Why Did Zacchaeus Pay Back Four Times When The Law Only Asked For A Fifth More?

This video explains why Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector of Jericho in Luke 19, promised to restore four times as much, when the law of Moses asked a man who confessed fraud to repay the full amount plus one fifth. It works through Luke 19:1-10 in order and stops at verse 8 to read the restitution laws of the Torah beside it. Its central claim is that fourfold was not a generous round number. It is the penalty Exodus 22:1 sets for a thief who stole a sheep and killed or sold it, so that it could never be returned. It examines the Greek words architelones and sykophanteo, the Hebrew name Zakkai, and the scene in 2 Samuel 12 where David pronounces the same fourfold sentence. It traces Jesus' closing words, "to seek and to save that which was lost," back to the shepherd promise of Ezekiel 34 and forward to the lost sheep of Luke 15. Inside this video: Luke 18 sets up the scene with three episodes, the tax collector who went home justified, the rich ruler who walked away sad, and the blind man at Jericho held back by a crowd, so that Zacchaeus arrives as Luke's answer to the question "Then who can be saved?" The word architelones, chief tax collector, occurs only once in the New Testament, and Josephus describes the balsam and palm revenues of the Jericho region that made such a post profitable. The name Zacchaeus comes from the Hebrew Zakkai, from a root meaning pure or clean, a name also carried by a family of returning exiles in Ezra 2:9. In Luke 19:5 Jesus looks up, calls Zacchaeus by name, and says he must stay at his house today, while the whole crowd murmurs the same complaint recorded in Luke 15:2. Leviticus 6:5 and Numbers 5:7 require a man who confesses fraud to restore the principal and add a fifth, which is the measure the law actually set for a case like Zacchaeus' own. Exodus 22:1 and 22:4 separate a thief caught with a living animal, who pays double, from one who has already killed or sold it, who pays four sheep for a sheep. In 2 Samuel 12 David hears Nathan's account of the poor man's ewe lamb and declares that the rich man must restore it fourfold, before Nathan answers, "You are the man." The verb sykophanteo, to extort by false accusation, appears only in Luke 3:14 and Luke 19:8, once as John the Baptist's instruction at the Jordan and once as Zacchaeus' confession. Luke 19:9 calls Zacchaeus a son of Abraham, answering John's warning in Luke 3:8 and echoing the daughter of Abraham healed in Luke 13:16. Luke 19:10 uses the language of Ezekiel 34:11 and 34:16, where God promises to search for his scattered sheep himself, and connects it to the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15:4-6. Why watch to the end? The final section brings the law of the sheep thief and the promise of the shepherd together, and closes on the order of events inside the house: the welcome comes first, the repayment after. People, places and words in this video: Zacchaeus, Jericho, Josephus, Mark Antony, Cleopatra, Herod, architelones, Levi, Zakkai, Ezra, sycamore fig, the Pharisee and the tax collector, the rich ruler, the blind man of Jericho, Leviticus, Numbers, Exodus, restitution, David, Bathsheba, Uriah, Nathan, the ewe lamb, sykophanteo, John the Baptist, Jordan River, son of Abraham, daughter of Abraham, Ezekiel, the lost sheep. #Zacchaeus #BibleStudy