprostoG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
pros: toward Direction of address. They aim at the disciples and mean the Master.
αὐτοῦautou[Jesus’]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
μαθητὰςmathētasdisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounAccusative Masculine Plural
λέγοντεςlegontesG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ΔιὰDiaWhyG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
τίti. . .G5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐσθίετεesthietedo you eatG2068
√ ἐσθίω — used only in certain tenses, the rest being supplied by G5315 (φάγω)VerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
esthiō: to eat Present indicative, second person plural, aimed at the disciples. The charge is against a practice, not an incident.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πίνετεpinetedrinkG4095
√ πίνω — to imbibe (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
pinō: to imbibe, to drink Luke alone adds the drinking to the eating. It sharpens the picture into a shared feast rather than a shared meal, and it anticipates the slander Luke records at Luke 7:34, where Jesus is called a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
μετὰmetawithG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
τελωνῶνtelōnōntax collectorsG5057
√ τελώνης — a tax-farmer, iNounGenitive Masculine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἁμαρτωλῶνhamartōlōnsinnersG268
√ ἁμαρτωλός — sinful, iAdjectiveGenitive Masculine Plural
hamartōlos: sinful, a sinner The objectors' word, quoted. Cambridge notes the definite article stands in nearly all the uncials, “the publicans and sinners,” that is, the known class, the people everyone in the room could name. Benson exposes the assumption underneath the question: the complaint presumes that a prophet is defiled by the company he keeps, which is precisely the premise Jesus overturns by calling himself a physician.
31

Jesus answered, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ho Iēsous apokritheis eipen pros autous Ou hoi hygiainontes echousin chreian iatrou alla hoi kakōs echontes

Word by word17 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀποκριθεὶςapokritheisansweredG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
apokrinomai: to answer, to conclude for oneself A passive participle used in an active sense, the standard Septuagint and Gospel idiom for replying. Its force here is positional: the objectors spoke to the disciples (v. 30) and Jesus answers, which is itself the first half of his defence of them.
εἶπενeipen. . .G2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
πρὸςpros. . .G4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
αὐτούςautous. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ΟὐOu[It is] notG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ὑγιαίνοντεςhygiainonteshealthyG5198
√ ὑγιαίνω — to have sound health, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
hygiainō: to have sound health Luke's substitution of the clinical term for the general one is the strongest internal trace in this pericope of the tradition that the evangelist was a physician. Cambridge adds the double edge: as regards ordinary respectability these scribes really were “whole,” yet in a more dangerous sense they were “sinners” who only fancied they had no need of Jesus, and Cambridge sends the reader to the church at Laodicea for the pattern.
ἔχουσινechousin[who]G2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
χρείανchreianneedG5532
√ χρεία — employment, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
chreia: employment, need The pivot of the proverb. Jesus does not deny that the Pharisees are sinners; he says only that health, real or imagined, is what removes the felt need of a doctor. The argument therefore turns on need, not on merit, and it leaves the question of who is actually well entirely open.
ἰατροῦiatroua doctorG2395
√ ἰατρός — a physicianNounGenitive Masculine Singular
iatros: a physician A rare noun, in seven verses. The image has deep Old Testament roots: Jeremiah's cry over the wound of his people asks whether there is no physician in Gilead, and Ezekiel indicts the shepherds of Israel who did not strengthen the weak or heal the sick. Jesus answers the complaint by taking a professional identity from exactly that field of prophetic language.
ἀλλὰallabutG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
κακῶςkakōssickG2560
√ κακῶς — badly (physically or morally)Adverb
kakōs: badly, physically or morally The adverb that lets the proverb do double duty. It is a relatively uncommon word, in sixteen verses, and the lexicon's own gloss preserves the double sense the reply depends on.
ἔχοντεςechontes. . .G2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
echō: to hold, to have The idiom κακῶς ἔχειν, to be in a bad way. Paired with ἔχουσιν χρείαν four words earlier, the same verb states both the condition and the need: those who have badly are the ones who have need.
32

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

ouk elēlytha kalesai dikaious alla hamartōlous eis metanoian

Word by word8 · parsed
οὐκoukvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ἐλήλυθαelēlythaI have not comeG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbPerfect Indicative Active1st Person Singular
erchomai: to come, to go Perfect tense, first person singular. A perfect of arrival with abiding result, and a claim of mission that presupposes somewhere to have come from. Luke has already put this construction in Jesus' mouth at Luke 4:43 for the necessity of preaching the kingdom; here the errand is named by its objects.
καλέσαιkalesaito callG2564
√ καλέω — to "call" (properly, aloud, but used in a variety of applications, directly or otherwise)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
kaleō: to call aloud, to invite The double sense is deliberate in context: the word for a summons is also the word for a dinner invitation, and Luke uses it that way at Luke 14:13, the only other verse in the New Testament containing δοχή, the “reception” of v. 29. The Pharisees object to who is at Levi's table; Jesus answers that inviting exactly these people is what he came for.
δικαίουςdikaious[the] righteousG1342
√ δίκαιος — equitable (in character or act)AdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
dikaios: righteous, equitable The commentators divide, honestly, over whether the word is straight or ironic. Cambridge argues it is true in two senses at once: in a lower external sense these men really were what they called themselves, chasidim, and in another sense only self-righteous and self-deceived, and he points forward to the Pharisee and the tax collector at prayer. Benson resists the ironic reading and insists the sense is comparative. The text itself supplies no marker either way.
ἀλλὰallabutG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
ἁμαρτωλοὺςhamartōloussinnersG268
√ ἁμαρτωλός — sinful, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
hamartōlos: sinful, a sinner The objectors' insult of v. 30 is taken up and made the stated object of the mission. Nothing in the reply denies that the label fits; the reply denies only that it disqualifies.
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
μετάνοιανmetanoianrepentanceG3341
√ μετάνοια — (subjectively) compunction (for guilt, including reformation)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
metanoia: compunction for guilt, including reformation Luke's addition, and the reason the saying cannot be read as indifference to sin. The call is to sinners, but it is a call into repentance, a change of mind that carries reformation with it. Gill presses the point that the same Lord who calls to the duty also gives the grace of it, which is his doctrine rather than Luke's statement.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The look, and the two words that moved a man — Luke 5:27-28

⚙ Luke builds this call out of verb forms. A man is καθήμενον, seated, present participle, fixed at his booth; Jesus ἐθεάσατο him, a verb the lexicon glosses as looking closely, which Cambridge renders flatly as “Rather, He observed.” Gill reads the selectivity out of that verb: “of all the publicans that were there, he singled out Levi.” What follows is two Greek words, Ἀκολούθει μοι, a present imperative that asks for a road rather than a decision. Then Luke answers the imperative with three verbs and no speech: he stood up (aorist), he left behind all things (aorist), he was following him (imperfect). Ellicott alone in this brief marks the last tense for what it is: “Not then only, but continually, the verb being in the imperfect tense.” Pulpit counts the cost as real, “a hard and difficult bit of self-renunciation,” and Cambridge notes the corroboration from the next verse, that the great feast “shews that Matthew had something to sacrifice when he ‘left all.’” Poole supplies the sober philological note on the double name, that “there was nothing more ordinary amongst the Jews than for persons to have two names,” and Cambridge adds the possibility that Matthew, the gift of God, was the name taken after the call.

ii. A reception, and the company that gives offence — Luke 5:29-30

⚙ The word Luke chooses for the party is δοχή, which Ellicott and Cambridge independently insist means “a reception.” It stands in only two verses of the New Testament, this one and Luke 14:13, where Jesus commands a host who makes a δοχή to invite those who cannot repay. The guests are κατακείμενοι, reclining, which Cambridge corrects the English to say plainly: “Rather, were reclining (at table).” Reclining together is the strongest public statement of fellowship available in that culture, and it is precisely what draws the objection. Ellicott notices that Luke, describing the guests in his own voice, declines the word “sinners” and writes the “vaguer word ‘others’,” which he reads as the instinct of a Gentile evangelist; then in v. 30, quoting the objectors, Luke restores the harsh word, because, as Ellicott says, in reporting what was said by others he gives it “as it was actually spoken.” The complaint itself is ἐγόγγυζον, an imperfect of a word that imitates muttering; Ellicott again: “Better, were murmuring.” Cambridge explains the odd address to the disciples rather than the Master as nerve failure, that they had not yet learnt to break the spell of awe around him. Barnes, reading motive into the guest list, thinks it “not improbable that Matthew got them together” to bring them near to Jesus; Benson, Gill and Pulpit read the feast the same way, as Levi's own first missionary act. That is inference, and worth naming as such: Luke reports the room, not the intention.

iii. The physician's answer and the stated errand — Luke 5:31-32

⚙ The reply is a proverb and then a mission statement. Luke writes ὑγιαίνοντες, the ones in sound health, where Matthew and Mark write of the strong; Ellicott takes this as one more trace of the physician, “the use of this term instead of ‘they that are strong,’ the strict meaning of the Greek word used in the other two Gospels.” The contrasting phrase, κακῶς ἔχοντες, literally “the ones having badly,” uses an adverb the lexicon glosses as bad “physically or morally,” which is why the proverb crosses from body to soul without strain. Gill states the logic of the defence: the Pharisees, free in their own opinion from the disease of sin, “stood not in any need of him,” and so the physician is found where the sickness is. Cambridge refuses to let the concession stand unqualified, noting that in a more dangerous sense they were themselves sinners “who fancied only that they had no need of Jesus.” Then the errand: ἐλήλυθα, perfect tense, which Ellicott renders strictly as “I have not come,” with καλέσαι, the verb both for summoning and for inviting to dinner, which at this particular table is no accident. Ellicott records that the closing phrase, εἰς μετάνοιαν, is in the best manuscripts added by Luke alone, and that one manuscript, Sinaiticus, reads “the ungodly” for “sinners,” as if remembering Romans 5. Cambridge notes what Luke does not have: Matthew's version sends the objectors to learn Hosea 6:6, “I will have mercy and not sacrifice.” That citation is Matthew's, and Luke omits it.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Offered to be tested, not as a finding. Read the pericope as a single argument about need, and the grammar carries it. The seated man (present participle) is commanded to keep walking (present imperative) and ends up walking on (imperfect); the sick are defined not as the wicked but as those who have need, χρείαν; and the errand is stated in the perfect, an arrival still standing. Notice that Jesus never says the Pharisees are well. He says the well do not need a doctor. The sentence is a conditional wearing the clothes of an insult, and it leaves the door he is accused of opening standing open behind him. That is why Luke, and Luke alone, ends the saying with “into repentance”: the invitation is not an amnesty for what the guests are, it is a summons into a change of mind. Two things must therefore be held together and neither dropped. Jesus reclines at a tax farmer's table before anyone at it has repented, which is grace preceding reform; and he names repentance as the destination, which is grace not terminating in itself. Where the Church holds only the first she becomes the reception without the road; where she holds only the second she becomes the booth without the call. The house is open, says Cambridge, and any one who likes may enter it. That is a remark about Oriental architecture. It is also, we think, the shape of the evening.

Not a verse of Scripture, but our own line offered for testing: he never told them they were well, only that the well feel no need of a doctor.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The same call in three hands: Levi at the booth verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ This is the one scene the Verifier can tie by lexeme with real force. Mark 2:14 and Matthew 9:9 tell the same call, and the shared vocabulary is uncommon rather than generic: Λευΐς (G3018) occurs in only three verses of the New Testament, and τελώνιον (G5058), the tax booth, in only three. Poole records the harmonising point that the double name is ordinary Jewish practice, and Cambridge holds it “certain that Levi is the same person as the Evangelist St Matthew.” Ellicott adds the source-critical observation that Luke's agreement with Mark here is “a noticeable fact.” Note too what none of the three tellings contains: Levi's own words.

Mark 2:14 · Matthew 9:9

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3018 Λευΐς (rare, in 3 vv) and G5058 τελώνιον (rare, in 3 vv), with G190 ἀκολουθέω (in 86 vv) and G2521 κάθημαι (in 89 vv); all three references are New Testament Greek, so a verbal link is measurable, and the rarity of the two nouns makes it a real parallel rather than shared common vocabulary

A reception for those who cannot repay verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The noun Luke uses for Levi's party, δοχή (G1403), is one of the rarest in the Gospels: two verses in all the New Testament. The other is Luke 14:13, where Jesus tells a host that when he makes a δοχή he should κάλει, call or invite, the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. The same evangelist, the same rare noun, and the same verb of calling that Jesus uses of his own errand three verses later at Luke 5:32. Ellicott and Cambridge both stress the literal sense “reception.” Luke therefore uses the word twice and both times for a table that ignores the guest list respectable people would have written.

Luke 14:13

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1403 δοχή (very rare, in 2 vv, which is the whole New Testament occurrence of the word) and G2564 καλέω (in 140 vv); both references are Luke, so the verbal link is within one author's Greek

Is there no physician there? The prophets' unhealed wound structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ When Jesus calls himself, by implication, the ἰατρός (G2395, a rare noun standing in seven verses), he steps into a field of prophetic complaint. Jeremiah cries over the wound of the daughter of his people and asks whether there is no balm in Gilead and no physician there, the question being rhetorical and the answer bitter. Ezekiel indicts the shepherds of Israel who have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured, and then announces that the Lord himself will do what they would not. The Gospel scene answers both: the physician is present, and he is found among the sick rather than among those who felt no need of him. No commentator in this brief draws the line; the link is our own, and it rests on shared image and prophetic role, not on shared words.

Jeremiah 8:22 · Ezekiel 34:4 · Ezekiel 34:16

basis: Cross-Testament, Greek to Hebrew, so no shared Strong's number is possible and no verbal tier is available; the basis is a shared figure and role, the physician who must be sought where sickness is, and the Lord who heals what the shepherds neglected. Luke makes no citation here and none is claimed

No pleasure in the death of the wicked: the call to turn and live structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners into repentance” is, on Ellicott's report of the manuscripts, Luke's own ending to the saying. That ending puts the verse alongside the clearest Old Testament statements of the divine preference. Ezekiel twice denies that God takes pleasure in the death of the wicked and commands him to turn and live; Isaiah calls the wicked to forsake his way and return for abundant pardon; the Psalm of the great penitent names the sacrifice God will not despise as a broken and contrite heart, which is what μετάνοια (G3341, compunction for guilt including reformation) describes from the inside. Gill presses the further point, his own doctrine rather than the text's statement, that the Lord who calls to the duty also gives the grace of it.

Ezekiel 18:23 · Ezekiel 18:32 · Isaiah 55:7 · Psalm 51:17

basis: Cross-Testament, Greek to Hebrew, so shared Strong's numbers cannot be computed and a verbal tier is excluded; the basis is a shared theological pattern, God's stated preference for the sinner's turning over the sinner's death, met by a saying whose stated goal is repentance. Luke quotes none of these texts

The seat of mockers, and the seat he took instead typological

⚙ The first Psalm blesses the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. At Levi's house Jesus does not merely sit with ἁμαρτωλῶν, he reclines (κατακείμενοι, G2621) at table with them, which is the posture of settled fellowship. The Pharisees, whose party name the lexicon glosses as “a separatist,” are reading the Psalm the way separation reads it, and they are not being absurd. The Gospel answer is not that the Psalm is wrong but that the physician's presence among the sick is a different act from the scoffer's seat, and Luke leaves the two readings of one text facing each other. This is our reading; no commentator in the brief makes the connection.

Psalm 1:1

basis: Cross-Testament, Greek to Hebrew, so no shared lexeme basis exists and no verbal tier is possible; offered as a figural reading in which the Gospel scene deliberately occupies the posture the Psalm warns against and redefines it. Marked novel: it is our synthesis, not an ancient or widely-held identification, and the Psalm is not quoted in Luke

Elisha at the plough: leaving all and following typological

⚙ Elijah casts his mantle on Elisha at the plough; Elisha leaves the oxen, runs after him, slaughters the yoke, boils their flesh with the implements, gives it to the people, and rises and follows. Luke's report of Levi is the same sequence compressed to three verbs: he stood up, he left behind all things, he was following him. The pattern of a call at the workplace, a destruction of the means of return, a farewell meal, and the departure is the same in both, and the feast in each case is made from what the called man is giving up. Cambridge supplies the evidence that Levi had something to give up. The parallel is one of shape, not of words.

1 Kings 19:19 · 1 Kings 19:21

basis: Cross-Testament, Greek to Hebrew, so no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed and a verbal tier is excluded; the basis is a shared narrative shape, call at work, renunciation of the trade, a meal, then following. Attested widely in Christian reading of prophetic call narratives, but Luke makes no citation and none of the commentators in this brief draws the parallel

“I desire mercy, not sacrifice”: the quotation this passage does not contain flagged: verify source

⚙ Flagged deliberately, by its absence. Cambridge, commenting on Luke 5:32, reports that Jesus “further rebuked their haughty and pitiless exclusiveness” by bidding them go and learn the meaning of Hosea 6:6, and refers the reader to Matthew 9:13 and Matthew 12:7. That is accurate as a report of Matthew. It is not in Luke. Luke's version of the reply ends with “into repentance” and contains no Old Testament citation at all. Anyone who preaches Hosea 6:6 from this Lukan passage is preaching Matthew's text through Luke's, and should say so; Poole makes exactly this qualification, noting that “only Matthew adds” the mercy and sacrifice saying. We record the link because it is theologically apt and because commentators reach for it here, and we flag it because the provenance is the parallel Gospel, not this one.

Hosea 6:6 · Matthew 9:13

basis: Provenance disputed by location: the Hosea 6:6 citation belongs to Matthew 9:13 and Matthew 12:7, not to Luke 5:27-32, which contains no formal Old Testament quotation. Cambridge and Poole both attribute it explicitly to Matthew. Cross-Testament in any case, Greek to Hebrew, so no shared Strong's basis is computable and no verbal tier would be available even in Matthew's setting

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Physician who is found among the sick ancient/widely-held

⚙ Jesus answers a charge about company by changing the category from purity to medicine. The rare noun ἰατρός (G2395, in seven verses) makes his presence at that table not a lapse but a house call. Gill states the classical reading: the Scribes and Pharisees, free in their own opinion from the disease of sin, “stood not in any need of him, the physician, who came to cure the maladies of the souls, as well as of the bodies of men.” Cambridge sharpens it in the other direction, that they were sinners “who fancied only that they had no need of Jesus,” and sends the reader to the church that called itself rich and needed eye salve. Behind the proverb stands the Lord who in Ezekiel promises to bind up the injured and strengthen the weak because the shepherds would not, and Jeremiah's unanswered question about a physician in Gilead. This physician reading is ancient and widely held; Gill, Cambridge, Pulpit and Benson all take it, and Pulpit records its long reception as the charter of Christian care for the outcast.

Luke 5:31 · Ezekiel 34:16 · Jeremiah 8:22 · Revelation 3:17

The call that does what it says ancient/widely-held

⚙ Two Greek words, Ἀκολούθει μοι, and a tax farmer leaves a revenue contract he cannot recover. Luke gives no deliberation, no negotiation, no reported speech from Levi: only an aorist of standing, an aorist of leaving, and an imperfect of following. Gill reads the sequence as effectual calling, “such power went along with the words of Christ, that he could not withstand it,” and Henry as sheer grace, “a wonder of Christ's grace, that he would call a publican to be his disciple and follower.” We should mark the honest limit: Luke narrates the obedience and says nothing about the inner mechanism, so the doctrine of an irresistible call is the commentators' inference and not the evangelist's statement. What the text does claim is that the summons and the obedience share one verb, ἀκολουθέω, in the imperative and then in the indicative, and that the word of Christ is answered by the fact of Christ's word. The reading that Christ's call creates its own obedience is ancient and widely held.

Luke 5:27 · Luke 5:28 · Luke 5:11

The reception at the wrong house, and the feast at the end novel

⚙ Luke chooses δοχή (G1403), a reception, for the meal at Levi's house, and uses the word only once more, at Luke 14:13, where the host is told to invite those who cannot repay, immediately before the parable of the banquet whose invited guests refuse and whose room is filled from the streets. Three verses after the reception in this unit, Jesus says he has come καλέσαι, to call or to invite, sinners. Read forward, the evening at the tax booth keeper's house is a small enacted preview of the table Isaiah promises on the mountain for all peoples, and of Wisdom's house where the simple are summoned from the high places of the town. Geneva says the whole thing in a line: the Church is a company of sinners repentant through the grace of Christ, who banquet with him to the great offence of the proud. We mark the specific typological step from this reception to the eschatological feast as novel in the sense that no commentator in this brief takes it; the general reading of the messianic banquet is of course ancient, and the verbal link between Luke 5:29 and Luke 14:13 is the Verifier's, not ours.

Luke 5:29 · Luke 14:13 · Isaiah 25:6 · Proverbs 9:5

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: the Greek is the Berean interlinear with Strong's numbering; the English quoted for comparison is the BSB. Two variants in this unit are reported by the commentators themselves. At v. 30 Pulpit and Cambridge both note that many older authorities omit αὐτῶν, “their,” before “scribes,” and that the better reading is probably “the Pharisees and the scribes among them”; Cambridge also records that the definite article before “publicans and sinners” stands in nearly all the uncials. At v. 32 Ellicott reports that “into repentance” is, in the best manuscripts, added by Luke alone, and that Sinaiticus reads “the ungodly” for “sinners,” which he suggests is a recollection of Romans 5:6-7. Our interlinear text carries the majority readings in both places.

Sources: four of the ten commentators in this brief say almost nothing about Luke's text. Barnes writes only “See the notes at Matthew 9:9-13,” JFB only a cross-reference plus one remark on “their scribes,” Poole refers the reader to his notes on Matthew 9 and Mark 2, and Henry's entry is a single block covering Luke 5:27-39 which is repeated identically under every verse in the brief. The Geneva entries for vv. 28 to 32 are the verse text with no gloss attached; the one substantive Geneva note in this unit stands at v. 27. The weight of verse-level comment here therefore rests on Ellicott, Cambridge, Gill, Pulpit and Benson, and our voice selection reflects that unevenness rather than a judgement about the commentators.

Uncertain: whether Levi and Matthew are the same man is held as certain by Cambridge and Pulpit and treated as settled by Poole and Gill, but the identification rests on tradition and on the double name rather than on any statement in Luke. Cambridge's further speculation, that Alphaeus may be Clopas and that Matthew and Jesus were therefore cousins, he himself calls uncertain, and we do not build on it. Levi's motive for the feast, read by Barnes, Benson, Gill and Pulpit as an evangelistic effort toward his colleagues, is inference: Luke reports the guest list, not the intention. Whether δικαίους at v. 32 is straight or ironic divides the commentators, Benson against the ironic reading and Cambridge for a double sense, and the Greek supplies no marker.

What this unit does not contain: any formal Old Testament quotation. Every Old Testament thread above is therefore tiered structural or typological, and the Hosea 6:6 link, which several traditions attach to this scene, is flagged because it belongs to Matthew's parallel and not to Luke.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)