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Taxes, tricks, and the Roman coin

Caesar could make rightful claim to coins bearing his image, but only God can make claim to each man, woman, and child. On the Readings for Sunday, October 22, 2023.

"The Tribute Money" (c. 1612) by Peter Paul Rubens

Readings:
• Isa 45:1, 4-6
• Psa 96:1, 3, 4-5, 7-8, 9-10
• 1 Thess 1:1-5b
• Matt 22:15-21

Jesus was asked many questions during his public ministry. Some were asked in curiosity, some out of an honest desire for truth; some were expressed with hope, and some were touched with fear or anger.

But few, if any, were asked with such careful cunning and devious planning as the one heard in the Gospel for this Sunday: “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?”

It is evident that the question was the result of attentive scheming because of the unlikely alliance of those who asked it. The Pharisees were nationalistic and strongly opposed to Roman rule; the Herodians were supporters of the Roman-backed Herod and sought the reestablishment of his power in Judea. What they shared was a common dislike and fear of a mysterious, itinerant preacher whose popularity among the people had gone from annoying to troublesome.

The question was a rather brilliant attempt to trap Jesus, for it set up a seemingly airtight conundrum. If Jesus had said Caesar’s tax was unlawful—that is, opposed to the Torah and Jewish beliefs—he would have been immediately charged with political insurrection against Roman rule. If he said the tax was lawful, he would have alienated and angered many of his followers and effectively destroyed his growing influence.

“On the political level occupied by the questioners,” wrote Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar of this confrontation, “he can find no third possibility, no back door exit. But Jesus does not permit himself to enter this level.”

Put another way, Jesus did not believe that liberation from political oppression was Israel’s greatest problem, nor did he believe it was best dealt with through violence and political agitation. Revolts against Roman taxes and rule were not uncommon in first-century Palestine. When Jesus was a young boy, around A.D. 6, Judas the Galilean led one such revolt, and was summarily destroyed by the Romans, an event mentioned by the Evangelist Luke (Acts 5:37).

Recognizing the intention of his interlocutors, Jesus requested to see “the Roman coin”, a silver denarius, worth about one day’s wages. It was marked with the image of Tiberius Caesar (A.D. 14-37), identified on one side as “son of the divine Augustus” and on the other as the “high priest.” That the questioners had the coin in their possession meant they operated willingly within Rome’s economic system, thus exposing the hollowness of their feigned interest in Jesus’ opinion.

Jesus’ response was both direct and enigmatic: “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” Caesar had legitimate power to tax and carry on the proper work of a government, but was subordinate to the all-encompassing power of the all-mighty Creator.

Some things belong to Caesar, but all things belong to God, notes von Balthasar, “because man is created according to God’s image, not Caesar’s, and because God is Ruler over all earthly kings. Kings think they are sacral powers and claim divine attributes; Jesus demystifies this sacrality.”

The Greek word used by Jesus for “image” (eikon) was the same Greek word found in the Septuagint translation of Genesis 1:26-27: “And God said, Let us make man according to our image and likeness…” Caesar could make rightful claim to coins bearing his image, but only God can make claim to each man, woman, and child; only God can rightfully ask for worship and adoration. All governments, whether they acknowledge or not, are ultimately answerable to God, “for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God (Rom 13:6-7; cf. 1 Pet 2:13-15; Catechism, par 2242).

Jesus’ answer to the trick question could itself be rendered as a question, but without any trickery involved: “Who made us and what are we made for?” Made in the image of God, man is meant for eternal communion with God. Our faith in him must guide us in every area of our earthly lives, including the realm of politics and temporal power.

(This “Opening the Word’ column originally appeared in the October 16, 2011, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)


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About Carl E. Olson 1242 Articles
Carl E. Olson is editor of Catholic World Report and Ignatius Insight. He is the author of Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?, Will Catholics Be "Left Behind"?, co-editor/contributor to Called To Be the Children of God, co-author of The Da Vinci Hoax (Ignatius), and author of the "Catholicism" and "Priest Prophet King" Study Guides for Bishop Robert Barron/Word on Fire. His recent books on Lent and Advent—Praying the Our Father in Lent (2021) and Prepare the Way of the Lord (2021)—are published by Catholic Truth Society. He is also a contributor to "Our Sunday Visitor" newspaper, "The Catholic Answer" magazine, "The Imaginative Conservative", "The Catholic Herald", "National Catholic Register", "Chronicles", and other publications. Follow him on Twitter @carleolson.

9 Comments

  1. And what to do when it is Rome that now is minting a two-sided coin? (Literally, “business” as usual.)

    https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/10/16/new-vatican-coin-depicts-mother-carrying-the-earth-in-her-womb/

    With some adjusted design elements (e.g., adding the creative spark of Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling finger of the Father, etc.), the backside depiction of natural pregnancy could have been more than an image of Pachamama…instead, a message on the parallel (not the moral equivalency) between an un-aborted “integral ecology” and each and every (!) un-aborted child as a universe made in the image of God.

    • “Render onto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

      God, The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Complementary Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque), Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage, but the counterfeit church that is attempting to subsist within Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church, is being exposed at a synod whose purpose is to render onto Caesar or themselves what belongs to God, creating a god in their own image who celebrates sexual acts that deny the Sanctity of human life from the moment of conception and the Sanctity of the marital act within The Sacrament Of Holy Matrimony.

      “I say to you, that he will quickly revenge them. But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth?”

      A schismatic pope is an oxymoron; Jorge Bergoglio and his synod denies The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, and thus The Divinity Of The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity. Apostasy is what apostasy does.

      As The Veil is being lifted, we can know through Faith and Reason informed by The Catholic Faith that Jorge Bergoglio is the leader of a schismatic counterfeit church, that denies Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and The Teaching Of The Magisterium, Grounded In Sacred Tradition And Sacred Scripture, The Deposit Of Faith That Christ Has Entrusted To His One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church, The One Body Of Christ, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque).

      I will remain with Christ and His Church, I will not follow the counterfeit schismatic church, whose errors continue to be illuminated by “The Light That Shines In The Darkness”.

      “For the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter that by His revelation they might make known new doctrine, but that by His assistance they might inviolably keep and faithfully expound the Revelation, the Deposit of Faith, delivered through the Apostles. ”

      Pray that a Council will be convened to correct the error of Vatican II , which changed the Discipline in regards to The Charitable Anathema which has always existed for the sake of Christ, His Church, all who will come to believe, and the multitude of prodigal sons and daughters, who hopefully, will soon return to The One Body Of Christ, outside of which, there is no Salvation, due to The Unity Of The Holy Ghost.

      At the heart of Liberty Is Christ, “4For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5Have moreover tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come…”, to not believe that Christ’s Sacrifice On The Cross will lead us to Salvation, but we must desire forgiveness for our sins, and accept Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy; believe in The Power And The Glory Of Salvation Love, and rejoice in the fact that No Greater Love Is There Than This, To Desire Salvation For One’s Beloved.
      It has always been about The Marriage, In Heaven and on earth.
      “Blessed are they who are Called to The Marriage Supper Of The Lamb.”
      “Hail The Cross; our only Hope.” 🙏💕🌷

  2. When Pope Francis put Chinese Catholic worship under the control of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, how can we be assured that Chinese Catholics are worshiping God and not Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party?

  3. We read: “On the political level occupied by the questioners,” wrote Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar of this confrontation, “he can find no third possibility [!], no back door exit. But Jesus does not permit himself to enter this level.”

    To bad Christ was so “backwardist” as to not bless the “third option” groomed by Fr. Jimminy Cricket Martin & Co. Back door?

  4. What great light shines forth from Jesus’ answer; supreme holy Truth in holy Wisdom from the Divine Word of God, no one dared to contradict.

  5. Coins, those with Caesar’s face had a prominent role in our redemption, the magical coin in the fish’s mouth, the coin used to confound his adversaries in today’s Gospel, the rage [at least the facsimile with a cotton cord for a whip] in turning over the Temple money changers’ tables. The thirty silverpieces. Levi counting stacks of them when called. All have in common what represents a love other than God. We all, except for the rare saint out there have succumbed to avoiding high taxes by accounting ingenuity, pursuit of a comfortable ‘nest egg’ for retirement, dirty money from gambling and bets, and unmentionable worse.
    Apparently, Christ covered all the bases to affirm the scriptural adage that money is the root to all evil. Then there are the counterfeits, the false coin pretense in all its forms, most often dedication and love. The last love of God a great challenge for us priests. “Our faith in him must guide us in every area of our earthly lives, including the realm of politics and temporal power” (evidence of Olson’s bottom line mastery – in the habit of always reading the bottom line first, then proceed up to the top. Must be some Jewish heritage). Francis of Assisi, although not a priest, and by all indication never a deacon as held by conflationist Franciscans, certainly gave us the best model for being one.

    • A remarkable correlation to editor Olson’s research of the Roman denarius, “marked with the image of Tiberius Caesar [A.D. 14-37], identified on one side as son of the divine Augustus and on the other as the high priest,” is that deification of Roman emperors began with the Roman senate’s declaration that an emperor was a god, “The Roman worship of rulers began with Julius Caesar. Divine honors were paid to him during his lifetime” (The Worship of the Roman Emperors. Prof Henry Fairfield Burton, LL.D. University of Rochester, Rochester, NY Univ Chicago Press).
      Emperors since were declared gods, as indicated “son of the divine Augustus and on the other [side] as the high priest”. Exactly what we attribute to Christ. There was then another dynamic as to who was true God, true man. Rome adopted the practice of deifying emperors from the East, including the Egyptian pharaoh deities. Christ in today’s Gospel is also proclaiming that the God of Judaism, by inference himself, is God, not the Roman emperor Tiberius.

4 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

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  2. Taxes, Tricks, and the Roman Coin – On God's Payroll
  3. Taxes, tricks, and the Roman coin | Franciscan Sisters of St Joseph (FSJ) , Asumbi Sisters Kenya
  4. Taxes, tricks, and the Roman coin – Via Nova

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