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MATTHEW 9:11 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 9:10Matt 9:12
“And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?”
And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? The Pharisees' objection is addressed to the disciples rather than to Jesus — perhaps they cannot yet bring themselves to confront him directly. The eating with tax collectors and sinners was a violation of the purity boundaries that the Pharisaic tradition maintained: table fellowship communicated acceptance and solidarity, and sharing a meal with the ritually unclean made the clean participant unclean. The Pharisees are applying the logic of clean-and-unclean consistently; Jesus is about to explain that the logic of the kingdom runs in the opposite direction.

Church Fathers on Matthew 9:11

Having wrought this miracle, Christ would not abide in the same place, lest He should rouse the envy of the Jews. Let us also do thus, not obstinately opposing those who lay in wait for us. 'And as Jesus departed thence,' (namely from the place in which He had done this miracle,) 'he saw a man sitting at the receipt of custom, Matthew by name.'

Chrysostom · 4th century · Hom., xxx

The other Evangelists from respect to Matthew have not called him by his common name, but say here, Levi, for he had both names. Matthew himself, according to that Solomon says, 'The righteous man accuses himself,' [Prov 18:17] calls himself both Matthew and Publican, to shew the readers that none need despair of salvation who turn to better things, seeing he from a Publican became an Apostle.

Jerome · 4th century

He says, 'sitting at the receipt of custom,' that is, in the place where the tolls were collected. He was named Telonarius, from a Greek word signifying taxes.

Gloss (Glossa Ordinaria) · medieval compilation · ap Anselm
Read all 31 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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Matthew 9:11 — Community Reflections | HolyStudy