15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”Prior to rereading Matthew, my understanding was that this was an urging to separate the political and religious sphere. That reading isn't quite so clear, though. You can interpret this in many ways. A quick check of Wikipedia says that my confusion is shared. It lists six different categories of interpretation.
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
- Separation of Church and State
- Justification of obeying authority, paying taxes
- Giving God the benefit of the doubt (i.e. when in doubt of authority, give to God)
- Devote your life to God
- Highlighting the dangers of cooperating with the state
- Money is not for the people's benefit
I've tossed this around a bit and I don't know. Other biblical scholars, is there something else in the New Testament that is clearer?
I think the most straightforward interpretation of the passage is that Jesus is saying, "I'm not a political revolutionary." This is consistent with his statement to Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world," in John 18. It's also consistent with Paul's exhortation in Romans 13 to Christians to pay their taxes so as not to give the Romans an excuse to persecute them. The above is not to imply that there aren't any other nuances of interpretation possible.
ReplyDeleteThat follows along with the idea of a separation of church and state then. From what I've read, Augustine's 'City of God' promotes this type of separation too. Do I have that right?
DeleteI think westerntradition's comments are very insightful on this passage. As many of us read the gospels primarily as a spiritual record of Jesus's life and teachings, we often forget the very temporal and earthly geo-political tensions in the land where he lived and taught. The Jews were chafing under Roman rule, and Rome was weary of their particularly stubborn and rebellious province. The leaders of the Jews both hated and relied upon Rome for their positions. The question put to Jesus was obviously an attempt to trap him into taking a stand that would be either punishable by Roman law or Jewish custom. Jesus's answer has stood the test of time because it not only answered the question in the moment and confounded the questioners, but it also highlighted the relationship between the religious and political authorities. It was a very specific answer to a specific question in a moment of time that has remained meaningful as it also gave broad direction to the 2,000 year old debate over the relationship of church and state.
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