The Call of Levi. Jesus Eats with Tax-Collectors. These two incidents are only loosely connected with each other and with what precedes. The notes of time are of the vaguest. The call of Levi, who is collecting tolls for the Tetrarch of Galilee on the highroad (p. 615), closely resembles the call of the first four disciples. There is nothing to suggest that the meal is a thanksgiving feast. In the large company of guests, some Pharisees (pp. 624, 666f.) mingle. They appear here in the gospel for the first time. The idea of holiness through separation is involved in their very name. Tax-collectors had a bad reputation in ancient society. A passage in Lucian classes them with adulterers and sycophants. The sinners seem to be people who were careless of the Law and perhaps even loose livers. It is very strange that Jesus the prophet chooses such company. Jesus meets the Pharisaic suggestion with a proverbial saying and a statement of His own aim in evangelizing. He did not avoid sinners, but sought them out: this was a new and sublime contribution to the development of religion and morality (Montefiore, i. 86).
Mark 2:15. The concluding words are taken by Swete and Wellhausen with the next verse. And there followed also scribes of the Pharisaic party. This is attractive.
Mark 2:16. Scribes of the Pharisees an unusual and awkward phrase, as, according to Well-hausen, there were no scribes of the Sadducees.
Mark 2:17. Loisy (p. 93) and J. Weiss attribute the last sentence to the evangelist, as the reference to His mission is theological, and if genuine the saying involves ironical use of Pharisaic terms. These objections are not final. Jesus was certainly conscious of a Divine mission, and may well have defined it in such terms.