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Mat_9:9-10. Comp. Mar_2:13 ff. (whom Matthew follows) and Luk_5:27 ff.
Καὶ παράγων ] not: as He went farther (as is commonly supposed), but (Mat_20:30; Mar_1:16; Mar_15:21; Joh_9:1; 1Co_7:31): as He went away from where (He had cured the paralytic), and was passing by (3Ma_6:16; Polyb. v. 18. 4), the place, that is, where Matthew was. Exactly as in Mar_2:14, and in Mat_9:27 below.
Ματθ . λεγόμ .] Named Matthew (Mat_2:23, Mat_26:36, Mat_27:33), anticipation of the apostolic name.
τὸ τελώνιον ] the custom-house of the place (Poll. ix. 28). On Matthew himself and his identity with Levi (Mar_2:14; Luk_5:27), further confirmed in Constitt. Ap. viii. 22. 1, see introduction, § 1. Considering the locality, it may be assumed that Matthew already knew something of Jesus, the extraordinary Rabbi and worker of miracles in that district, and that he does not now for the first time and all of a sudden make up his mind to join the company of His disciples ( ἀκολουθεῖν ). What is here recorded is the moment of the decision (in answer to Strauss, B. Bauer). This in opposition to Paulus, who interprets thus: “Go with me into thy house!” See Strauss, II. p. 570, who, however, sweeps away everything in the shape of a historical substratum, save the fact that Jesus really had publicans among His disciples, and that probably Matthew had likewise been one of this class;—“that these men had, of course, left the seat at the custom-house to follow Jesus, yet only in the figurative sense peculiar to such modes of expression, and not literally, as the legend depicts it.”