Render unto Caesar...

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“Render unto Cæsar…” is a phrase attributed to Jesus in the synoptic gospels. Jesus gives this answer to the question of whether it is lawful for Jews to pay taxes to Cæsar.

This phrase — a sentence fragment from a larger and more ambiguous statement — has become something of an independent aphorism that expresses resignation about the inevitability of submission to authority (akin to Benjamin Franklin’s pronouncement about “death and taxes”), a belief that it is good and appropriate to submit to the State when asked, or that such demands are non-negotiable.

Context

Hostile questioners tried to trap Jesus into taking an explicit and dangerous stand on whether Jews should or should not pay taxes to the Roman occupation. At first the questioners flattered Jesus by praising his integrity, impartiality and devotion to truth. Then they asked him whether or not it is right for Jews to pay the taxes demanded by Cæsar. Jesus first called them out on their attempt to trap him, then asked one of them to produce a Roman coin that would be suitable for paying such a tax. One of them handed such a coin to him, and he held it up and asked them to tell him whose name and inscription were on it. They answered that these were Cæsar’s and he responded “Give to Cæsar what is Cæsar’s, and to God what is God’s.” His interrogators were flummoxed by this, and left without having succeeded in pinning him down.

The Pharisees and the Herodians

Main articles: Pharisees (The Roman Period) and Herodians

The accounts in Matthew and Mark say that the questioners were Pharisees and Herodians (Luke says only that they were “spies” sent by ”teachers of the law and the chief priests”).

The coin

Main articles: Denarius and Idolatry in Judaism

The inscription on this coin reads “Ti(berivs) Caesar Divi Avg(vsti) F(ilivs) Avgvstvs” or “King Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus.” This was doubly blasphemous, as Tiberius was claiming to be the son of a God, and as the coin itself was a graven image of sorts.

Although the events in the parable took place well into the reign of Tiberius, it is also possible that another coin still in circulation but featuring a different Cæsar and a different inscription would have been used in the circumstances described.

It is perhaps significant that Jesus did not have such a coin with him but that one of his questioners did.

The Cæsar

Tax resistance in Judaea

The taxes imposed on Iudaea by Rome had led to riots.Marshall, I.H. Gospel of Luke: A Commentary on the Greek Text p. 735 The Jewish Encyclopedia says, of the Zealots:

When, in the year 5, Judas of Gamala in Galilee started his organized opposition to Rome, he was joined by one of the leaders of the Pharisees, R. Zadok, a disciple of Shammai and one of the fiery patriots and popular heroes who lived to witness the tragic end of Jerusalem…. The taking of the census by Quirinus, the Roman procurator, for the purpose of taxation was regarded as a sign of Roman enslavement; and the Zealots’ call for stubborn resistance to the oppressor was responded to enthusiastically.

The themes of Jesus’s teachings

Accusations of tax resistance against Jesus

Jesus was accused of promoting tax resistance before his execution, though Pontius Pilate was reportedly skeptical of the accusation ([Luke 23:1-2]):

Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Cæsar and claims to be Christ/Messiah, a king.”

Interpretations

The gospels say that when Jesus gave his response, his interrogators “marvelled, and left him, and went their way.” They were unsuccessful in getting Jesus to unambiguously come out either in favor of paying the tribute to Rome or in favor of tax resistance. Advocates for either argument could interpret his words in either way.

Time has not resolved this ambiguity, and people continue to interpret this passage to support positions that are poles apart.

Separation of church and state

Jesus can be interpreted to be saying that his religious teachings were separate from earthly political activity. This reading finds support in John 18:36, where Jesus responds to Pontius Pilate about the nature of his kingdom, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” A certain quietistic indifference to earthly politics is one possible reading of these teachings.

Others read this passage to suggest that Jesus wanted his followers to be very careful in determining where God and Cæsar came into conflict so as to be able to discriminate appropriately between what they owe to one and to the other — the very opposite of an aloof, apolitical stand, which was exemplified by the persecuted apostles in [Acts 5], when they said, “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

Justification for obeying authority, paying taxes

see also: Christianity and politics: Be subject to ruling authorities

Some read the phrase “Render unto Cæsar that which is Cæsar’s” as unambiguous at least to the extent that it commands us to respect state authority and to pay the taxes it demands of us.

In this interpretation, Jesus asked his interrogators to produce a coin in order to demonstrate to them that by using his coinage they had already admitted the de facto rule of the emperor, and that therefore they should submit to that rule.

Giving God the benefit of the doubt

Mennonite pastor John K. Stoner spoke for those who interpret the parable as permitting or even encouraging tax resistance: “We are war tax resisters because we have discovered some doubt as to what belongs to Cæsar and what belongs to God, and have decided to give the benefit of the doubt to God.”

Devote your life to God

One interpretation of Jesus’s words was that he was making an analogy — the coin is made on the orders of the emperor and is stamped with the image of the emperor, and the emperor may call on you to give it to him in tribute; by analogy, you were made by God and in God’s image, and you must therefore devote your life in tribute to God.

This interpretation harmonizes with some of the themes Jesus returned to frequently in his teachings.

Highlighting the dangers of cooperating with the state

Some see the parable as being Jesus’s warning to people that if they collaborate too closely with godless state authority (for instance, by using its legal tender), they become beholden to it. In Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience, he writes:

Christ answered the Herodians according to their condition. “Show me the tribute-money,” said he; — and one took a penny out of his pocket; — If you use money which has the image of Cæsar on it, and which he has made current and valuable, that is, if you are men of the State, and gladly enjoy the advantages of Cæsar’s government, then pay him back some of his own when he demands it; “Render therefore to Cæsar that which is Cæsar’s and to God those things which are God’s” — leaving them no wiser than before as to which was which; for they did not wish to know.

Non-instructional, merely adroit

Some people consider this parable as not primarily instructional but as an example of Jesus’s skill in thinking on his feet. His questioners tried to trap him between the horns of a dangerous either/or question, and he deftly gave an answer that seemed to meet the question head-on but actually avoided taking a position.

In another incident ([Matthew 21:23-27], [Luke 20:1-8], [Mark 11:27-33]), Jesus reverses the roles — putting his critics between the horns of a dilemma when he asks “John’s baptism — was it from heaven, or from men?”:

They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.” So they answered, “We don’t know where it was from.”

Perhaps the incident with Cæsar’s coin is merely meant to highlight Jesus’s superior debate skills, not what position Jesus had on taxation or on the proper relationship of people to their conquerors.

Indifference to Wealth

This phrase can also be interpreted as Jesus saying that, since the money belongs to the government (the government made the money and thus is the real owner of it), and that the government mandates that one must pay taxes , then one should not resist and simply pay the tax, rather than be upset over having to give it up and coveting the money, since money is nothing but an earthly distraction.

Christian anarchists and tax resisters

Main articles: Christian anarchism and Tax resistance

Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker movement put it this way: “If we rendered unto God all the things that belong to God, there would be nothing left for Cæsar.” She also advocated a life of voluntary poverty by saying “the less you have of Cæsar’s, the less you have to give to Cæsar.”

Ammon Hennacy was on trial for civil disobedience and was asked by the judge to reconcile his tax resistance with Jesus’s instructions. “I told him Cæsar was getting too much around here and some one had to stand up for God.” Elsewhere, he interpreted the story in this way:

[Jesus] was asked if He believed in paying taxes to Cæsar. In those days different districts had different money and the Jews had to change their money into that of Rome, so Jesus asked, not for a Jewish coin, but for a coin with which tribute was paid, saying “Why tempt me?” Looking at the coin He asked whose image and superscription was there inscribed and was told that it was Cæsar’s. Those who tried to trick Him knew that if He said that taxes were to be paid to Cæsar He would be attacked by the mobs who hated Cæsar, and if He refused to pay taxes there would always be some traitor to turn Him in. His mission was to to fight Cæsar as Barabbas had done, but it was to chase the moneychangers out of the Temple and to establish His own Church. Whether He winked as much as to say that any good Jew knew that Cæsar did not deserve a thing as He said, “Render unto Cæsar what is Cæsar’s and unto God what is God’s,” or not, no one knows.

…Despite what anyone says each of us has to decide for himself whether to put the emphasis upon pleasing Cæsar or pleasing God. We may vary in our reasons for drawing the line here or there as to how much we render unto Cæsar. I make my decision when I remember that Christ said to the woman caught in sin, “Let him without sin first cast a stone at her.” I remember His “Forgive seventy times seven,” which means no Cæsar at all with his courts, prisons and war.

Versions

King James Version of the Bible:	[Matthew 22:15-22]	[Mark 12:13-17]	[Luke 20:20-26]
New International Version:	[Matthew 22:15-22]	[Mark 12:13-17]	[Luke 20:20-26]

The extracanonical Gospel of Thomas also has a version, which reads in the Scholar's Version[link] 100:

They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him, "The Roman emperor's people demand taxes from us." He said to them, "Give the emperor what belongs to the emperor, give God what belongs to God, and give me what is mine."

The fragmentary Egerton Gospel in the Scholar's Version translation (found in The Complete Gospels) 3:1-6 reads:

They come to him and interrogate him as a way of putting him to the test. They ask, "Teacher, Jesus, we know that you are [from God], since the things you do put you above all the prophets. Tell us, then, is it permissible to pay to rulers what is due them? Should we pay them or not?" Jesus knew what they were up to, and became indignant. Then he said to them, "Why do you pay me lip service as a teacher, but not [do] what I say? How accurately Isaiah prophesied about you when he said, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart stays far away from me; their worship of me is empty, [because they insist on teachings that are human] commandments [...]'"

See also

• Christianity and politics
• Parables of Jesus

External links

• [What belongs to God?] by Marcus Borg, Beliefnet
• [Render Unto Caesar: The Place of Politics in Modern Christianity] — a conservative American Christian viewpoint
• [The Picket Line: 16 Jan. '04] — A tax resister’s point-of-view
• [Render to All What Is Due Them: What Every Christian Needs to Know about Honoring Civil Authority and Paying Taxes, Part 2] by David G. Hagopian — advancing the argument that Jesus commanded people to pay taxes to their de facto rulers

 

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