The Fallible Study Bible

The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible

Matthew22:15–22

Paying Taxes to Caesar

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Matthew 22:15–22 — Paying Taxes to Caesar. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

15

Then the Pharisees went out and conspired to trap Jesus in His words.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote hoi Pharisaioi poreuthentes elabon symboulion hopōs pagideusōsin auton en logō

Word by word11 · parsed
ΤότεToteThenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ΦαρισαῖοιPharisaioiPhariseesG5330
√ Φαρισαῖος — a separatist, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
Φαρισαῖος: a separatist Matthew's narrative has just let them hear themselves condemned in three parables. Gill reads their exit as calculated restraint: provoked "to the last degree," they dared no violence "for fear of the people." The sect whose name means the separated ones is about to seek an alliance with the party of Herod.
πορευθέντεςporeuthenteswent outG4198
√ πορεύομαι — to traverse, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Plural
πορεύομαι: to traverse, to go Aorist participle, passive in form. The going is background; the counsel is the act.
ἔλαβονelabon[and] conspiredG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
λαμβάνω: to take, receive Here paired with the next word as a fixed idiom of deliberation. Matthew uses the same pairing at Matthew 12:14 and Mark at Mark 3:6, each time of a formal decision taken against Jesus.
συμβούλιονsymboulion. . .G4824
√ συμβούλιον — advisementNounAccusative Neuter Singular
συμβούλιον: advisement, a council A rare noun, standing in only eight verses of the New Testament. In Acts 25:12 it names a Roman governor's council of advisers; in the Gospels it names the thing the leaders convene when they have resolved to destroy Him. The word carries the air of due process laid over a settled intention.
ὅπωςhopōs. . .G3704
√ ὅπως — what(-ever) how, iConjunction
ὅπως: in order that Purpose conjunction governing the subjunctive that follows.
παγιδεύσωσινpagideusōsinto trapG3802
√ παγιδεύω — to ensnare (figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
παγιδεύω: to ensnare A hunting word, used only here in the New Testament (so Cambridge and Pulpit). Geneva's gloss is exact: "The Greek word is derived from snares which hunters lay." The subjunctive marks it as intended, not accomplished: what follows in verses 16 to 21 is a snare that never closes.
αὐτὸνauton[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
λόγῳlogōHis wordsG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounDative Masculine Singular
λόγος: something said, a word Dative singular with no possessive in the Greek. The sphere of the trap is speech itself, which is why the whole pericope turns on a single sentence and ends with His enemies having nothing to carry to Pilate (Pulpit notes they later lay the charge anyway, at Luke 23:2).
16

They sent their disciples to Him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that You are honest and that You teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You seek favor from no one, because You pay no attention to external appearance.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai apostellousin autōn tous mathētas autō meta tōn Hērōdianōn Didaskale legontes oidamen hoti ei alēthēs kai didaskeis tēn hodon tou Theou en alētheia kai soi melei peri ou oudenos gar ou blepeis eis prosōpon anthrōpōn

Word by word35 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀποστέλλουσινapostellousinThey sentG649
√ ἀποστέλλω — set apart, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἀποστέλλω: to send forth with a commission Present indicative, used for a past event to put the reader inside the scene. The same verb carries the sending of the Son and of the Twelve; here it carries the sending of spies (Luke 20:20, cited by Poole and Pulpit).
αὐτῶνautōntheirG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
μαθητὰςmathētasdisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounAccusative Masculine Plural
μαθητής: a learner, disciple Not Jesus's disciples but theirs. Pulpit suggests students of the rabbinic schools, "like Paul, 'brought up at the feet of Gamaliel'"; Gill supposes the most artful were selected, and young enough to pass for sincere.
αὐτῷautōto HimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
μετὰmetaalong withG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
τῶνtōntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
ἩρῳδιανῶνHērōdianōnHerodiansG2265
√ Ἡρωδιανοί — Herodians, iNounGenitive Masculine Plural
Ἡρωδιανοί: Herodians A Latin-formed party name (Ellicott compares Mariani, Pompeiani, Christiani), standing in only three verses of the New Testament. The sources genuinely disagree about them: Ellicott lays out two opposed theories, Gill catalogues half a dozen and demolishes several, Poole concludes that their principles are "not so plain, nor of much concern to us to know." What all agree on is the coalition: Pharisees who resented Rome joining the party that lived by Rome's favor.
ΔιδάσκαλεDidaskaleTeacherG1320
√ διδάσκαλος — an instructor (genitive case or specially)NounVocative Masculine Singular
διδάσκαλος: an instructor Vocative, the Greek equivalent of Rabbi. Pulpit's phrase for it is exact: they own Him as a teacher "for the nonce," and compares Nicodemus at John 3:2, who said almost these words in sincerity.
λέγοντεςlegontesthey saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
οἴδαμενoidamenwe knowG1492
√ εἴδω — used only in certain past tenses, the others being borrowed from the equivalent G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι) and G3708 (ὁράω)VerbPerfect Indicative Active1st Person Plural
εἴδω: to know by seeing Perfect tense: a settled, completed knowing, "we have come to know and so we know." The strongest possible form of a claim they do not mean. Henry's verdict stands over the whole verse: "What they said of Christ was right; whether they knew it or not, blessed be God we know it."
ὅτιhotithatG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
εἶeiYou areG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
ἀληθὴςalēthēshonestG227
√ ἀληθής — true (as not concealing)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἀληθής: true, not concealing The adjective of transparency rather than of mere accuracy; the lexicon defines it as true in the sense of not concealing. The flatterers use the adjective here and the noun ἀλήθεια a few words later, so the compliment covers both what He is and the medium in which He teaches, and the trap needs both halves: only a man who will not trim his answer can be counted on to answer at all. Ellicott takes the praise as unintended testimony from hostile lips to His truthfulness and fearlessness, and the narrative bears them out in a way they did not intend, since the answer He gives conceals nothing and still cannot be used against Him.
καὶkaiand [that]G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
διδάσκειςdidaskeisYou teachG1321
√ διδάσκω — to teach (in the same broad application)VerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ὁδὸνhodonwayG3598
√ ὁδός — a roadNounAccusative Feminine Singular
ὁδός: a road, a way "The way of God" is Old Testament vocabulary before it is Christian: Pulpit cites Genesis 18:19, Deuteronomy 10:12, Psalm 18:21. Matthew's readers will hear it again as the name of the thing John the Baptist prepared and of the manner of life the Messiah teaches.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἐνenin accordance withG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ἀληθείᾳalētheiathe truthG225
√ ἀλήθεια — truthNounDative Feminine Singular
ἀλήθεια: truth Dative, "in truth," which Geneva glosses "Truly and sincerely." The irony is structural: they name truth as the medium of His teaching while using speech as a snare.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
σοιsoiYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Singular
μέλειmeleiseek favorG3199
√ μέλω — to be of interest to, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
μέλω: to be of interest to Impersonal verb with the dative. "It is no concern to you about anyone."
περὶperifromG4012
√ περί — properly, through (all over), iPreposition
οὐouvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
οὐδενόςoudenosno oneG3762
√ οὐδείς — not even one (man, woman or thing), iAdjectiveGenitive Masculine Singular
γὰρgarbecauseG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
οὐouvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
οὐ: the absolute negative Negates the verb that follows, not the noun; the denial is of a way of looking.
βλέπειςblepeisYou pay no attentionG991
√ βλέπω — to look at (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
πρόσωπονprosōponexternal appearanceG4383
√ πρόσωπον — the front (as being towards view), iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
πρόσωπον: the front, the face The key word of the flattery and, unknown to the flatterers, a divine attribute they have just confessed. To regard the face is the Bible's standing phrase for partiality, and the God who does not regard it is the God of Deuteronomy 10:17 and 2 Chronicles 19:7; the man who does not regard it is the judge Israel was commanded to be in Leviticus 19:15. Barnes gathers the chain and states the rule: in Scripture this phrase "is in the Bible uniformly used to denote partiality."
ἀνθρώπωνanthrōpōn. . .G444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounGenitive Masculine Plural
17

So tell us what You think: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

oun eipon hēmin ti soi dokei exestin dounai kēnson Kaisari ē ou

Word by word12 · parsed
οὖνounSoG3767
√ οὖν — (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordinglyConjunction
εἰπὸνeipontellG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ἔπω: to speak, to say Aorist imperative singular: "tell us," a command dressed as deference.
ἡμῖνhēminusG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Plural
τίtiwhatG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Neuter Singular
σοιsoiYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Singular
δοκεῖdokeithinkG1380
√ δοκέω — compare the base of G1166 (δεικνύω)) of the same meaningVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
δοκέω: to think, to seem Impersonal with the dative. They are asking for a ruling, and a ruling can be reported.
ἔξεστινexestinIs it lawfulG1832
√ ἔξεστι — so also neuter present participle of the same (with or without some form of G1510 (εἰμί) expressed)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἔξεστι: it is permitted The verb of lawfulness, which frames a political question as a question of divine law. This is the hinge of the trap: an ordinary tax becomes a test of loyalty to God's kingship over Israel.
δοῦναιdounaito payG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbAorist Infinitive Active
δίδωμι: to give Aorist infinitive. Neutral in itself, and deliberately so; the theological weight arrives only when Jesus replaces it with the compound in verse 21.
κῆνσονkēnsontaxesG2778
√ κῆνσος — properly, an enrollment ("census"), iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
κῆνσος: an enrollment, a poll tax A Latin loanword for the direct personal tax. Ellicott records that the zealous felt it a deeper humiliation than customs duties precisely because it was levied on the person, and that resistance to it was live memory (Acts 5:37, Judas of Galilee). Cambridge adds the scriptural pretext claimed for that resistance, Deuteronomy 17:15.
ΚαίσαριKaisarito CaesarG2541
√ Καῖσαρ — Cæsar, a title of the Roman emperorNounDative Masculine Singular
Καῖσαρ: Caesar, the imperial title Barnes names the man behind the title: "The 'Caesar' who reigned at this time was Tiberius," and does not spare him. The coin about to be produced will bear that head and, on Pulpit's reading of the legend, the claim to be son of the divine Augustus and chief priest.
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
οὔounotG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
οὐ: the absolute negative Closing the disjunction: yes or no, and nothing else. A forced dilemma is part of the snare.
18

But Jesus knew their evil intent and said, “You hypocrites, why are you testing Me?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de ho Iēsous Gnous autōn tēn ponērian eipen hypokritai Ti peirazete me

Word by word12 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ΓνοὺςGnousknewG1097
√ γινώσκω — to "know" (absolutely) in a great variety of applications and with many implications (as follow, with others not thus clearly expressed)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
γινώσκω: to know Aorist participle. Not deduction from their faces but knowledge of their hearts: Gill says plainly that "Christ being the omniscient God, saw the wickedness of their hearts." Henry draws the pastoral edge: "Whatever mask the hypocrite puts on, our Lord Jesus sees through it."
αὐτῶνautōntheirG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
πονηρίανponērianevil intentG4189
√ πονηρία — depravity, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
πονηρία: depravity, malice A rare noun (seven verses). Luke sets it beside Pharisaic religion in Luke 11:39 and Paul beside the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth in 1 Corinthians 5:8, both links the Verifier records. Matthew places it in the mouth of the one man competent to name it.
εἶπενeipen[and] saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ὑποκριταίhypokritaiYou hypocritesG5273
√ ὑποκριτής — an actor under an assumed character (stage-player), iNounVocative Masculine Plural
ὑποκριτής: a stage-player, an actor Vocative of direct address, and the single word that ends the pretence. Between verse 16 and verse 18 the scene reverses: the men who came to examine the teacher are addressed by their real names.
ΤίTiwhyG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
πειράζετεpeirazeteare you testingG3985
√ πειράζω — to test (objectively), iVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
πειράζω: to test, to tempt Present indicative, the verb of the wilderness. The word quietly places the delegation on the same side of the contest as the tempter, which is a harsher verdict than anything in their question deserved on its face and a just one once their design is known.
μεmeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
19

Show Me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought Him a denarius.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

epideixate moi to nomisma tou kēnsou de Hoi prosēnenkan autō dēnarion

Word by word11 · parsed
ἐπιδείξατέepideixateShowG1925
√ ἐπιδείκνυμι — to exhibit (physically or mentally)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
ἐπιδείκνυμι: to exhibit, to display Aorist imperative plural, a rare verb (seven verses). The command reverses the interrogation: the examiners are now asked to produce evidence, and the evidence will convict them. Pulpit: "he makes their own action supply the verdict which they demanded."
μοιmoiMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
νόμισμαnomismacoinG3546
√ νόμισμα — what is reckoned as of value (after the Latin numisma), iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
νόμισμα: legally current money A word built on nomos, law. Jesus does not ask for a coin but for the coin that the law of the land reckons as value, which is precisely the object whose existence settles the question.
τοῦtouused forG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
κήνσουkēnsouthe taxG2778
√ κῆνσος — properly, an enrollment ("census"), iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
κῆνσος: the poll tax Repeated from verse 17, now in the genitive and attached to a physical object. The abstract question of lawfulness has become a piece of silver in somebody's hand.
δὲdeAndG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΟἱHoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
προσήνεγκανprosēnenkanthey broughtG4374
√ προσφέρω — to bear towards, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
προσφέρω: to bear toward, to present The verb of bringing an offering forward. They present the emperor's coin to Jesus with the readiness of men who had it about them, which is Barnes's whole argument for their hypocrisy.
αὐτῷautōHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
δηνάριονdēnariona denariusG1220
√ δηνάριον — a denarius (or ten asses)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
δηνάριον: a denarius A day's wage, and Roman. Cambridge records that Jewish coins were not struck with the likeness of their kings, so the object produced is already a confession of whose realm this is.
20

“Whose image is this,” He asked, “and whose inscription?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tinos hē eikōn hautē Kai legei autois kai hē epigraphē

Word by word10 · parsed
ΤίνοςTinosWhoseG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounGenitive Masculine Singular
τίς: who, which, what Genitive of possession, first word in the clause. Everything hangs on it.
ἡhēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
εἰκὼνeikōnimageG1504
√ εἰκών — a likeness, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
εἰκών: a likeness, an image The stamped likeness of Tiberius. Ellicott describes the object: a silver denarius "bearing on the face the head of the emperor," with his name and titles running round it. Gill's contribution is the negative evidence from rabbinic sources: Jewish coinage carried inscriptions but not human forms, "for it is forbidden to make the form of a man." The word itself will carry the whole weight of the Christ reading below.
αὕτηhautē[is] thisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Feminine Singular
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λέγειlegeiHe askedG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
λέγω: to say Historic present, holding the coin up in the reader's view.
αὐτοῖςautois. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἡhēwhoseG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
ἐπιγραφήepigraphēinscriptionG1923
√ ἐπιγραφή — an inscriptionNounNominative Feminine Singular
ἐπιγραφή: an inscription One of only five occurrences in the New Testament. Pulpit transcribes what the legend of a Tiberian denarius said: the emperor named as Caesar, son of the divine Augustus, and on the reverse Pontifex Maximus, chief priest. If that reading of the coin is right, the object in Jesus's hand claimed divine parentage and priesthood for the man whose tax was in dispute, and the men holding it had brought it into the temple.
21

“Caesar’s,” they answered. So Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kaisaros Legousin autō oun Tote legei autois Apodote Kaisari ta Kaisaros kai tō Theō ta tou Theou

Word by word17 · parsed
ΚαίσαροςKaisarosCaesar’sG2541
√ Καῖσαρ — Cæsar, a title of the Roman emperorNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Καῖσαρ: Caesar Their one-word answer, and the only word they needed to lose the argument. Gill records the rabbinic maxim of currency: a king whose coin is current in a country is confessed by that country as lord.
ΛέγουσινLegousinthey answeredG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
αὐτῷautō. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
οὖνounSoG3767
√ οὖν — (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordinglyConjunction
ΤότεToteG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
λέγειlegei[Jesus] toldG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῖςautoisthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἈπόδοτεApodoteGiveG591
√ ἀποδίδωμι — to give away, iVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
ἀποδίδωμι: to give back, to pay what is due Aorist imperative plural, the decisive word of the pericope. The prefix converts payment into restitution: nothing is being surrendered that was not already owed, and nothing owed to God is touched by paying it. Paul uses the same verb for the same subject in Romans 13:7, which the Verifier confirms as a shared lexeme (G591, forty six verses), and Cambridge notes that Paul is expanding precisely this principle.
ΚαίσαριKaisarito CaesarG2541
√ Καῖσαρ — Cæsar, a title of the Roman emperorNounDative Masculine Singular
τὰtawhat [is]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
ὁ: the (substantivizing article) Neuter plural article used alone for "the things belonging to." Compact and unspecified on purpose.
ΚαίσαροςKaisarosCaesar’sG2541
√ Καῖσαρ — Cæsar, a title of the Roman emperorNounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ΘεῷTheōto GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounDative Masculine Singular
θεός: God Dative, balancing Caesar. The sentence does not divide life into a secular and a sacred half; it names two creditors, of whom one made the other. Henry reads the answer as neither political endorsement nor rebellion: Christ "did not interpose as a judge in matters of this nature, for his kingdom is not of this world, but he enjoins peaceable subjection to the powers that be."
τὰtawhat [is]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouGod’sG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
θεός: God (genitive) Barnes offers two readings of "the things that are God's": the temple tribute, so that paying Rome does not cancel it, or else "their hearts, lives, property, and influence all to God, as his due." The second is the harder demand and the one the flatterers had not come to hear.
22

And when they heard this, they were amazed. So they left Him and went away.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai akousantes ethaumasan kai aphentes auton apēlthan

Word by word7 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀκούσαντεςakousanteswhen they heard [this]G191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἀκούω: to hear Aorist participle, circumstantial. In Matthew, hearing is the faculty that divides the crowd; here it produces wonder and no more.
ἐθαύμασανethaumasanthey were amazedG2296
√ θαυμάζω — to wonderVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
θαυμάζω: to wonder, to marvel The verb of arrested astonishment. Matthew uses it of crowds throughout; used of enemies it is a verdict on them, not a step toward faith. Pulpit notes how little the wonder changed: some of these same men later charged Him before Pilate with forbidding the tax (Luke 23:2).
καὶkaiSoG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀφέντεςaphentesthey leftG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἀφίημι: to send away, to let go, to forgive The one word in the verse with a theological second life: this is the verb Matthew uses for releasing a debt and for forgiving sins, the root standing behind the petition about debts in Matthew 6:12. In a pericope whose central command is to pay back what is owed, the narrator spends the vocabulary of release on the debtors walking away from the only one who could discharge their debt. They let Him go; nothing lets them go.
αὐτὸνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἀπῆλθανapēlthan[and] went awayG565
√ ἀπέρχομαι — to go off (iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἀπέρχομαι: to go off, to depart The main verb, closing the frame opened by the departure in verse 15. They went out to take counsel and they go away having gained nothing, which is Poole's summary: "having played their game and got nothing."

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The council and the snare — 22:15

Matthew opens with a departure and a committee. The Pharisees, having heard themselves described in three parables, go out and ἔλαβον συμβούλιον, take counsel, a rare noun that in the Gospels almost always names a formal decision to destroy Jesus. Gill fills in the motive with unusual care: they were provoked "to the last degree" yet "durst they not use any violence for fear of the people," so they withdrew to a chamber; Pulpit names it the hall of the Sanhedrin. The purpose verb is παγιδεύσωσιν, and both Cambridge and Pulpit record that it appears nowhere else in the New Testament: Cambridge glosses it "as a fowler ensnares birds," Geneva that it is "derived from snares which hunters lay," Barnes adding the mechanics of leading a bird under the net before springing it. Note what Barnes also observes about the object: "in word" is singular and the possessive "his" is supplied by translators. They are not trapping something He said. They are building a net for something He has not yet said.

ii. An impossible alliance and a true compliment — 22:16

The delegation is a scandal of political arithmetic. Pharisees who held foreign rule a blasphemy send their own students alongside Herodians who lived by Rome's favor; Pulpit's line is the best in the brief, that "hatred, like poverty, makes men acquainted with strange companions," and Benson calls the alliance "a very memorable proof of the keenness of that malice which could thus cause them to forget so deep a quarrel with each other." The commentators disagree openly about who the Herodians were: Ellicott lays out two contradictory theories and concedes the matter is "conjecture," Gill catalogues and demolishes half a dozen identifications, Poole ends with the honest shrug that their principles are "not so plain, nor of much concern to us to know." Then comes the flattery, and every word of it is true. He is ἀληθής, one who conceals nothing; He teaches the way of God in truth; He does not βλέπεις εἰς πρόσωπον ἀνθρώπων, look into the face of men. Barnes shows that last phrase is the Bible's standing idiom for partiality and gathers the chain: Leviticus 19:15, Deuteronomy 16:19, Acts 10:34, James 2:1, 1 Peter 1:17. Henry makes the right use of the irony: "What they said of Christ was right; whether they knew it or not, blessed be God we know it."

iii. The dilemma, and the mask taken off — 22:17-22:18

The question is engineered so that either answer destroys Him. Pulpit and Ellicott set out the two jaws: say yes and He loses the crowd as a traitor courting their oppressors, forfeiting any Messianic claim; say no and He is denounced to Pilate as a fomenter of sedition, which Luke 23:2 shows is the charge they eventually laid anyway. Ellicott specifies the tax: the Latin κῆνσος, a poll tax of one denarius a head, felt as a deeper humiliation than customs because it was levied on the person, and already the occasion of armed resistance under Judas of Galilee. Cambridge supplies the scriptural pretext claimed for refusal, Deuteronomy 17:15, and immediately undercuts it with history: Israel had been tributary in turn to Assyria, Babylon, Egypt and Persia. Jesus answers first not the question but the questioners. Γνοὺς stands before the verb of speech, and Barnes draws the inference: the knowledge "proves that he was omniscient," since "no more man has the power of discerning the motives of others." Gill says it flatly, that He "saw the wickedness of their hearts," and Henry gives the pastoral form: "Whatever mask the hypocrite puts on, our Lord Jesus sees through it." The one word ὑποκριταί, stage players, ends the performance.

iv. The coin as witness — 22:19-22:20

He refuses to rule and asks for an exhibit instead. Pulpit sees the strategy exactly: "he gives no decision about the matter in dispute, such as they desired. He virtually rebukes their dissimulation, and makes their own action supply the verdict which they demanded." The word He uses for the coin is νόμισμα, not ordinary money but what is legally reckoned as value. Barnes notes the currency distinction that makes the request lethal: temple dues were paid in the Jewish shekel and Rome's tax in foreign coin, so "their having that coin about them, and using it, was proof that they themselves held it lawful to pay the tribute; and their pretensions, therefore, were mere hypocrisy." Cambridge adds that Jewish coins bore no royal effigy at all. Ellicott states the conclusion the object itself pronounces: "wherever it passed current, it was a witness that the independence of the country had passed away." Then the two questions: whose εἰκών, whose ἐπιγραφή. Gill, from rabbinic sources, confirms that Jewish coinage carried writing but no human form because "it is forbidden to make the form of a man." Pulpit reads the legend of a Tiberian denarius as naming the emperor son of the divine Augustus and, on the reverse, chief priest. If Pulpit's transcription is even roughly right, the object they produced in the temple court claimed divinity and priesthood for Caesar, and they had it in their purses.

v. Give back — 22:21

They answer with one word, and the one word is the verdict. Gill and Cambridge both cite the rabbinic principle of currency, that he is king whose coin passes current, Gill quoting it from Maimonides as an agreement that "he is their Lord, and they are his servants." Now the verb. They had asked about δοῦναι, to give; He commands ἀπόδοτε, give back, pay what is owed, which Cambridge glosses "pay back as due" and Pulpit "give back, as a due." That prefix is the whole answer: the tax is not a concession wrung from God's people but a debt discharged. And in the same breath the second creditor appears, with an article the first half lacks, τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Poole states the logic: "His right and God's right are two distinct things." Ellicott, alone among these voices, sees what the saying does not do: it fixes no boundary line for particular cases, and "least of all does it sanction the identification of the claims of this or that form of ecclesiastical polity with the 'things that are God's.'" Cambridge notes Paul expanding the same principle at Romans 13:1 and following, where the Verifier confirms Paul reaching for this very verb. Benson turns the answer on each half of the delegation in turn: render to Caesar, ye Pharisees, what you already acknowledge to be his; and ye Herodians, zealous for Caesar, see that you render to God what is God's.

vi. Wonder that changes nothing — 22:22

They ἐθαύμασαν, and then they leave. Barnes: "It was so wise; it so clearly detected their wickedness and foiled their aim, that they were confounded, and retired covered with shame." Ellicott balances the ledger: the Herodians could not charge Him with forbidding the tribute, and the Pharisees heard the duty toward God "pressed as strongly as they had ever pressed it." Poole's summary is the plainest: they go away "having played their game and got nothing." But Pulpit records what the wonder was worth, that these men or their comrades later had "the effrontery to accuse Jesus of forbidding to pay tribute to Caesar." Henry draws the conclusion the whole unit exists to force: "Christ is, and will be, the wonder, not only of his friends, but of his enemies. They admire his wisdom, but will not be guided by it; his power, but will not submit to it."

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Read under Sola Scriptura and offered to be tested, this passage is not primarily about taxation. Two objects govern it: a coin bearing an image and an inscription, and a man bearing the image of God. Jesus is not dividing reality into a public sphere where Caesar rules and a private one where God does. He is applying a single principle twice: what carries a likeness returns to the one whose likeness it carries. The silver bears Tiberius, so let the silver go to Tiberius, and the loss is nothing. But the argument does not stop at the edge of the coin, because the question He asked was whose, and by that test man is not Caesar's at all. This is why the answer pressed the Pharisees harder than the Herodians: Ellicott is right that the Herodians could not indict Him, and right that the Pharisees heard their own doctrine turned on them. They had come pretending to fear an idolatrous claim on what belongs to God, while carrying in their purses the emperor's claim to be son of a god and chief priest, and while withholding from God the one thing that carries His stamp, themselves. The ⚙ synthesis here, which no voice in this brief states in these terms and which may be pressed too far: the trap failed not because Jesus found a clever middle path between two parties but because He changed the unit of account. They asked what the state may take. He answered what everything owes, and left them holding a coin that answered their question before they asked it.

Everything in the scene has an owner's mark on it, including the men asking who owns what.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The committee that meets to destroy Him verbal / quotation: confirmed

The rare noun συμβούλιον (symboulion, G4824) stands in only eight verses of the New Testament, and the Verifier's candidates show where. Matthew 12:14 has the Pharisees take counsel against Jesus after the withered hand; Mark 3:6 has them do it "with the Herodians," the same coalition as here, which Pulpit and Ellicott both take to be the earlier league now renewed; Acts 25:12 has Festus confer with his consilium before sending Paul to Caesar. The sense in Acts is different, a governor's standing council rather than a plot, and that difference should be stated rather than smoothed over. But within the Gospels the word functions almost as a technical term: when Matthew and Mark want to say that a formal decision has been taken against Jesus, this is the noun they reach for, and in Mark 3:6 as here the purpose conjunction ὅπως (G3704) follows it.

Mark 3:6 · Matthew 12:14 · Acts 25:12

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4824 συμβούλιον (in 8 vv, rare) with Mark 3:6, Matthew 12:14 and Acts 25:12; Mark 3:6 also shares G3704 ὅπως (in 52 vv) and G5330 Φαρισαῖος (in 93 vv). A rare shared lexeme across Greek texts, not a quotation of one by another; the sense in Acts 25:12 differs.

Whose inscription? The word that returns at the cross verbal / quotation: confirmed

Of the five New Testament verses that contain ἐπιγραφή (epigraphē, G1923), three are this question and its synoptic parallels (Mark 12:16, Luke 20:24) and the other two are the inscription fixed over the crucified Jesus (Mark 15:26, Luke 23:38). The Verifier supplies all four as candidates on the strength of that one lexeme. Ellicott and Cambridge both insist on the translation "inscription" rather than the older "superscription," and Pulpit reconstructs what the denarius said: the emperor's name and titles, including Pontifex Maximus. Within a week the same noun will be used for a placard naming another king, written by the same imperial authority and for a different purpose. This thread records the lexical fact only; the figural reading built on it is in the christ section below and is marked as novel there.

Mark 12:16 · Mark 15:26 · Luke 23:38

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1923 ἐπιγραφή (in 5 vv, very rare) with Mark 12:16, Mark 15:26 and Luke 23:38; Mark 12:16 additionally shares G2541 Καῖσαρ (in 23 vv) and G1504 εἰκών (in 20 vv). All Greek to Greek; a rare word shared, not a citation.

The same scene in Mark and Luke verbal / quotation: confirmed

All three synoptics carry this episode, and the Verifier's strongest candidate for the unit is Mark 12:14, sharing ὁδός, βλέπω and πρόσωπον with Matthew 22:16, which is to say the flattering speech is transmitted in nearly the same words. Mark 12:13 shares λόγος and the rare party name Ἡρωδιανοί (G2265, in only three verses), and Luke 20:24 shares Caesar, denarius and inscription. Cambridge, Barnes, Poole and Pulpit all read the three accounts together and take details from Luke that Matthew omits, above all Luke 20:20, that the envoys were spies who "should feign themselves just men." JFB gives no exposition here at all, referring the reader entirely to Mark 12:13-34, which is why no JFB voice is quoted in this unit.

Mark 12:13 · Mark 12:14 · Luke 20:24

basis: Verifier: Mark 12:14 shares G3598 ὁδός (in 99 vv), G991 βλέπω (in 117 vv), G4383 πρόσωπον (in 71 vv); Mark 12:13 shares G3056 λόγος (in 318 vv), G5330 Φαρισαῖος (in 93 vv) and the rare G2265 Ἡρωδιανοί (in 3 vv); Luke 20:24 shares G2541 Καῖσαρ (in 23 vv), G1220 δηνάριον (in 15 vv), G1923 ἐπιγραφή (in 5 vv). Synoptic parallels of one narrative in the same language.

Paul takes up the verb: pay back what is owed structural / thematic: confirmed

When Paul writes, in the words Pulpit quotes at this verse, "Render to all their dues" and "tribute to whom tribute is due" (Romans 13:7), he uses the verb Jesus used here, ἀποδίδωμι (G591). The Verifier, asked directly about the pair, returns the shared lexeme and rates the link structural rather than verbal, since apodidōmi stands in forty six verses and is not rare enough to carry a quotation claim on its own. Cambridge states the relation in exactly the right direction: "St Paul expands this principle, which underlies our Lord's answer," citing Romans 13:1 and following and 1 Peter 2:13-17. The 1 Peter reference is Cambridge's, not a computed lexical link, and is included on that authority.

Romans 13:7 · 1 Peter 2:13-17

basis: Verifier pair check on Matthew 22:21 and Romans 13:7: shared Greek lexeme G591 ἀποδίδωμι (in 46 vv), tiered structural because the lexeme is common; 1 Peter 2:13-17 is added on Cambridge's citation with no computed lexeme.

Two stamped likenesses: the coin and the man typological

Jesus asks whose εἰκών the coin bears, and the answer settles the case. The image of God in man at Genesis 1:26 to 27 is the obvious counterweight, and the Verifier is blunt about what can and cannot be proved: asked to pair Matthew 22:20 with Genesis 1:27, it reports "no shared original-language lexeme found in the index," because the Hebrew there is a different word in a different language and no Strong's number is common to both. The observation that the Greek Old Testament renders Genesis 1:26 with this same noun comes from outside this brief and should be checked rather than trusted here. So the link is argued, not computed: the logic of "whose likeness is stamped on it" is the logic of the whole reply, and if a coin goes to the man whose image it bears, the argument does not stop at the purse. Neither Barnes, who notes only that princes struck their likeness on coinage, nor Gill, who documents from the rabbis that Jewish coins bore no human form, makes this move. It is marked here as figural and fallible.

Genesis 1:26-27

basis: Verifier pair check on Matthew 22:20 and Genesis 1:27 returns no shared original-language lexeme; Greek to Hebrew links cannot be verbal. Recorded as a figural reading of image and ownership, argued from the logic of the reply, widely held in later exposition but not stated by any voice in this brief.

The God who gives the kingdoms away structural / thematic: confirmed

The dilemma assumed that paying a pagan emperor must insult God's kingship over Israel. The Old Testament had already refused that assumption. Daniel, standing before a Babylonian king, says that God removes kings and sets up kings (Daniel 2:21) and that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever He wills (Daniel 4:17, 4:25); Proverbs puts the reigning of kings in the gift of Wisdom (Proverbs 8:15); Jeremiah commands submission to Nebuchadnezzar as God's own arrangement (Jeremiah 27:6-8); and Ezra records a Persian king funding the temple and exempting its servants from tax (Ezra 6:8-10, 7:24), so that imperial revenue and the worship of God had coexisted within living memory of the Second Temple. Cambridge makes the historical half of this point when it answers the Deuteronomy 17:15 argument by listing Israel's successive overlords: Assyria, Babylon, Egypt and Persia. The theological half, that the emperor's de facto authority is itself an ordinance of God, is Ellicott's, and Benson gives the reason in a parenthesis: magistrates "are God's deputies, and rule by his authority."

Daniel 2:21 · Daniel 4:17 · Proverbs 8:15 · Jeremiah 27:6-8 · Ezra 6:8-10

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's number is possible and no verbal claim is made. The basis is a shared motif, God's disposal of Gentile kingship and Israel's tribute to it, argued from the cited texts and from Cambridge's list of Israel's successive overlords.

The flatterer's mouth as a set snare structural / thematic: confirmed

Matthew's hapax παγιδεύω names the device; the Psalms and Proverbs had already described it working through praise. no truth is in the mouth of the wicked, who flatter with the tongue (Psalm 5:9); the double heart speaks with flattering lips (Psalm 12:2-3); the enemy hides his hatred behind charming speech and is not to be believed (Proverbs 26:24-28); and the hunted man prays to be kept from the snares laid for him (Psalm 141:9). These are summaries of those texts, not quotations of them. Read together with verse 16 the pattern is exact: a flawless compliment used as a net. None of the voices in this brief draws this particular connection; Cambridge comes nearest with the judgment that "nothing could exceed the insidious hypocrisy of this attack on Jesus. His enemies approach Him as a teacher whom they trust."

Psalm 5:9 · Psalm 12:2-3 · Proverbs 26:24-28 · Psalm 141:9

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared lexeme and no verbal claim. Shared motif of flattering speech laid as a snare, matching the hapax G3802 παγιδεύω and the flattery of v. 16; the connection is the synthesis author's, not a voice's.

He does not look into the face of men structural / thematic: confirmed

The flatterers' last clause is a quotation of Israel's own law about judges, turned into a compliment. that God does not lift the face and takes no bribe is the confession of Deuteronomy 10:17; the judge is commanded not to regard the face of the poor or the great in Leviticus 19:15; Jehoshaphat charges his judges that with the LORD there is no injustice or partiality (2 Chronicles 19:7); and the LORD tells Samuel that man looks at the outward appearance but He looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). Barnes assembles most of this chain at verse 16 and states the rule, that in Scripture regarding the person "is in the Bible uniformly used to denote partiality." The irony belongs to the narrative rather than to any commentator: within two verses the one who does not look at faces has read their hearts, which is 1 Samuel 16:7 acted out on the men quoting it.

Deuteronomy 10:17 · Leviticus 19:15 · 1 Samuel 16:7 · 2 Chronicles 19:7

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): G4383 πρόσωπον renders the Hebrew idiom of the lifted or regarded face, but no shared Strong's number exists across the languages, so no verbal tier. Basis is the shared legal idiom of impartiality, with Barnes's own list of Leviticus 19:15, Deuteronomy 16:19, Acts 10:34, James 2:1 and 1 Peter 1:17.

Flagged: was Deuteronomy 17:15 really the argument against the tax? flagged: verify source

Both Cambridge and Barnes report that the command not to set a foreigner over Israel (Deuteronomy 17:15) was understood to forbid paying tribute to any foreign power, and Barnes attributes to Herod's party the counter-reading that the verse governs only a voluntary choice of king and not subjection by force, crediting the whole reconstruction to Dr Prideaux. That reading of the verse would explain the dilemma neatly, which is a reason to be careful with it. Neither commentator cites a primary source, the verse itself says nothing about tribute, and the tax question in this unit is put in terms of lawfulness in general rather than of that text. Gill and Poole, who quote rabbinic material freely elsewhere in this unit, do not use Deuteronomy 17:15 here at all. Recorded as a contested reconstruction of the background, not as an established basis.

Deuteronomy 17:15

basis: No shared lexeme is possible (Greek to Hebrew) and no verbal claim is made. The link rests entirely on Cambridge's and Barnes's unsourced assertion about how Deuteronomy 17:15 was interpreted, Barnes citing only Prideaux; provenance of the interpretation is unverified and the verse itself does not mention tribute.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The image on the coin and the Image of God novel

⚙ The question that ends the argument is a question about likeness. Barnes notes only the numismatic convention, that "the likeness of the reigning prince was usually struck on the coins," and Gill documents from the rabbis that Jewish coinage refused human figures because "it is forbidden to make the form of a man." Set those two facts side by side and the reply has a third term that the scene does not name: the New Testament's own use of εἰκών for Christ, the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4, Colossians 1:15) and the exact imprint of His nature (Hebrews 1:3). If what bears Caesar's image returns to Caesar, then what bears God's image returns to God, and the one who bears it without alloy is standing in the temple court holding the coin. The apostolic titles are ancient and explicit; the application of them to this scene is the synthesis author's and is offered to be tested.

2 Corinthians 4:4 · Colossians 1:15 · Hebrews 1:3 · Genesis 1:26-27

Whose inscription? The answer nailed over His head novel

⚙ The Verifier's own lexical data carries this: ἐπιγραφή occurs in only five New Testament verses, and outside this pericope and its parallels the only inscriptions so named are the one over the cross (Mark 15:26, Luke 23:38). Jesus asks whose inscription is on the silver; within the week the same imperial authority writes an inscription about Him, and it names Him king. The parallel is a matter of vocabulary and timing, and no voice in this brief draws it: Ellicott and Cambridge go no further than correcting "superscription" to "inscription," and Pulpit reconstructs only the denarius legend. Marked novel. What can be said without overclaiming is that Matthew's Gospel moves in a few chapters from a coin whose writing declares Caesar lord to a placard whose writing, meant as mockery, declares the truth.

Mark 15:26 · Luke 23:38

The only one who gave back what was owed ancient/widely-held

⚙ Christ's verb is ἀπόδοτε, pay back what is due, and Barnes puts the harder of his two readings of "the things that are God's" as "their hearts, lives, property, and influence all to God, as his due." On that reading the command He gives is a debt no one in the crowd had discharged, and Pulpit says as much: had the Jews rendered God his dues, they would never have been reduced to paying tribute at all. Poole and Henry both keep the two rights distinct without collapsing either, Henry noting that Christ "did not interpose as a judge in matters of this nature, for his kingdom is not of this world, but he enjoins peaceable subjection to the powers that be." The redemptive-historical reading, which the voices here do not state: the man who commanded this rendering is the only one who performed it, paying Caesar's tax (Matthew 17:25, which the Verifier links to this unit by shared vocabulary) and rendering to God everything that bore God's likeness, including His own life. Paul's expansion of the principle in Romans 13:7 stands on the obedience of the one who spoke it.

Matthew 17:25 · Romans 13:7

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbers; parses and lexicon glosses are taken from the brief and not adjusted. Several lexicon entries in the source are truncated mid-phrase (G591 "to give away, i", G1504 "a likeness, i", G2778 "properly, an enrollment ('census'), i"), and the interlinear prints the placeholder "vvv" for the two instances of οὐ in v. 16 and ". . ." where BSB supplies no separate English word; notes here work from the Greek and the parse rather than from those artifacts.

Sources: ten commentators are present. Nine are quoted. JFB is not, because its entry for this whole section is a cross-reference only ("For the exposition, see on Mr 12:13-34") and contains no exposition of Matthew's wording. The Gill entry at v. 16 and the Poole entry at v. 17 are capped in the brief (about 3,378 and 1,288 further characters respectively); neither cap was opened, so quotations from those two entries are drawn from the visible portion only, and any argument they make later in those entries is not represented here.

Uncertain: the identity of the Herodians is genuinely unsettled in the sources and is reported as such, not resolved. Pulpit's transcription of the denarius legend is corrupted in the printed text and is flagged in the voice note; the general description of a laureate Tiberius with a Pontifex Maximus reverse is Pulpit's and Ellicott's, not this synthesis's. The claim that the Greek Old Testament uses εἰκών at Genesis 1:26 comes from outside this brief and is marked as needing verification; the Verifier explicitly found no shared lexeme between Matthew 22:20 and Genesis 1:27, and the image thread is tiered typological on that basis. The Verifier's candidate list for this unit contains only Greek New Testament texts, so every Old Testament contact recorded above (Genesis, Daniel, Proverbs, Jeremiah, Ezra, the Psalms, Deuteronomy, Leviticus, 1 Samuel, 2 Chronicles) is argued from motif or from a commentator's own citation and is tiered structural, typological or flagged accordingly. Coin values given by Gill, Poole, Barnes and Geneva are in their own eighteenth and nineteenth century currencies and are reported, not converted.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)