Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
The temple tax
Every year free adult Jewish men across the empire paid two drachmas toward the temple in Jerusalem. After AD 70 Rome went on collecting the same sum for a pagan temple.
Families in three countries still send money home every year to keep the old church roof on. The law of Moses asked every grown man for half a shekel toward God's house. By Jesus' day that meant two drachmas a year, about two days' pay, collected from Jewish men wherever they lived and carried to Jerusalem. Paying it was a way of saying that you belonged to the temple and the land.
The tax rested on the half-shekel of Exodus 30:13-16. Free adult Jewish men all over the ancient world paid it, as a sign of solidarity with the temple and the Holy Land. In New Testament times it came to two drachmas, about two days' wages. Josephus describes the Jews of Babylonia storing the half-shekel in fortified cities until it could go up to Jerusalem, with many thousands escorting it. The income was huge. The cultural backgrounds notes say the temple authorities added gold every year to a great golden vine on the temple. The same notes read the tax as a sign that Jews abroad stayed loyal to the temple. Some Jewish sects refused to pay. Priests exempted themselves (Mishnah Sheqalim 1:3-4), which annoyed some Pharisees. Kings did not tax their own households, and tax lists often named those who were exempt. After the war, Josephus writes, Rome laid a tribute on Jews wherever they lived. It "enjoined every one of them to bring two drachmae every year into the Capitol, as they used to pay the same to the temple at Jerusalem." So in Matthew's day, Keener notes, the money kept a pagan temple in repair, and some Jews may have refused to pay on principle.
An analogy: yearly dues that members of a scattered people send to the headquarters of their faith. Paying says you belong. Then the headquarters is seized, and the occupiers keep collecting the dues for themselves.
The tax was paid by Jews everywhere as a mark of loyalty to the temple, so whether a teacher pays it, as in Matthew 17:24, says something about where he stands toward the temple. Exemption belonged to a king's own household, which is the turn Jesus gives the question. After AD 70 the same coins went to Rome.
Not voluntary dues. Members can stop paying a club. The half-shekel was commanded in the law of Moses as an offering to God's house, and after AD 70 Rome did not simply keep it but sent it to a pagan temple in the Capitol.
Why Jesus pays. Keener reads it as solidarity: any Jew loyal to Judaism paid, and Jesus is free of it because he is the hope of Judaism, yet pays. Wright writes, "Jesus didn't believe the Temple tax was proper," and reads the payment as avoiding a fight that belonged to another time and place. The ESV Study Bible says the sons are free because believers are no longer under the Old Testament law, and the CSB Study Bible says Jesus' disciples were exempt from supporting the temple.
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- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 17:24, 17:25-26 and 17:27
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 17:24, 17:25-26, 23:16 and 24:1
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Matthew 17:24 and 17:25-26
- CSB Study Bible, notes on Matthew 17:24 and 17:25-26
- N. T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part Two, comment on Matthew 17:22-27
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 18.9.1, trans. William Whiston
- Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 7.6.6, trans. William Whiston
