The story of Christianity is a story of redemption. Being a Jewish tax collector for the Roman Empire, then becoming one of the twelve apostles is quite the redemption story! Matthew (originally, Levi) was disrespected by Romans for being Jewish and hated by Jews for working for Romans. Jesus met Matthew in Capernaum, in a tax booth on the main highway. How did the tax system work in a Roman-controlled territory and why was this such an ugly job for a Jew? Let’s find out.
Matthew’s job was to collect tax on imported goods brought by farmers, merchants, and caravans. This tax was levied on his own people in the name of his Roman rulers. Under this system, Matthew probably would have paid all of the taxes to the Romans in advance, then it would have been up to him to recoup the costs from his fellow citizens. It was common for these tax collectors to generously compensate themselves for their work.
Interestingly, the Roman Empire’s approach to taxation failed for similar reasons to why the United States recedes further into debt by each passing moment. Funding an extremely large military across multiple continents proves, yet again, to be an expensive endeavor. Similar to Roman aristocrats, elites in the United States continue to take advantage of a rich-friendly tax system. The Roman Empire may not have had tens of thousands of pages of the Internal Revenue Code; however, they certainly had systems in place to allow the wealthy to have a leg up on the poorer classes in terms of taxes. History repeats itself. The Internal Revenue Service is allegedly expanding its ranks by 87,000. Ouch. Remember, Matthew was a tax agent, they’re not all bad.
MoneyManeuvering 