Render Unto Caesar

I am indebted to Jeffrey F. Barr for a perspective of this well known passage found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. I have condensed his writing here. If you would like to see his full essay please go to Render Unto Caesar

Paying Taxes to Caesar
“The the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his talk. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away. – Matthew 22:15-22.

Christians have traditionally interpreted this famous passage to mean that Jesus endorsed paying taxes (keep in mind that one of God’s ‘Top 10’ rules for a just society requires governments to protect private property – 8th Commandment) But did Jesus really mean for his followers to provide financial support to Tiberius Caesar – man who in his personal life, was a pedophile, a sexual deviant, and a murder and who as emperor, claimed to be a god and oppressed many and whose armies deprived millions of the right to self determine, including Jesus’ own?

Historical Setting
First, some historical background to this scene is in order. In 6 A.D., Roman occupiers of Palestine imposed a census tax on the Jewish people. The tribute was not well received, and by 17 A.D., Tacitus reports in Book II.42 of Annals, “The provinces, too, of Syria and Judea, exhausted by their burdens, implored a reduction of tribute.” A tax-revolt, led by Judas the Galilean, soon ensued. Judas the Galilean taught that “taxation was no better than an introduction to slavery,” and he and his followers had “an inviolable attachment to liberty,” recognizing God, alone, as king and ruler of Israel.

The Romans brutally combated the uprising for decades. Two of Judas’ sons were crucified in 46 A.D., and a third was an early leader of the 66 A.D. Jewish Revolt. Thus, payment of the tribute conveniently encapsulated the deeper philosophical, political, and theological issue: Either God and His divine laws were supreme, or the Roman emperor and his pagan laws were supreme.

All three gospel writers place the scene of this passage immediately after Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem in which throngs of people proclaimed Him king. All three writers agree this scene takes place near the celebration of the Passover, one of the holiest of Jewish feast days. Passover commemorates God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.

A Plot to Trap Jesus
The questioners pose their malevolently brilliant question: “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” That is, is it biblical under the Torah to pay taxes to the Romans? If Jesus says that it is lawful to pay the tribute, He would have been seen as a collaborator with the Roman occupiers and would alienate the people who had just proclaimed Him a king. If Jesus says the tribute is illegitimate, He risked being branded a political criminal and incurring the wrath of Rome. With either answer, someone would have been likely to kill Him.
Jesus is well aware of the trap. He exposes the hostility and the hypocrisy of His interrogators and recognizes that His questioners are daring Him to enter the temporal fray of Judeo-Roman politics.

The Coin
Instead of jumping into the political discussion, though, Jesus curiously requests to see the coin of the tribute. It is not necessary that Jesus possess the coin to answer the question. He could have easily responded without seeing the coin. But, His request to see the coin suggests that there is something meaningful about the coin itself.
The denarius was truly the emperor’s property: he used it to pay his soldiers, officials, and suppliers; it bore the imperial seal; it differed from the copper coins issued by the Roman Senate, and it was also the coin with which subjected peoples, in theory, were required to pay tribute.
J. Spencer Kennard, in his book Render to God, argues that the denarius’ circulation in Judea was likely scarce. The only people to transact routinely with the denarius in Judea would have been soldiers, Roman officials, and Jewish leaders in collaboration with Rome. Thus, it is noteworthy that Jesus, Himself, does not possess the coin. The questioners’ quickness to produce the coin at Jesus’ request implies that they routinely used it, taking advantage of Roman financial largess, whereas Jesus did not. Moreover, the Tribute Episode takes place in the Temple, and by producing the coin, the questioners reveal their religious hypocrisy – they bring a potentially profane item, the coin of a pagan, into the sacred space of the Temple.

Imperial Propaganda
Kennard makes the magnificent point that coins of the ancient world were the major instrument of imperial propaganda. One side of the denarius shows a profiled bust of Tiberius crowned with the laurels of victory and divinity. Circumscribed around Tiberius, in Latin, is “Tiberius Caesar, Worshipful Son of God, Augustus”
On the opposite side of the coin sits the Roman goddess of peace, Pax, and circumscribed around her is the abbreviation, “Pontiff Maxim,” or “High Priest.” The brilliance of the Romans is obvious here. Coins excelled all other media. They went everywhere and were handled by everyone. Their subtle symbolism and propaganda pervaded every home and indoctrinated the peoples of the empire with the deity of the emperor as “the Son of God”.  Picture of Denarius

In the most richly ironic passage in the entire Bible, all three synoptic Gospels depict the Son of God and the High Priest of Peace, newly proclaimed by His people to be a King, holding a tiny silver coin of a king who claims to be the son of god and the high priest of Roman peace.

The Counter-Question
After seeing the coin, Jesus poses a counter-question. “Whose image and inscription is this?” It is noteworthy that this counter-question and its answer are not necessary to answer the original question of whether it is appropriate to pay tribute to Caesar. That Jesus asks the counter-question suggests that it and its answer are significant.

By asking a counter-question, Jesus intends to avoid a trap and draw a response that not only exposes the hypocrisy of their question but makes their position vulnerable to attack (this approach worked as well with the woman caught in adultery) thus enabling Him to refute their hostile question.

Because the hostile question was a direct challenge to Jesus’ authority as a rabbi on a point of law, His interrogators would have expected a counter question grounded in scripture, in particular, based on the Torah. Two words, “image” and “inscription,” in the counter-question harkens to two central provisions in the Torah, The First (Second) Commandment and the Shema.

God Prohibits False Images
The First (Second) Commandment prohibits worship of anyone or anything but God, and it also forbids crafting any image of a false god for adoration. God demands the exclusive allegiance of His people. Jesus’ use of the word, “image,” in the counter-question reminds His questioners of the First (Second) Commandment’s requirement to worship God first and its corresponding prohibition against creating images of false gods.

The Shema Demands the Worship of God Alone
Jesus use of the word “inscription” alludes to the Shema. The Shema is a Jewish prayer based upon Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:13-21 and Numbers 15:37-41 and is the most important prayer a pious Jew can say. It can be translated “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God – the Lord alone.” This opening line stresses Israel’s worship of God to the exclusion of all other Gods. The Shema further requires worshipers to “inscribe” the words of the Shema in their hearts, to instruct their children in them, to bind them on their hands and foreheads, and to “inscribe” them conspicuously on their doorposts and on the gates to their cities. The words to the Shema were to be metaphorically inscribed in the hearts, minds, and souls of God’s children.

Matthew and Mark both recount Jesus quoting the Shema in the same chapter just a few verses after the Tribute Episode.

In the Tribute Episode, it is only after Jesus’ counter-question is asked and answered does He respond to the original question. Jesus tells His interrogators,

    “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God, the things that are God’s.”

This response begs the question of what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God? In the Hebrew tradition, everything rightfully belonged to God. By using the words, “image” and “inscription,” Jesus has already reminded his interrogators that God was owed exclusive allegiance and total love and worship. Similarly, everything economically belonged to God as well. For example, the physical land of Israel was God’s, as He instructed in Leviticus 25:23, “The land [of Israel] shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine, and you [the Israelites] are but aliens who have become my tenants.” In addition, the Jewish people were to dedicate the first fruits, that first portion of any harvest and the first born of any animal, to God. By giving God the first fruits, the Jewish people acknowledged that all good things came from God and that all things in turn, belonged to God. God even declares, “Mine is the silver and mine the gold.”

The emperor, on the other hand, also claimed that all people and things in the empire rightfully belonged to Rome. The denarius notified everyone who transacted with it that the emperor demanded exclusive allegiance and, at least, the pretense of worship – Tiberius claimed to be the worshipful son of god.

Mutual Exclusivity
With one straightforward question, Jesus skillfully points out that the claims of God and Caesar are mutually exclusive. If one’s faith is in God, then God is owed everything; Caesar’s claims are necessarily illegitimate, and he is therefore owed nothing. If, on the other hand, one’s faith is in Caesar, God’s claims are illegitimate, and Caesar is owed, at the very least, the coin which bears his image.

Choosing an Allegiance
Jesus counter-question simple invites his listeners to choose allegiances. No one can interpret the Tribute Episode as Jesus’ support of taxation. To the contrary, one can only understand the Tribute Episode as Jesus’ opposition to unlawful Roman taxation.

The scene of the woman caught in adultery and the Tribute Episode are similar. In both, Jesus is faced with a hostile question challenging his credibility as a Rabbi. In each, the hostile question has two answers: one answer which the audience knows is morally correct, but politically incorrect, and the other answer which the audience knows is wrong, but politically correct.

In the scene of the woman caught in adultery, no one roots for Jesus to say “Stone her!” Everyone wants to see Jesus extend the woman mercy. Likewise, in the Tribute Episode, no one hopes Jesus answers, “Pay tribute to the pagan, Roman oppressors.” The Tribute Episode, like the scene of the woman caught in adultery, has a “right” answer – it is not appropriate to pay the tribute. But Jesus cannot give this “right” answer without running afoul of the Roman government. Instead, in both Gospel accounts, Jesus gives a quick-witted, but ultimately ambiguous, response which exposes the hypocrisy of His interrogators rather than overtly answering the question posed by them. Nevertheless, in each instance, the audience can infer the right answer embedded in Jesus response.