Matthew: A Tax Collector

This town was where the apostle Matthew was a despised tax collector, perhaps sitting at one of those harbors, collecting tolls from merchant ships. The Sea of Galilee is in fact a misleading name, because it is really a large lake with no access to the Mediterranean, or any other sea. So, most of these boats Matthew collected tolls from were probably Jordan River trading boats, carrying goods from the southern tip of the Dead Sea, to the rivers origin at Mt. Hermon. He probably collected harbor dues and fishing leases from the common fishermen of Capernaum as well - those hundreds of smelly, white-sailed fishing boats didn’t get onto the water for free. K.C. Hanson writes:

“The fishers received capitalization along with fishing rights and were therefore indebted to the brokers [tax collectors]. The location of Matthew’s (or Levi’s ) toll office in Capernaum – an important fishing locale – probbably identifies him as just such a contractor of royal fishing rights.” (Palestine in the Time of Jesus, 106)

He may also have collected tolls from merchant caravans waiting for ships to come in before loading up their camels and donkeys for the the international trade route running through Capernaum, or smaller roads into the Galilee's interior. I imagine townspeople bartered some of their goods when ships came in as well, although some general store must have arranged for a lot of it. I mean, you can only barter so much raw fish – it goes bad in a day!

For more on those creatures of the water, see my entry on The Temple Tax Fish.