Which Apostle?

[teeboy]

He fixed his scales to cheat his customers. What was his name? Is this found in Bible?

 

[aicirt]

He fixed his scales to cheat his customers. What was his name? Is this found in Bible?

St. Matthew was a tax collector and despised because of his trade. We can suppose that some did fix the scales in the favor of Herod for whom they worked. But nothing is alleged that Matthew was an actual cheat.

 

[Dorothy]

He fixed his scales to cheat his customers. What was his name? Is this found in Bible?

You may be referring to what the prophet Amos had to say, when he bluntly told the Israelites:

(Amos 8:4-6) "Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! ‘When will the new moon be over,’ you ask, ‘that we may sell our grain, and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat? We will diminish the containers for measuring, add to the weights, and fix our scales for cheating! We will buy the lowly man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!’ "

 

[teeboy]

You may be referring to what the prophet Amos had to say, when he bluntly told the Israelites:

(Amos 8:4-6) "Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! ‘When will the new moon be over,’ you ask, ‘that we may sell our grain, and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat? We will diminish the containers for measuring, add to the weights, and fix our scales for cheating! We will buy the lowly man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!’ "

So the prophecy was fullfilled under Herod.

It sounds like a collective Jewish National sin.

 

[Nita]

So the prophecy was fullfilled under Herod.

It sounds like a collective Jewish National sin.

The threatened punishment may have affected the whole Northern Kingdom of Israel, but it wouldn’t be correct to think of it as a collective National sin - not if by “collective sin” you mean one in which the whole nation consented. The words of Amos in Chapter 8 are spoken to the greedy, selfish… Israelites. The poor ones who were being cheated and oppressed were also Israelites (and perhaps some Gentiles).

 

[teeboy]

The threatened punishment may have affected the whole Northern Kingdom of Israel, but it wouldn’t be correct to think of it as a collective National sin - not if by “collective sin” you mean one in which the whole nation consented. The words of Amos in Chapter 8 are spoken to the greedy, selfish… Israelites. The poor ones who were being cheated and oppressed were also Israelites (and perhaps some Gentiles).

A form of enslavement. Just as the Egyptians did to Hebrews before Moses.

 

[Nita]

A form of enslavement. Just as the Egyptians did to Hebrews before Moses.

Perhaps, but I meant something more like what greedy Egyptians might have done to fellow Egyptians - people of their same nationality. That was why I said it wasn’t a “national sin” in the sense of all the all the Israelites - the nation - consenting and/or being perpetrators of the sin. It was fellow Israelites, people of the same nationality as the perpetrators, who were the victims were victims. I doubt the poor Israelite victims concurred with these sinful acts.

 

[patrick457]

He fixed his scales to cheat his customers. What was his name? Is this found in Bible?

There is no apostle who is explicitly described as doing such in the gospels. Matthew/Levi is the closest candidate as mentioned, albeit the gospels do not tell us whether he cheated - although the idea of tax-gatherers as cheating frauds is indeed a common one.

I suppose there is also some shades of Zacchaeus here?

And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

 

[Nita]

Judas Iscariot is the only apostle I’m aware of that Scripture specifically mentions being guilty of thievery:

John 12:4-6 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it.

 

[teeboy]

Perhaps, but I meant something more like what greedy Egyptians might have done to fellow Egyptians - people of their same nationality. That was why I said it wasn’t a “national sin” in the sense of all the all the Israelites - the nation - consenting and/or being perpetrators of the sin. It was fellow Israelites, people of the same nationality as the perpetrators, who were the victims were victims. I doubt the poor Israelite victims concurred with these sinful acts.

The national sin is their focus was trade and not God of Israel. Sin against the first commandment. Mammon. Greed was the vice which led to the act of not following first commandment.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

…
I suppose there is also some shades of Zacchaeus here?
And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Note that Zacchaeus was a tax collector like Matthew, possible even his former boss.

2 And there was a man named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector, and rich.

Luke 19:2