The Tribute Money (Notes)

Saint Luke - Chapter 20

Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or no? J-J Tissot

[20] Et observantes miserunt insidiatores, qui se justos simularent, ut caparent eum in sermone, ut traderent illum principatui, et potestati praesidis.
And being upon the watch, they sent spies, who should feign themselves just, that they might take hold of him in his words, that they might deliver him up to the authority and power of the governor.

[21] Et interrogaverunt eum, dicentes : Magister, scimus quia recte dicis et doces : et non accipis personam, sed viam Dei in veritate doces.
And they asked him, saying: Master, we know that thou speakest and teachest rightly: and thou dost not respect any person, but teachest the way of God in truth.

[22] Licet nobis tributum dare Caesari, an non?
Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or no?

[23] Considerans autem dolum illorum, dixit ad eos : Quid me tentatis?
But he considering their guile, said to them: Why tempt you me?

[24] ostendite mihi denarium. Cujus habet imaginem et inscriptionem? Respondentes dixerunt ei : Caesaris.
shew me a penny. Whose image and inscription hath it? They answering, said to him, Caesar's.

[25] Et ait illis : Reddite ergo quae sunt Caesaris, Caesari : et quae sunt Dei, Deo.
And he said to them: Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's: and to God the things that are God's.

[26] Et non potuerunt verbum ejus reprehendere coram plebe : et mirati in responso ejus, tacuerunt.
And they could not reprehend his word before the people: and wondering at his answer, they held their peace.

From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ by J-J Tissot (1897)

Half-way up the Mount of Olives. J-J Tissot

It this morning, and in front of the Jewish notables rise the 15 steps called the psalms or the degrees.  On the left of the steps, beneath the green marble columns of the Court of Israel, can be seen in the entrance to the rooms where the musicians keep their instruments in the background, on the south-west, at the corner of the Court of the Women, where we now are, is the room or the pavilion, open to the sky, where the wine and oil were kept.  We know that there were three other such pavilions, that of the Nazarites on the south-east, that where the wood to be used in the sacrifices was sorted, on the north-east, and lastly that on the north-west, reserved for the use of lepers.

At first sight, the way in which the enemies of Jesus endeavoured to compromise Him seems strange enough.  They do not ask if they must pay tribute to Caesar, which, in case of a reply in the affirmative, might have made Him odious in the eyes of the crowd, who were intensely irritated by the fiscal exactions of the Romans, but they asked ''is it lawful?'' a truly singular inquiry when the very real suzerainty of the Roman emperor over the Jewish people is borne in mind.  Never throughout the whole course of the history of the Jews had they refused to pay tribute to the suzerain, whether that suzerainty ruled from Nineveh, from Babylon or from Persia.  The Pharisees, however, had found means to arouse scruples on this point, and the people would evidently had been ready enough to adopt them.  But Jesus, perceiving their craftiness, simply said to put them to confusion, ;;show me a penny.''  The current coin no longer bore the proud device engraved on back in use in the time of the Aesmonean or Maccabean princes : Jerusalem the Holy, but simply the effigy of the reigning emperor Tiberius.  The consequence was evident enough, the superscription convincing: they had to pay.  For all that, however, the answer of Jesus did not prevent the Pharisees from saying later to Pilate: ''He forbids the giving of tribute to Caesar.''

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam