Biblion Bible Commentary
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Render to Caesar
Matthew 22:15-22
15 Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how they might entrap him in his talk. · WEB
A question designed to have no safe answer, met by asking whose face is on the coin.
Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how they might entrap him in his talk Matthew 22:15.
The stated purpose removes any doubt about the question's sincerity. And the delegation is an alliance of opposites — Pharisees, who hated the occupation, sent along with the Herodians, who profited from it. Two parties who agreed on nothing arrive with one question.
The flattery is laid on first Matthew 22:16, and every word of it is true, which is what makes it a trap: they are publicly committing him to answering without regard for consequences before they ask.
"Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" Matthew 22:17. The tax in question was the poll tax paid by every adult in the province, the standing symbol of subjection. Yes hands the crowd a collaborator. No hands the Herodians a charge of sedition, which is exactly the charge eventually laid before Pilate Luke 23:2.
The exchange is in the earlier account Mark 12:1–27. "Show me the tax money" Matthew 22:19 — and they produce one, which is its own small answer. The coin was in their pocket; they were using the system they were asking whether it was lawful to support.
"Whose is this image and inscription?" Matthew 22:20. The denarius carried the emperor's head and a legend naming him the son of a god. "Caesar's", they say, and the case is decided by their own word.
"Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's" Matthew 22:21.
The first half concedes the tax and concedes very little else. Coins bear an image and belong to whoever minted them; a government that provides the coinage may ask for some of it back. The second half is where the weight sits, and it is left for the hearer to complete. If what bears the image goes back to whose image it bears, then the question is what bears God's image — and every listener knew the answer from the first page of the Scriptures Genesis 1:27.
Caesar may have the coin. The man carrying it is not his.
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