ZACCHAEUS THE PUBLICAN Before approaching Jerusalem in His last
trip to it, Jesus entered and passed through Jericho, where He
was surrounded by "an innumerable multitude of people" (Luke
12:1). Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a
chief tax collector, and he was rich. And he sought to see who
Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of
short stature [Luke 19:2-3]. Publicans were tax collectors, who
worked for the Roman administration. In every region, tax
collectors were grouped in gangs, and every gang had a chief who
pledged to pay Rome the fixed tax of the entire region, and who
distributed the responsibilities upon his assistants. The fixed
sum [tax], was then collected from individuals, in a way that,
many (or all) the citizens were defrauded. The difference
between, what the publican collected and between what he was due
to pay to the government, went to his private pocket. This
'acumen' of theft, was a common matter in Palestine, in a sense
that — the word publican —