Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ZACCHAEUS

(Gk. Zakchaíos)

1. An officer in the Maccabean army (2 Macc. 10:19).

2. The diminutive tax official who climbs a tree to catch a glimpse of the wayfaring Jesus, a story unique to Luke (Luke 19:1-10) and containing many of his important themes. The designation “chief tax collector” (Gk. architelṓnēs), a term found only here in the extant Greek literature, identifies Zacchaeus as a marginal Jew (a “sinner,” Luke 19:7), a member of the “lost” (v. 10) whom Jesus comes to save. The hospitality extended by Zacchaeus underscores the inclusive nature of Jesus’ table-fellowship practice; that the “rich” Zacchaeus (Luke 19:2) is willing to recompense his victims fourfold demonstrates a proper stance toward wealth that finds particular emphasis in the journey section of Luke’s Gospel (16:13-14, 19-31; 18:18-30). As to whether Zacchaeus is defending himself against charges of extortion or expressing resolve to right past wrongs, the present tense of the Greek verbs in Luke 19:8 permits either interpretation. In the case of the latter, the story focuses on the conversion of a “son of Abraham” (Luke 19:9) who brings forth the righteous fruits of repentance (3:8). That the entire household of Zacchaeus experiences the salvation that Jesus brings places this story squarely within the “household salvation” matrix of Luke and Acts (Acts 10:2; 11:14; 16:14-15, 31-34; 18:8) and invests the pattern with dominical significance. An unfortunate consequence of the descriptive powers of the Third Evangelist is the fact that for many readers the most notable characteristic about Zacchaeus is that he was short.

Bibliography. D. L. Bock, Luke (Grand Rapids, 1996) 2:1513-24; A. A. Just, Jr., The Ongoing Feast: Table Fellowship and Eschatology at Emmaus (Collegeville, 1993), 184-93; D. L. Matson, Household Conversion Narratives in Acts. JSNTSup 123 (Sheffield, 1996), 70-75.

David Lertis Matson

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ZACCHAEUS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)