Hello everyone. Welcome back to daily gospel
exegesis, which is a production from logical Bible study.
And here in this podcast, we look at the reading from Mass,
The Gospel reading and we try to pull it apart of it to see what
it meant in its original context.
So we're giving you tools to help you understand the Of God.
And in particular, in this podcast, the gospels, what does
it mean in its original context? We looking at a very famous
passage today. It's one that people know quite
well and perhaps people think they know the interpretation of
quite well. But as you'll see, there's a lot
of really interesting stuff going on underneath the text
that you may not have considered.
So let's have a look at the passage.
It is Mark chapter 12 verses 13 to 17.
The chief priests and the scribes, and the elders sent to
Jesus some Pharisees and some herodians to catch him out in
what he said. These came to him and said,
Master, we know, you are an honest man that you are not
afraid of anyone. Because a man's rank means
nothing to you and that you teach the way of God in all
honesty. Is it permissible to pay taxes
to Caesar or not? Should we pay yes or no?
Seeing through their hypocrisy. He said to them.
Why do you set this trap for me? Hand me a Denarius.
And let me see it. They handed him one and he said
whose head is this? Whose name?
Caesars. They told him, Jesus said to
them, give back to Caesar, what belongs to Caesar and to God,
what belongs to God. This reply took them completely
by surprise. So let's start by thinking about
the context, so Mark chapter 12 by now, Jesus has entered
Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He's cursed the Fig Tree and
he's cleansed the temple. And at this point, it's the last
week of Jesus life, and he's teaching in the temple.
And his authority is being questioned by the Jewish leaders
that has happened at the start of chapter 12.
And now that leads right into today's passage.
Now, it is, as I said before a really famous teaching of Jesus,
but there's more going on here than what a lot of people
realize. In fact, when I started
researching for this episode, I thought I knew what the
interpretation was but there's more going on here and in
particular, the features of the coin itself, there's some
interesting things about the coin that you may not have
considered. So, verse 13, the chief priests
the scribes, and the elders. So these are the Jewish
religious authorities in Jerusalem.
The chief priests the scribes, and the elders, basically.
The chief priests are in charge of the temple.
The scribes are in charge of guarding the law and the elders
would be sort of respected Community leaders in Jerusalem.
So we have here a group of high-ranking Jews, but in this
case, they don't come to Jesus. By now, they've already rejected
Jesus and they're trying to trap him.
So what they do this time is they send to Jesus some
Pharisees and some herodians. So the high-ranking Jews, send a
party of lower-ranking Jews to Jesus.
This is the next strategy. So who were the Pharisees, the
Pharisees of the leaders of the common Jewish people they were
in charge of it appears in teaching the law to people, they
had teaching Authority on the popular level.
If the Pharisees said something in your community, you had to
listen to them. The herodians.
We don't hear a whole lot about the herodians in the gospel, but
they are there a couple of times.
These are Jews, probably quite wealthy Jews who were supporters
of the Jewish King Herod. So, there's a vassal King in
this part of the world called Herod and they want to keep the
current political Roman situation because it benefits
them. Now they don't necessarily
support the Romans, but they believe having a Jewish vessel
King was better than nothing. And oh, they probably feel that
Jesus. And his followers were
threatening the current political situation, they're
worried that he might start an uprising and they don't want
that. They want it to stay, so that
there is a Jewish King on the throne, at least.
The Pharisees and the herodians actually don't like each other.
They're at opposite ends of the political Spectrum.
Usually however they join forces here against Jesus.
They both have a common goal which is to take Jesus out of
the picture. They also did that in chapter 3
as well Chapter 3 of Mark. So what we see here, begins a
series of three questions posed to Jesus by representatives of
Israel's leadership in chapter 12.
So here first, we have the Pharisees and the herodians,
giving him a question. Next in chapter 12 will say the
Sadducees, ask him a question and then the scribes will ask
him a question later in verse 28.
So lots of different Jewish groups asking him questions
here. So they send the high-ranking
juice and the Pharisees and the herodians to Jesus, to catch him
out in what he said. So, notice that, that's the
goal. They're not really interested in
what Jesus has to say. They deliberately trying to trap
him so that they can make him look foolish in front of the
crowds. So, That he'll be discredited
and the Jesus movement will stop and they can go back to having
the peace that they had before. It's interesting in that kind of
approach him like a political candidate almost, they seek to
back him into a corner. Where any answer he gives is
going to offend one group or another, they think they've
crossed crafted a very tricky plan here, that's going to trip
Jesus up, verse 14, they came to him, so probably in the temple
that's apparently where Jesus still is and they say to him
master or teacher. So it's kind of like a false
respect. They're giving him here because
they don't really see him as their master.
Master, we know you are an honest, man, that you are not
afraid of anyone. Because a man's rank means
nothing to you and you teach the way of God in all honesty.
Now, they're flattering Jesus here.
They don't actually believe this because we know that, I believe
it, because they don't follow his teachings, so they're trying
to flatter him to catch him off. Guard what they say here.
With these words, basically means something like this.
Jesus, we know you tell it like it is regardless of who the
audience is because you are a good and holy Ali teacher.
So give us a straight answer. That's sort of the feel of what
they give to him here. So when they focus on ranks
here, when they say, a man's rank means nothing to you,
they're probably thinking of themselves and the other Jewish
leaders. They know that Jesus is not
going to hesitate to tell them what he believes to be God's
will, even if it contradicts, what they them self that as the
ranking Jewish leaders, teach. They know that he's going to
tell it like it is, so it's sort of like a backhanded compliment
almost, isn't it? So here is the famous question.
They asked him, is it permissible to pay taxes to
Caesar or not? Now that's not the best
translation, the word here that our lectionary has is
permissible is in fact, lawful. And so, this is a question about
God's law the Torah, especially the first commandment.
So in Exodus chapter 20 verses 2 to 6, remember the first
commandment is, you shall love the Lord, your God And have no
other gods before you now, as will see, that seems to be the
main focus of this issue about paying taxes.
So lots of Jews at the time of Jesus, particularly the group
called The zealots, they felt the pain taxes to Caesar was
treason against God since they believe the Romans, actually had
no right to the land. Anyway, it was God's land and
probably, they felt that to pay taxes to Caesar would imply some
sort of loyalty to having Caesar as king, rather than having God
is King. And to them, that was just not
tolerable or only God is their King.
And as we'll see, there's also more to it as well.
There's some interesting things about the coin.
The coin has a Graven image of Caesar on it, and there's an
interesting Blasphemous title that is written on the coin.
So, let's talk a bit about these taxes.
What's going on with the Jews? Having to pay taxes at this
time. So, in the first century, the
Romans were in charge of Israel. They let the Jews practice their
religion, and the Jews were allowed to go about their
business, largely unrestricted. But Rome had complete political
control. So Rome, therefore required all
people in Judea, which is the southern state to pay taxes to
Caesar because they had Direct Roman control of that part of
the world where, as in Northern Galilee, where Jesus is from,
there's not that same degree of Roman control, but because they
had complete political, and in geographical control, they
required all the Jews in Judea to pay the tax.
And we'll talk a bit more about about what those taxes actually
are and the basic reason they have to pay the taxes.
So the Jews can maintain the infrastructure.
The Jews are looking after the roads in the buildings.
So it makes sense that they would, as most governments do
today, they're requiring their citizens to pay taxes so that
they can keep doing those things.
Keep in mind, Jesus does not have to pay this particular tax
because he's not a resident of Judea, he's From Galilee a lot
of people miss that. So what type of taxes?
Do the Jews have to pay? There's a few different ones.
So firstly, there's a census tax and that was imposed in a D6
when the Roman governor was installed first.
They had to pay a whole lot of taxes and they kept having to
pay those taxes. Every year the census tax, there
was also taxes on agricultural, practices, fishing practices,
and all sorts of other things. If you've seen the TV series,
The Chosen, you'll see there's a big focus on the fishing tax
that the Apostles have to pay but overall the Jews.
Sorry, the Romans tax. The Jews quite heavily.
The theory is that Jews had to pay around 30% of their income
every year in taxes to the Romans.
So it's a fair bit and actually not that dissimilar to what many
people in Western Society have to pay today.
Obviously many Jews in society saw that as too much.
It's too onerous. In fact, we've laid a loan from
Acts chapter 5, verse 37, that there had been some rebellions
when these taxes were introduced.
None of the rebellions worked, every time, the Jews, tried to
up rise against the Romans, it didn't work, but eventually this
movement of rebelling against the Romans gave birth to the
Zealot movement and that resulted in the final war
between the Jews and the Romans between AD 66 and AD 70, And so
all of this tension between the Jews and the Romans eventually
does explode. So this is the question that
they have asked him. Should we pay them?
Yes or no. So they want a straight answer
and they see it as a trap question.
They reason that no matter what answer Jesus gives He's going to
land himself in trouble because if he says yes, then many of the
Jewish people in the crowd are going to turn away from him.
And in fact, that's probably what they want.
Because if they can get people to stop following him, then it
means that they can have more attention on themselves.
Again, as the Jewish leaders, remember, the crowd around him,
largely don't like the Romans. So, if Jesus says, yes, they
have, you have to pay taxes to the Romans.
He might lose some followers on the other hand.
If Jesus says, no, he can be accused of being a political
ethical Zealot and he might have to answer to the Romans for
starting an uprising. Presumably the Pharisees and the
herodians actually had different opinions about this themselves.
Some Scholars would say the Pharisees probably didn't think
the tax should be paid, whereas the herodians did thinks the tax
should be paid, so they themselves probably had
different perspectives and that's why they throw the
question to him to see if they can trap him.
Verse 15 seeing through their hypocrisy now in this context.
So hypocrisy means to wear a mask.
And here it means that Jesus perceives that they're trying to
lay a trap for him. He can see that they're being a
bit sneaky and he perceives the Trap and he says that to them.
He says, why do you set this trap for me or more literally,
why do you put me to the test? And of course, that brings to
mind from the Old Testament. You shall not put the Lord, your
God to the test, which is what Jesus says to Satan in.
Desert. So he tells them upfront that he
knows that they're trying to trap him.
So Jesus now goes on as all good profits due to to use a visual
aid in order to help make his point.
So he says this to the Pharisees and herodians hand, me a
Denarius and let me see it. So a Denarius was a common Roman
coin that was in use at the time and it was worth about a day's
wage. It was a silver coin and we
found These coins in architecture, we have got copies
of these coins now so we know what they look like.
It had seizures image on it on the coin and at that time the
Caesar was Tiberius. And this is what the coin said,
Tiberius Caesar or gustus son of the Divine or gustus.
Now, on the back side of the coin, It Was Written, high
priest, or pontifex pontifex Maximus.
And in that culture, that with the Roman Caesar was Claiming
that the emperor was the Supreme mediated between human beings
and the gods. So this is the big blasphemy
issue that they the Jews have a problem with the emperor, Caesar
basically wanted to be worshipped.
He believed that he was the channel between the Divine
beings and human beings. So these coins, as all currency
was, Roman currency was at that time, was a way of promoting.
Roman Emperor worship interesting, isn't it?
It's an interesting. Strategy by the Romans because
basically it means that every time the Jews pay using Roman
money, they are in a way saying that they agree with this
Emperor worship. So a sneaky little strategy
there from the Romans and obviously, the Jews were not
very happy about that. So this is what Jesus asks them.
He holds up the coin and he says, whose head is this?
Whose name now more? Literally, what Jesus says, he
is whose likeness and inscription is this?
This. Now something that people miss
here is they have just brought him a Roman coin and there in
the temple. The Jewish leaders apparently a
keeping Roman coins in the temple even though it says these
Blasphemous things on there. So the fact that they allow
these Roman coins in the temple and the fact that they answered
Jesus question by saying Caesar they kind of implicitly
admitting that they recognize his authority as Emperor because
they have his coin even in the temple.
So that's an interesting thing, that a lot of people miss, So,
this is Jesus answer on to their question given that they have
responded. Yes, it's Caesars Head.
Jesus says, give back to Caesar, what belongs to Caesar.
Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.
Now many have felt that Jesus doesn't actually answer the
question here, but I don't think that's true.
I Think Jesus does go a long way here to giving at least most of
an answer. I don't think we can say op.
Jesus didn't answer the question about taxes.
I think he actually does answer the question here.
Let's think a bit about it at that time coins with a property
of the ruler who issued them, that was agreed.
Whoever issues the coin, Ahrens the coin, So when Jesus says
give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, he's basically
telling them give back Caesar his coins.
In other words, pay the tax to Rome.
That's what he's saying. He's saying that the Jews should
give to the Romans. What rightfully belongs to them,
which means he is endorsing the states right to exact tribute
paying taxes to the Romans. Jesus says, he would not
necessarily compromise their religious Integrity.
That was probably a big concern. They had many of them would have
felt that by paying the In tax, they are.
Implicitly saying that they agree with Emperor worship, but
Jesus, he says, no, that's not necessarily the case.
Jesus here. He's laying down a general
principle that does have implications for today.
What Jesus is saying is something like this political
authorities, do legitimately have authority and we should
give them. What is rightfully theirs in
service of the common? Good Now how that plays out in
different societies and what variety fully belongs to
governments. That can be disputed certainly
and it's going to look different in different time periods.
Not everything that government's claim is theirs, is really
there's, but what Jesus says here is that for the things that
are rightfully belonging to the government citizens must pay
must give to the government. That's Jesus teaching here and
then he follows it up with this phrase and to God what belongs
to God? So Jesus says, there are some
things that belong to Caesar, that's true, but Jesus then
makes a deeper point, there are things that belong to God, and
we must give those things to God.
Now, what is it that belongs to God?
Jesus doesn't tell us here, but there is a clue in the text.
Remember that Jesus? When he got the coin?
He asked them. This question whose likeness and
inscription is this? The word likeness probably would
have brought to mind the phrase in Genesis where it says, God
made Man In His Image and his likeness.
So if that's the right reasoning, if we understood that
correctly, then Jesus is saying something like this.
Human beings are, what belongs to God since we beat God's
image? The coin belongs to Caesar
because a bear sees his image, but humans belong to God because
they bear His Image. How interesting is that?
So God lays claim to our whole being mind, heart, soul, and
strength, and Jesus will actually say that in verse 30 of
this chapter, You could also say that Jesus here is addressing
the issue of religious idolatry about the coin as well.
He's basically saying paying taxes is fine but he's telling
the Jewish hearers. Don't be involved in Emperor,
worship to God, you must continue to worship.
God, you have to give God. What is his do?
Which is worship? You have to give Caesar?
What is his do? Which is money taxes?
I think this is incredibly clever by Jesus what he's done
here. Jesus is able to teach them
multiple profound things about the government about.
Out them about God or based on this little image of Caesar on
the coin which was in use. At the time, it shows the true
wisdom of Jesus and that he really is God in human form in
human flesh. So Jesus here has in effect
said, with his phrase. Something like this.
Yes, you must give to Caesar what belongs to him.
However, do not forget that, there is a higher authority that
you must give what is rightfully his to as well.
Which is, of course, so much more important.
Now, why does Jesus say this? Why does he feel the need to
bring God into it? Well, we've already looked at a
couple of reasons. Keep in mind the Jews of the
time. Possibly saw this as an either.
Or as in, if you pay taxes to the Romans, you are also
affirming their religious Authority as well, and you're
worshipping them. Maybe that's your some of the
Jews thought. Jesus, by teaching, this is
helping them separate. It out into two, separate
issues, the political issue and the religious issue.
So it's quite an important teaching that would have helped
them understand their place in the eyes of God.
And in the eyes of Rome, it's possible that he also knows the
Jewish. Leaders who were asking the
question. They themselves are not really
giving God what belongs to him at the moment.
God wants true worship which involves submission to his will
and of course, interior transformation as well.
And Jesus probably knows that his question is are not giving
God those things. So once again Jesus is through
his incredible wisdom and tactics, he's able to address
the question that they asked. But also to point his audience,
back towards the more important principle that they I've
forgotten and it finishes by saying this reply took them
completely by surprise or more literally they were amazed at
him. They didn't expect him to answer
the question at all or if they did expect him to answer it,
they thought it was going to land him in trouble.
But he answers the question in an incredible way that they
didn't expect from this point on in Mark's gospel.
We don't see any more of the Pharisees or the herodians.
But in the coming verses of chapter 12 or see some other
religious leaders question Jesus.
Instead now I want to quote here, we don't often do this in
the podcast, but today, I think it's worth looking at how might
this meaning of the text be relevant to today.
In particular, the Catholic commentary on sacred scripture
has a really good section on this particular passage.
And here's what it says, the state may lay claim to a poultry
piece of metal but God lays claim to our whole being Mind,
heart, soul, and strength. Now, obligation to the state
which is limited is subsumed Under Our obligation to God,
which is absolute. Jesus is implicitly warning.
His listeners, do not give to Caesar to the state to society,
or to any other Human Institution, what belongs, to
God alone. And to his son, you are absolute
unconditional Allegiance, and devotion.
Now I think that's an excellent quote and it shows what really
good Catholic. Scholarship can do where it
tells us how to understand the literal sense, and then how that
literal sense, legitimately applies to the principles that
we should think about in our life today.
So now let's turn our attention to the catechism.
How does the Catholic Church develop its teachings based on
this passage? Well, we get to hear a bit more
about Matthews version when we look at the catechism because it
does form a lot of our understanding about our
relationship with the state, and the relationship between the
church and the state. But there is one place where it
gets reference, which is paragraph 450, which is in the
section about Jesus as Lord from the beginning of Christian
history. The assertion of Christ's
lordship over the world and over history has implicitly
recognized that man should not submit his personal freedom, in
an absolute manner to any Earthly power.
But only to God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Caesar is not the Lord, the church believes that the key,
the center, and the purpose of the whole of man's history is to
be found in its Lord. And Master And I also want to
read out this quote, this is again from the Catholic
commentary on sacred scripture, which I found to be really
insightful and useful in preparing for this episode here,
the Catholic commentary brings together, various different
catechism paragraphs to teach us.
What do I help us understand what the church is teaching, is
about paying taxes, the principal Jesus enunciate here,
forms, part of the basis of Catholic, teaching on the
relationship of church and state are the New Testament.
Writings elaborate on. This is principal affirming,
both our duty to respect civil Authority.
Romans 13, 1, Timothy 2, Titus 3 1, Peter 2 and you're overriding
Elijah's to allegiance to God. When whenever civil Authority,
overstepped, its bounds or imposes laws.
Contrary to the moral law, Acts chapter 5 and Revelation chapter
13, the catechism articulates this balanced understanding
Those subject to Authority, should regard those in Authority
as representatives of God. Paragraph, 2238 submission to
Authority and career responsibility for the common
good. Make it morally obligatory to
pay, taxes to exercise, the right to vote, and to defend
one's country paragraph to 240. However, the citizen is obliged
in conscience, not to follow. The directives of Civil
Authorities when they are. Contrary to the demands of the
more, I'll order to the fundamental rights of persons or
the teachings of the Gospel paragraph, 22, 42, and that's
the end of that quote from the cafe commentary.
I think that does an excellent job of bringing together,
various catechism paragraphs and so I'll include that whole quote
in the show notes for you as well.
Thank you again for listening today, such a fascinating
passage. I'm sure you agree.
If you believe others would benefit from hearing these
additional aspects of Jesus teaching here about paying
taxes, then share this podcast with them so that they can
benefit from hearing it to thank you and will continue tomorrow.