Luke
20:19-26
Culmination of Messiah's mission, 19:45-24:53
1. The Messiah and the Temple, 19:45-21:38
ii] Render to Caesar.
SynopsisJesus is continuing his teaching / preaching ministry in the temple courts and is again approached by the religious authorities, this time with a question which has the potential to either alienate the people, or have Jesus charged with treason. Jesus deftly answers the question.
Teaching
Messianic authority resides with Jesus; he is well able to arbitrate on the legal status of church and state before God.
Issues
i] Context: See 19:45-20:18. Render to Caesar is the second episode in the teaching unit The Messiah and the Temple, 19:45-21:38. This series of episodes recounts Jesus' debates with the religious authorities, all of which serve to enhance Jesus' qualifications as Israel's messiah, while exposing the blind state of religious Israel (such debates were common in the Hellenistic world, and served to enhance the claims of one philosophical school over another). The unwillingness of the authorities to give due recognition to Jesus' superior authority, confirms the inevitability of divine judgment. Having revealed Jesus' divine authority, the second episode goes on to reveal Jesus' wisdom with respect to the legal status of secular and divine authority.
ii] Background: The first census under Quirinius (cf., Lk.2:2), AD 6-7, determined the orderly taxation of the province of Syria, and its subdistrict Palestine, for the payment of tribute to Rome. The whole idea of God's covenant people being taxed by a foreign power was resented by the religious authorities and the people alike. It was not clear what was existin, "right, allowed", under the Torah, so prompting resentment, and inevitably tensions between one's religious and political loyalties. Judas the Galilean led a revolt against the census in AD 6 and Josephus, the Jewish historian of the time, noted his views were widely influential, leading to Israel's disastrous war with Rome in 66-70.
iii] Structure: Render to Caesar:
Setting, 20;
The question, v21-22;
Jesus' response, v23-25:
"give to Caesar what is Caesar's ....."
Conclusion, v26.
iv] Interpretation:
The second debate develops around two contrary propositions shaped by a politically charged question relating to taxation. Is a citizen's duty to the Torah, or to the State? An argument can be made out for both propositions, but if Jesus argues for duty to the State, he will alienate the people, and if he argues for the Torah, he will be guilty of treason. For the religious authorities, the argument is not designed to expose the philosophical inferiority of Jesus, as compared to their philosophical superiority, but rather to entrap Jesus. In rhetorical terms, Jesus wins hands down, but his failure to speak against Caesar will damage his reputation with Israel's nationalists, while his failure to give Caesar total allegiance will add to the charge of treason when he is bought before the Roman governor.
Jesus proposes an answer to a question which has resonated down the centuries; "one's obligation is not to God or Caesar, but to God and Caesar", Ellis. In the divine governance of God's creation, Caesar has a legitimate function for which tribute is due, cf., Rom.13:1-7, 1Pet.2:13-17. And of course, God has a legitimate claim over what belongs to him, such that sometimes we will "obey God rather than men", Act.5:29. If Caesar forces a person to choose between divine authority and Caesar's authority, then a child of God is bound to choose God over Caesar.
v] Synoptics:
See 3:1-20. This pronouncement story is found in Mark 12:13-17 and Matthew 22:15-22, with the usual differences evident. Luke and Mark agree as to the context of the episode, with most scholars of the opinion that Luke has used Mark as his source, although Fitzmyer notes that Weiss argues for an independent source. Luke's introduction is peculiar to him, although it makes the same point as Matthew and Mark, as is his concluding verse, which emphasises Jesus' mastery over his opponents in the debate. Expecting to corner Jesus with an ensnaring question, his opponents end up cornering themselves with nothing left to say.
vi] Homiletics: Church and State
A believer's obligation is not to God or the State, but to God and the State. These two obligations can work happily together when we are allowed to declare our loyalty to God, country and family, in that order. If the State forces us to choose between God or the State, a believer is bound to choose God over the State.
Of course, the choice is never as simple as that. The infringement of divine authority by the State is always incremental, such that it is very difficult to know where to draw the line. For believers in the Roman empire, the line was crossed when Rome demanded loyalty to the State by offering a libation to Caesar as divine. Many believers were to die for their conviction. In modern times, the dilemma facing the Lutheran church in Nazi Germany is a perfect example of the difficulty of identifying the incremental infringement of divine authority. Due to Nazi propaganda, no clear line was evident, none-the-less, there were those who stood up to be counted, and so paid the ultimate price, eg. Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Today, the Christian church in the West is witnessing the demise of Christian civilisation; Marx is replacing Jesus. The Christian political ideology of freedom and equality held in tension by compassion, is being replace by the socialist political ideology of equality. The demand for equality, trumps Biblical truth and even science (biology). Christians, under the constant demand for societal conformity, either from government instrumentalities, or corporate entities, are increasingly faced with a moral dilemma. For many, at the institutional level, syncretism solves the problem - when in Rome, do what the Romans do. For the rest, the problem remains and grows worse every year. Sighting the line has never been harder, but the days draw near when "we must obey God rather than men!", Act.5:29, and accept Jesus' prediction that "everyone will hate you because of me", Mk.13:13.
Text - 20:19
Render to Caesar, v20-26: i] Setting, v20. Luke again indicates that the religious authorities remain part of Jesus' audience (laon, "people"), this time as "spies" - undercover representative of the Sanhedrin, deceitfully presenting themselves as dikaiouV, ("righteous" = honest brokers in the debate; "sincere"). Yet, they are about setting a trap to incriminate Jesus with the Roman authorities.
parathrhsanteV (parathrew) aor. part. "keeping a close watch" - [and] having watched [they sent spies]. Attendant circumstance participle expressing action accompanying the verb "to send"; "they watched ... and sent." Here with the sense, "lie in wait for", BDAG; "watching for their opportunity", NLT.
uJpokrinomenouV (uJpokrinomai) pres. mid. part. "who pretended" - [spies] acting, pretending. The participle is adjectival, attributive, limiting "spies", as NIV.
ei\nai (eimi) pres. inf. "to be" - to be [righteous = men of upright character]. The infinitive may be taken as complementary, completing the sense of the participle "pretending", as NIV, but it may also be taken to introduce an object clause / dependent statement of cause, expressing what they were pretending, "that they were sincere."
iJna + subj. "-" - that [they might take hold of]. Introducing a final clause expressing purpose; "in order that they might catch him out."
logou (oV) gen. "he said" - the word [of him]. Genitive of direct object after the epi prefix verb "to take hold of."
w[ste + inf. "so that" - that [to deliver over him]. This construction usually introduces a consecutive clause expressing result, although that sense is somewhat awkward here, so hypothetical result. Some have proposed a final clause expressing purpose, but we are best to follow Culy who argues that here it introduces the result of the previous purpose clause, "in order that they might catch Jesus out on something he has said, so that they might have the means to hand him over to the jurisdiction of the governor."
th/ arch/ (h) "to the power" - to the power [and the authority]. Dative of indirect object. Possibly a hendiadys, "authoritative jurisdiction", Garland.
tou hJgemonoV (wn onoV) gen. "of the governor" - of the governor. The genitive is adjectival, possessive, identifying the possession of a characteristic quality, or verbal, subjective, "the authority exercised by the governor."
v21
ii] The question, v21-22. Flattery will get you nowhere! The egkaqetouV, "spies", who claim to be diokaiouV, "righteous / sincere", lay it on thick by affirming that Jesus is orthodox in his teaching (he speaks and teaches orqwV, "correctly"), that he is no respecter of persons / impartial / a bigot (of course one of the reasons his opponents wanted to kill him was his association with sinners), and that he taught the way (the term oJdoV, "the way of the kingdom of God", is used of the Christian faith in Acts) ep alhqeia, "truly". Finally, the question, "Is it in accord with the Torah for us Jews to pay a poll tax to a foreign power?" Note that Luke's term foron more accurately identifies the poll tax than Mark's khson.
legonteV pres. part. "-" - [and they asked = questioned him] saying. Attendant circumstance participle expressing action accompanying the verb "to say", redundant; a Semitism serving to introduce direct speech. For the classification adverbial, manner, see legwn, 4:35.
oJti "that" - [teacher, we know] that. Introducing an object clause / dependent statement of perception expressing what they know. "We know that you're honest and straightforward when you teach", Peterson
all (alla) "but" - [you speak and teach correctly and do not receive a face (show no partiality)] but. Strong adversative standing in a counterpoint construction; "not ...., but ....
tou qeou (oV) gen. "[the way] of God" - [you teach the way] of god. The genitive is adjectival, descriptive, idiomatic, eg., "the pathway that God sets before his people"; "but that you really do teach the life that God wishes us to live", Barclay.
ep (epi) gen. "in accordance with" - upon [truth]. The preposition is likely to be adverbial here, so with the noun truth, it gives the sense "truly"; "truthfully", HCSB.
v22
dounai (didwmi) aor. inf. "to pay" - [us] to give = pay [tribute to caesar is right, or not to pay is right]? The infinitive serves as the subject of the impersonal verb exestin, "it is right, lawful." The accusative subject of the infinitive is hJmaV, "us". For a complementary classification see grayai, 1:3.
v23
iii] Jesus' response, v23-25. Of course, Jesus is aware of the deception behind the question. Presumably Jesus asks for a denarius, the coinage required for the poll tax, a coin with the emperor's head and the inscription "Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus." Jesus doesn't explain why Caesar has the right and authority to demand Kaisari, "for Caesar", ta KaisaroV, "the things of (that belong to) Caesar", but then, neither does he explain why God has the right and authority to demand tw/ qew/, "for God", ta tou qeou, "the things of (that belong to) God. Stein suggests that the sense of the possessive genitive "belongs to" is "This coin represents the tribute you are to give. Caesar demands this, and it is a rightful demand. Therefore, give the taxes that should be given him." Similarly for God.
katanohsaV (katanoew) aor. part. "he saw through" - [but/and] having understood = detected [the craftiness of them]. Attendant circumstance participle expressing action accompanying the verb "to say", as NIV; "he perceived .... and said." Culy suggests adverbial, causal; "because he perceived ..."; "detecting ...... he said", HCSB.
proV + acc. "to [them]" - toward [them]. The preposition + acc. is used here instead of a dative to introduce an indirect object; see proV, 1:61.
v24
moi dat. pro. "me" - [show a denarius] to me. Dative of indirect object.
tinoV gen. pro. "whose" - [it has an image and inscription] of whom? [but/and they said, it has the image and inscription of caesar]. The genitive is adjectival, possessive.
v25
oJ de "-" - but/and he. Transitional, indicating a change in subject from "the spies" to Jesus.
toinun "then" - therefore. Inferential, drawing a logical conclusion.
kaisari (r roV) dat. "to Caesar" - [do, cause to happen, give back the things of caesar] to caesar. Dative of indirect object / interest, advantage, "for Caesar." The genitive "of Caesar" is adjectival, possessive, identifying the possession of a derivative characteristic, "do for Caesar the things pertaining to Caesar."
tw/ qew/ (oV) dat. "to God" - [and do the things of god] to god. The syntax as above; "do for God the things pertaining to God."
v26
iv] Conclusion, v26. The religious authorities have done Jesus some political damage, but in the terms of his reputation, he has shown himself, and his philosophical school ("the way"), to be superior to that of his opponents.
epilabesqai (epilambanomai) aor. inf. "[they were not able] to trap" - [and they were not able] to take hold of. The infinitive is complementary, completing the sense of the verb "to be able." "So, his reply gave them no sort of handle that they could use against him publicly", Phillips.
autou gen. pro. "he" - [the word] of him. The genitive is adjectival, possessive, or verbal, subjective, "the word delivered by him."
qaumasanteV (qaumazw) aor. part. "astonished" - [and] having marvelled, wondered. Attendant circumstance participle expressing action accompanying the verb "to be silent"; "they were astonished ..... and became silent", but possibly adverbial, causal, "because the people were astonished at his answer, they were left speechless,"
epi + dat. "by" - upon [the answer of him, they were silent]. Probably causal here, "because of his answer."
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