ESV Study Bible | English Standard Version
Matthew 22:15-46
Paying Taxes to Caesar
15 g Then the Pharisees went and plotted how h to entangle him in his words. 16 And they sent i their disciples to him, along with j the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, k we know that you are true and teach l the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for m you are not swayed by appearances. [1] 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay n taxes to o Caesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why p put me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. [2] 20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, q “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” 22 When they heard it, they marveled. And they r left him and went away.
Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection
23 The same day s Sadducees came to him, t who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, 24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, u ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.’ 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother. 26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh. 27 After them all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”
29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, v because you know neither the Scriptures nor w the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither x marry nor x are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, y have you not read what was said to you by God: 32 z ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the crowd heard it, a they were astonished at his teaching.
The Great Commandment
34 b But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced c the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 d And one of them, e a lawyer, asked him a question f to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, g “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And h a second is like it: i You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 j On these two commandments depend k all the Law and the Prophets.”
Whose Son Is the Christ?
41 l Now while the Pharisees m were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about n the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, n “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, o in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
44 p “‘The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet’?
45 If then David calls him Lord, q how is he his son?” 46 r And no one was able to answer him a word, s nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
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Matt. 21:1–23:39 The Messiah Asserts His Authority over Jerusalem. Jesus' authority over Jerusalem is revealed in his triumphal entry (21:1–11), actions in the temple (21:12–17), cursing the fig tree (21:18–22), debates with religious leaders (21:23–22:46), and woes pronounced on the teachers of the law and the Pharisees (23:1–39).
Matt. 21:23–22:46 Controversies in the Temple Court over Jesus' Authority. On Tuesday of Holy Week, Jesus presents three extended parables showing God's judgment on the leaders for not encouraging the people to accept Jesus' invitation to the kingdom of heaven (21:28–22:14). This is followed by a series of four interactions as the religious leaders try to trap Jesus, who in turn reveals his true identity as the Son of God (22:15–46).
Matt. 22:15 entangle. The Pharisees hope that Jesus will say something to incriminate himself, which they can use to bring him before the Romans for execution.
Matt. 22:16 their disciples. Probably those in training to become full members of the brotherhood of the Pharisees, and perhaps deceptively sent to appear as less of a threat than their masters. Herodians. A loosely organized group that sought to advance the political and economic influence of the Herodian family (c. 37 b.c.–a.d. 93). Although the Herodians and the Pharisees were adversaries in regard to many political and religious issues, they join forces here to combat the perceived threat to their power and status.
Matt. 22:17 Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Taxes were a volatile issue in Israel. All of Rome's subjects, including the people of Israel, labored under the empire's heavy taxation. Some Jews believed that paying any tax to pagan rulers contradicted God's lordship over his people.
Matt. 22:18 Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Jesus' questioners reasoned that if he answered that it was right to pay taxes, he would lose favor with the tax-burdened people, but if he answered that it was wrong, they could accuse him of insurrection.
Matt. 22:19 On one side of the silver denarius was a profile of Tiberius Caesar, with the Latin inscription “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus” around the coin's perimeter. On the opposite side was a picture of the Roman goddess of peace, Pax, with the Latin inscription “High Priest.”
Matt. 22:21 render to Caesar . . . and to God. Jesus is not establishing a political kingdom in opposition to Caesar, so his followers should pay taxes and obey civil laws. There are matters that belong to the realm of civil government, and there are other matters that belong to God's realm. Jesus does not here specify which matters belong in which realm, but many Christian ethicists today teach that, in general, civil government should allow freedom in matters of religious doctrine, worship, and beliefs about God, and the church should not attempt to use the power of government to enforce allegiance to any specific religious viewpoint. All forms of the Christian church throughout the world today support some kind of separation between matters of church and matters of state. By contrast, totalitarian governments usually try to suppress the church and subsume everything under the realm of the state. And some extreme Islamic movements have tried to abolish independent civil government and subsume everything under the control of Islamic religious leaders. Historically, when the church and state have become too closely aligned, the result most often has been the compromise of the church.
Matt. 22:23 Sadducees (see note on 3:7) drew mainly or exclusively on the Pentateuch for doctrine (see Jewish Groups at the Time of the New Testament), so they did not believe in the resurrection, a theme developed more clearly in later OT books (cf. Isa. 26:19; Dan. 12:2). They asked him a question in order to trap him theologically. They assumed that those who believe in a resurrection life think it is like the present life, suggesting that a woman who has been married more than once will be found guilty of incest after the resurrection. They hope hereby to show that the idea of resurrection is really absurd.
Matt. 22:24 Moses said. The Sadducees cite the OT law of what is later called “levirate marriage” (from Latin levir, “brother-in-law”), in which the surviving brother of a childless, deceased man was obligated to marry his sister-in-law in order to provide for her needs and to preserve the deceased brother's family line (Deut. 25:5–10; cf. Gen. 38:8).
Matt. 22:29–30 The Sadducees are making two errors: (1) they do not know . . . the Scriptures well enough to know that Scripture teaches the reality of the resurrection, and (2) they do not know the power of God to create a much more wonderful world than anyone can now imagine. They neither marry nor are given in marriage implies that the present institution of marriage will not continue in heaven. But are like angels in heaven means living without an exclusive lifelong marriage commitment to one person. This teaching might at first seem discouraging to married couples who are deeply in love with each other in this life, but surely people will know their loved ones in heaven (cf. 8:11; Luke 9:30, 33), and the joy and love of close relationships in heaven will be more rather than less than it is here on earth. Jesus' reference to “the power of God” suggests that God is able to establish relationships of even deeper friendship, joy, and love in the life to come. God has not revealed anything more about this, though Scripture indicates that the eternal glories awaiting the redeemed will be more splendid than anyone can begin to ask or think (cf. 1 Cor. 2:9; Eph. 3:20).
Matt. 22:31–32 I am the God of Abraham, and . . . Isaac, and . . . Jacob. The present tense in the quotation from Ex. 3:6 logically implies that when God spoke these words to Moses, God was still in covenant relationship with the patriarchs, even though they had been dead for centuries. If the Pentateuch thus implies that the patriarchs are still alive, and if the rest of the OT points to the resurrection (as it does), then the Sadducees should recognize God's power to raise the patriarchs and all of God's people to enjoy his eternal covenant in a life beyond this one.
Matt. 22:35 A lawyer is an expert in the law; this is another expression for “scribes of the Pharisees” (Mark 2:16; cf. Acts 23:9; and Jewish Groups at the Time of the New Testament).
Matt. 22:36 the great commandment. The rabbis engaged in an ongoing debate to determine which commandments were “light” and which were “weighty” (cf. 23:23; and note on 5:19). The Law refers here to the entire OT.
Matt. 22:37–38 love the Lord your God . . . heart . . . soul . . . mind. This command from Deut. 6:5, repeated twice daily by faithful Jews, encapsulates the idea of total devotion to God and includes the duty to obey the rest of God's commandments (cf. Matt. 5:16–20). “Heart,” “soul,” and “mind” do not represent rigid compartments of human existence but rather together refer to the whole person.
Matt. 22:39 You shall love your neighbor as yourself. See Lev. 19:18, 34. Love signifies a concrete responsibility to seek the greatest good of one's neighbors, both Jew and Gentile.
Matt. 22:40 The kingdom life that Jesus initiated—summarized in these two commandments—fulfills the deepest longings of human beings created in the image of God to display his glory. the Law and the Prophets. See note on 5:17.
Matt. 22:41–46 Having dealt with malicious questions from his adversaries, Jesus now asked them, concerning the long-awaited Messiah (the Christ), Whose son is he? Their reply, “The son of David,” reflected the common understanding that the Messiah would be a royal descendant of David (cf. 2 Sam. 7:12–14; Ps. 89:4; Isa. 11:1, 10; Jer. 23:5). Jesus then quotes from Ps. 110:1, one of the most important messianic texts in the OT and the one most quoted in the NT. The Pharisees would have recognized this psalm of David as a divinely inspired messianic prophecy. In the psalm, David said that the coming Messiah (i.e., David's “son”) will not be just a special human descended from David; he will be David's Lord. Because the Pharisees acknowledged the messianic import of the psalm, they did not dare to ask Jesus any more questions. The fact that David's descendant (Jesus) would have a more prominent role and title than the ancestor (David) further indicates the uniqueness of the Messiah and the greater honor that is due him as the Son of God. Matthew does not say how exalted a person Jesus was claiming to be in his use of Ps. 110:1; but the psalm itself may well imply the deity of the Messiah (see note on Ps. 110:5), i.e., that the Messiah is to be Yahweh incarnate (cf. John 1:14).
