Scripture · Luke 7:12-15
Luke 5:27-32
The Feast in the House of Levi
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me,” He told him, and Levi got up, left everything, and followed Him. Then Levi hosted a great banquet for Jesus at his house. A large crowd of tax collectors was there, along with others who were eating with them. But the Pharisees and their scribes complained to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
A jester carries a parrot, armed men linger by the stairs, and a dog sits before the table. These extra guests helped bring Veronese before the Venetian Inquisition over a painting originally made as a Last Supper.
About the artwork
On 18 July 1573, the tribunal questioned Veronese about the armed men dressed as Germans, a servant with a bloody nose, and the jester with his parrot. The surviving transcript makes the objection precise: were such figures appropriate around Christ’s last meal with his disciples? Veronese defended the additions as the sort of servants and ornament a great house could contain, and claimed a painter’s imaginative freedom.
The canvas was made for the dining room of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. Its immense architecture surrounds Christ with the bustle of a wealthy household. After the hearing, the painting acquired its identification with Levi’s feast in Luke 5. Knowing its earlier subject explains why the crowd feels so extravagant: the people at the edges were already part of Veronese’s conception, before the new biblical label gave them a different setting.
Featured in: Luke 5 in Art: The Catch, the Roof, the Tax Booth, and the Verses Worth Remembering
What does Luke 5:27-32 mean?
Luke 5:27–32 follows Levi’s call with a great banquet in his house. Tax collectors and others share the meal with Jesus. The gathering provokes a complaint from Pharisees and their scribes about eating with sinners. Jesus answers with the image of a physician needed by the sick, and says that he has come to call sinners to repentance.
Reading the passage beside the painting’s history creates a revealing comparison. The tribunal disputed who belonged in a sacred picture; Luke’s critics disputed the company Jesus kept at a meal. These are different controversies, and the comparison is not evidence of Veronese’s intention. It does, however, give the figures beyond the central table a reason to hold our attention.
Luke’s dispute over table companions gives a new resonance to a painting whose surrounding guests were themselves challenged.
Sources
Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice.
Luke 5 in Art: The Catch, the Roof, the Tax Booth, and the Verses Worth Remembering. Artwork reading adapted from this guide.
Luke 5 — Berean Standard Bible. Context for Luke 5:27-32.
Paul H. D. Kaplan — Veronese and the Inquisition, with the hearing transcript. The appendix translates the 18 July 1573 hearing, including the armed men, bloody-nosed servant, jester, and Veronese’s defense. The study discusses the changed subject.
Also from Luke:The Angel Appearing to ZachariasAnnunciation
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