“Render unto Caesar” is the beginning of a phrase attributed to Jesus in the synoptic gospels, which reads in full, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” (Ἀπόδοτε οὖν τὰ Καίσαρος Καίσαρι καὶ τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τῷ Θεῷ).[Matthew 22:21]
This phrase has become a widely quoted summary of the relationship between Christianity, secular government, and society. The original message, coming in response to a question of whether it was lawful for Jews to pay taxes to Caesar, gives rise to multiple possible interpretations about the circumstances under which it is desirable for the Christian to submit to earthly authority.
All three synoptic gospels state that hostile questioners tried to trap Jesus into taking an explicit and dangerous stand on whether Jews should or should not pay taxes to the Roman authorities. The accounts in Matthew 22:15-22 and Mark 12:13-17 say that the questioners were Pharisees and Herodians, while Luke 20:20-26 says only that they were “spies” sent by “teachers of the law and the chief priests”.
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Author: Wikipedia
Keywords: Render unto Caesar, Things that are Caesars, Paying taxes, denarius, Taxation, Taxes, Tax, Tax resistance, Tax resister, Tax resistor, Evading taxes, Tax evasion
Bible reference(s): Matthew 22:17-21, Mark 12:14-17, Luke 20:22-25, Luke 23:2, John 19:12, John 19:15, Romans 13:6-7
Source: This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Render unto Caesar,” which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
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