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.
Matthew 22:15-22, Caesar's coin
Pharisees and Herodians ask Jesus whether it is lawful to pay the poll tax to Caesar. He asks for the coin, asks whose image is on it, and tells them to give Caesar and God what is theirs.
Matthew 22:15-22, in every translation this tool compares.
Disciples of the Pharisees and supporters of Herod team up to trap Jesus with a question about paying Rome's tax: yes would anger the people, and no would sound like treason. He asks for a coin, points out that it carries the emperor's portrait and title, and tells them to give the emperor his due and God his. They leave astonished, unable to fault him.
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- {"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":""}
Pharisees tended to be nationalists and Herodians were clients of Herod's family, so they worked together only in unusual cases; the Herodians hoped for Herodian rule in Judea and feared messianic movements that would bring tighter Roman control (Keener). The denarius bore Tiberius' image and the title son of the divine Augustus, while Judean copper coins left the image off; Jerusalemites had told Pilate they would rather die than let images of Caesar into the city (the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener). Wright puts the danger plainly: "Tell people they shouldn't pay, and you might end up on a cross." Keener notes that if the questioners objected to Roman taxes, they ought not to have been carrying the coin at all. The cultural backgrounds chart of Jewish sects describes the Zealots as opposing taxes to a pagan emperor because allegiance was due to God alone. The word for the tax, kensos, is the Roman poll tax (the Zondervan Bible Dictionary), and Wilkins cites an estimate that families paid about 49 percent of their income in Roman and Jewish taxes together.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 22:15-16, 22:17 and 22:18-22
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Matthew 22:19-20
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Matthew 22:17 and 22:19
- CSB Study Bible, note on Matthew 22:20-22
- N. T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part Two, comment on Matthew 22:15-22
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Jewish Sects
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry tribute
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Matthew 22:17
