Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Luke 20:20-26, Caesar's coin
Spies sent by the leaders ask Jesus whether it is right to pay tribute to Caesar, hoping to hand him over to the governor. He asks whose image is on a denarius.
Luke 20:20-26, in every translation this tool compares.
The religious leaders send agents posing as honest inquirers to trap Jesus into saying something that could be reported to the Roman governor. After flattering him, they ask whether paying taxes to Caesar is permitted. Jesus sees the trick, has them produce a coin, asks whose face and name are on it, and tells them to give Caesar his due and God his; unable to trap him before the crowd, they fall silent.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/rome-in-charge\/","n":"Rome in charge","s":"Rome ruled through client princes, local elites and governors. It kept the power to execute, and its soldiers, coins and taxes were everywhere.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/rebels-and-would-be-messiahs\/","n":"Rebels and would-be messiahs","s":"In the decades around Jesus, men rose up claiming to deliver Israel: tax rebels, leaders of armed bands, and prophets who promised signs in the wilderness. Rome treated them all as rebels.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/chief-priests-and-council\/","n":"Chief priests, elders and the council","s":"The Jerusalem aristocracy of priestly families and elders who ran the temple and the Sanhedrin and dealt with Rome.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/honor-and-shame\/","n":"Honor before a crowd","s":"Public standing was the currency of the ancient Mediterranean. People competed for honor and dreaded being shamed in front of others.","r":""}
Roman governors had few staff and depended on local leaders to bring cases to them (the cultural backgrounds notes). The question had a history. Josephus tells how at the census Judas of Gamala urged the people to resist, and founded a fourth philosophy whose followers held that "God is to be their only Ruler and Lord." Keener calls it a disastrous tax revolt two decades earlier, so a no could get Jesus arrested and a yes could cost him his following. Judea's own copper coins carried no image of the emperor, but foreign silver bearing his image and claims to divinity circulated widely, and the rebels of AD 6 had protested its use (Keener). The question concerned the poll tax paid directly to Rome, not local tolls (Strauss, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary). The denarius of Tiberius carried his image and the words "Tiberius Caesar, Augustus, son of the divine Augustus," so the questioners themselves were carrying a coin with an idolatrous image and a claim to divinity (Strauss). Strauss notes that the answer was ambiguous enough for Rome's fiercest opponents to hear it as everything belongs to God, so nothing belongs to Caesar.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Luke 20:20 and 20:26
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 20:19-21, 20:22 and 20:23-26
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 18.1.1 and 18.1.6, trans. William Whiston
- Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Luke 20:20-26, 20:20, 20:22 and 20:24
