Matthew 22, "Render Unto Caesar", Correctly Understood

by Gregory C. Allred, PhD

The episode of the coin, where Jesus is asked whether it's right to pay tribute (tax) to Caesar, is commonly used to argue that Jesus advocated payment of taxes. The argument is typically, "Why, yes! Didn't Jesus say, 'Render unto Caesar?'" But Jesus didn't give that answer immediately; he first asked show me the coin. Evidently, the coin itself illuminated his answer, and by skipping the coin and jumping to the answer, we miss the critically important context.

Let's look at the version in Matthew chapter 22, paying attention to the details the author thought significant enough to include. (The bold emphasis is mine.)

15 Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.

16 And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.

17 Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?

Here we have Pharisees and Herodians, normally enemies, conspiring together to trap Jesus, their common enemy, who was born, lived, and died an enemy of the State. The Pharisees opposed the Roman occupation and the vassal king Herod, and represented the established religion, which in the eyes of Jews was the only legitimate State. Conversely, the Herodians sought political favor by supporting King Herod and the Romans.

Though Pharisees and Herodians were political enemies, they together approached Jesus with a clever trap, which they hoped would entangle him, by forcing him to declare in the hearing of both Jews and Herodians, whether it were lawful (under Jewish law) to pay a tax to Caesar.

Now, how could this have been a trap if the answer was simply "Yes, pay your taxes", as is so often thought by modern Christians? For if Jesus had answered afirmatively, the Jews would have turned on him; but had he said "Don't pay the tax", the Romans and Herodians would have killed him as an insurrectionist. Jesus brilliantly evaded the trap:

18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?

Now, why did Jesus call them "hypocrites"? Because they came flattering him, but there was another, more serious reason, which was the tribute money itself, as we will see:

19 Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.

Why did he ask someone to produce the coin, which was a Roman denarius? What was the point of showing the coin? The picture above shows an example of the particular type of denarius in circulation at the time (they all had similar features).

The obverse bears an image of Tiberius Caesar and a superscription:

TI(berius) CAESAR DIVI AUG(usti) F(ilius) AUGUSTUS
The Divine Caesar Augustus Tiberius son of the Divine Augustus,

while the reverse is another image of Caesar as High Priest with the superscription:

PONTIF(ex) MAXIM(us)
The Great High Priest

The graven image of the god Caesar is very obvious idolatry, and the claim that a man (Caesar) is God, the Son of God, and the Great High Priest is very obvious blasphemy. An observant Jew wouldn't even touch such a coin, let alone carry it in his pocket and readily produce it (thus the hypocrisy Jesus alluded to), and any Jew would immediately recognize the idolatry and blasphemy of the coin.

Now Jesus gets to the point:

20 And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?

Or in other words, Jesus asked, and it must have been plain to those who had ears to hear, "Whose is this idolatry and blasphemy?"

21 They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.

What is God's? Everything. What is Caesar's? The coin clearly illustrated two specific things which are Caesar’s: idolatry and blasphemy.

22 When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.

Why did they marvel at this, if it was only so simple as "pay the tax"? They marveled because Jesus had given a single answer acceptable to both the Jews and to the Romans and Herodians, though understood in different ways. The Jews understood the idolatry and blasphemy as the things of Caesar, while the Romans and Herodians thought the coin itself was the subject of "render unto Caesar".

It’s unfortunate when Christians ignore the marvelous lesson and hear only "pay the tax".