"
Render unto Caesar…" is the beginning of a phrase attributed to
JesusJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
in the synoptic gospels which reads in full, “Render unto Caesar the things which 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 and secular authority. 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 whether it is desirable for the Christian to submit to earthly authority. Interpretations include the belief that it is good and appropriate to submit to the state when asked, that spiritual demands supersede earthly demands but do not abolish them, or that the demands of the state are non-negotiable. However others have also interpreted this saying as meaning that spiritual authority should maintain its independence from temporal authority, which rules by force rather than moral law.
Context
The Bible states 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 occupation. They anticipated that Jesus would oppose the tax, for Luke’s Gospels explains their purpose was “to hand him over to the power and authority of the governor.”
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2020:20;&version=31 The governor was Pilate, and he was the man responsible for the collecting of Rome's taxes in Judea. At first the questioners flattered Jesus by praising his integrity, impartiality and devotion to truth. Then they asked him whether or not it is right for Jews to pay the taxes demanded by Caesar. Jesus first called them hypocrites, and then asked one of them to produce a Roman coin that would be suitable for paying Caesar’s tax. One of them showed him a Roman coin, and he asked them whose name and inscription were on it. They answered, “Caesar’s,” and he responded “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.” His interrogators were flummoxed by this authoritative (though ambiguous) answer and left disappointed.
The Pharisees and the Herodians
The accounts in Matthew and Mark say that the questioners were Pharisees and Herodians (Luke says only that they were “spies” sent by “teachers of the law and the chief priests”).
The coin
The inscription on this coin reads “Ti[berivs] Caesar Divi Avg[vsti] F[ilivs] Avgvstvs” or “Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus.” To the Jews, this was blasphemous: the coin claims that
AugustusGaius Julius Caesar Augustus was the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in AD 14.
[These are the contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian after 45 BC...]
was a god.
Although the events in the parable took place well into the reign of
TiberiusTiberius Julius Caesar Augustus, born Tiberius Claudius Nero , was the second Roman Emperor, from the death of Augustus in AD 14 until his own death in 37. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla...
, it is also possible that an older coin still in circulation but featuring Augustus would have been used in the circumstances described.
Numismatists suggest that denarii were not in common circulation in Judaea during Jesus lifetime and that the coin may have been a provincial rather than an imperial one.
It is perhaps significant that Jesus did not have such a coin with him but that one of his questioners did.
Tax resistance in Iudaea
The taxes imposed on Iudaea by
RomeThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
had led to riots. New Testament scholar Willard Swartley writes:
The tax denoted in the text was a specific tax… It was a poll taxA poll tax, head tax, or capitation tax is a tax of a portioned, fixed amount per individual in accordance with the census . When a corvée is commuted for cash payment, in effect it becomes a poll tax...
, a tax instituted in A.D. 6. A census taken at that timeThe "Census of Quirinius" refers to the enrollment of the Roman Provinces of Syria and Iudaea for tax purposes taken in AD 6/7 during the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus, when Publius Sulpicius Quirinius was appointed governor of Syria, after the banishment of Herod Archelaus and the imposition...
(cf. Lk. 2:2) to determine the resources of the Jews provoked the wrath of the country. Judas of GalileeJudas of Galilee or Judas of Gamala led a violent resistance to the census imposed for Roman tax purposes by Quirinius in Iudaea Province around AD 6. The revolt was crushed brutally by the Romans...
led a revolt (Acts 5:37) which was suppressed only with some difficulty. Many scholars date the origin of the Zealot party and movement to this incident.
The
Jewish EncyclopediaThe Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. It contained over 15,000 articles in 12 volumes on the history and then-current state of Judaism and the Jews as of 1901...
says, of the Zealots:
When, in the year 5, Judas of Gamala in GalileeGalilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country...
started his organized opposition to Rome, he was joined by one of the leaders of the Pharisees, R. Zadok__notoc__Zadok is a Hebrew name, meaning "righteous", and was the name of several individuals in the Hebrew Bible:*Zadok , the first high priest of the Israelites in Jerusalem after it was conquered by David. Also written as Zadoq ....
, a disciple of ShammaiShammai was a Jewish scholar of the 1st century, and an important figure in Judaism's core work of rabbinic literature, the Mishnah....
and one of the fiery patriots and popular heroes who lived to witness the tragic end of JerusalemThe Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD was a decisive event in the First Jewish-Roman War. It was followed by the fall of Masada in 73 AD. The Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, with Tiberius Julius Alexander as his second-in-command, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which...
…. The taking of the census by Quirinus, the Roman procuratorA Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many provinces constituting the Roman Empire...
, for the purpose of taxation was regarded as a sign of Roman enslavement; and the Zealots’ call for stubborn resistance to the oppressor was responded to enthusiastically.
Accusations of tax resistance against Jesus
At his trial before
Pontius PilatePontius Pilate was the Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea from AD 26–36. Typically referenced as the fifth Procurator of Judea, he is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized his crucifixion.Pilate appears in all four canonical Christian Gospels...
, Jesus was accused of promoting resistance to Caesar's tax.
http://www.jesus-on-taxes.com/Page_7.htmlThen the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ/Messiah, a king.”
One of the theses of an essay by Ned Netterville entitled,
Jesus of Nazareth, Illegal-Tax Protester, is that the principal reason why Pilate crucifed Jesus was for his opposition to Rome's taxes. Evidence of Jesus' guilt could have been presented showing he had interfered with Rome’s collection of taxes by calling Matthew (a.k.a. Levi) away from his tax booth in the midst of his duties . Pilate may have known or could have been told that Jesus had induced one of his chief tax collectors,
ZacchaeusZacchaeus , according to chapter 19 of the gospel of Luke, was a superintendent of customs; a chief tax-gatherer at Jericho...
, to repent and resign his leading position in a Roman territory where Pilate was personally responsible for tax collections . Evidence could have been introduced showing that Jesus spoke disparagingly of tax collectors on several occasions , even equating tax collectors with prostitutes . Jesus was known to enjoy the company of tax collectors, for instance at dinners in the homes of Matthew and Zacchaeus, so he may have influenced others to quit their profession to follow him. Jesus showed compassion for tax collectors as he did to other vilified groups, such as prostitutes.
Interpretations
The gospels say that when Jesus gave his response, his interrogators “marvelled, and left him, and went their way.” They were unsuccessful in getting Jesus to unambiguously come out either in favor of paying the tribute to Rome or in favor of
tax resistanceTax resistance is the refusal to willingly pay a tax because of opposition to the institution that is imposing the tax, or to some of that institution’s policies....
. Advocates for either argument could interpret his words in either way.
Time has not resolved this ambiguity, and people continue to interpret this passage to support positions that are poles apart.
Separation of church and state
Jesus can be interpreted to be saying that his religious teachings were separate from earthly political activity. This reading finds support in
JohnThe Gospel of John , is the last of the four canonical gospels. This non synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth...
18:36, where Jesus responds to
Pontius PilatePontius Pilate was the Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea from AD 26–36. Typically referenced as the fifth Procurator of Judea, he is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized his crucifixion.Pilate appears in all four canonical Christian Gospels...
about the nature of his kingdom, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” This reflects a traditional division in Christian thought by which
stateA sovereign state is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state...
and
churchChristian Church and church Christian Church and church Christian Church and church (Greek kyriakon, "thing belonging to the Lord"; also ekklesia (Latinized as ecclesia, "assembly") are used to denote both a Christian association of people and a place of worship. In the phenomenological sense there...
have separate
spheres of influenceIn the field of international relations, a sphere of influence is an area or region over which a state or organization has significant cultural, economic, military or political influence....
.
Others read this passage to suggest that Jesus wanted his followers to be very careful in determining where God and Caesar came into conflict so as to be able to discriminate appropriately between what they owe to one and to the other — the very opposite of an aloof, apolitical stand, and one which was exemplified by the persecuted apostles in
Acts 5, when they said in reference to teaching about Jesus, “We ought to obey God rather than men.”
Justification for obeying authority, paying taxes
- see also: Christianity and politics: Be subject to ruling authorities
Some read the phrase “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s” as unambiguous at least to the extent that it commands us to respect state authority and to pay the taxes it demands of us.
In this interpretation, Jesus asked his interrogators to produce a coin in order to demonstrate to them that by using his coinage they had already admitted the
de facto rule of the emperor, and that therefore they should submit to that rule.
FOr example, one Mennonite explained why he was not a war tax resister this way:
We are against war and do not wish to aid the war effort by conscription or by paying war taxes to the government. Doing so only helps to strengthen and perpetuate the war machine. Matthew 22:21 Jesus said “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” Romans 13:1 “Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God and those which exist are established by God.” ¶ If the law of the land is that everyone must pay war taxes then that is what we must do. It is the law! We should however, work and pray extremely hard to change the law. The ideal situation would be to have the law abolished. The alternative would be to have a choice of designating our portion of the war tax towards efforts of peacemaking. This route would be a more lawful, constructive and positive effort.
Giving God the benefit of the doubt
MennoniteThe Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
pastor John K. Stoner spoke for those who interpret the parable as permitting or even encouraging
tax resistanceTax resistance is the refusal to willingly pay a tax because of opposition to the institution that is imposing the tax, or to some of that institution’s policies....
: “We are war tax resisters because we have discovered some doubt as to what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God, and have decided to give the benefit of the doubt to God.”
When he said to "give Caesar what belongs to Caesar," Jesus, who was intimately familiar with Scripture, may have had Psalm 24:1 in mind, which says, "The earth and everything on it belong to the LORD. The world and its people belong to him,"
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%2024:1;&version=46; which obviously leaves nothing at all for Caesar. (Jesus could also have cited Exodus 9:29
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%209:29;&version=46;, or Deuteronomy 10:14
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2010:14;&version=46;, or 1 Samuel 2:8
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%202:8;&version=46;, or Nehemiah 9:6, all of which posit that everything belongs to God.)
Devote your life to God
One interpretation of Jesus’s words was that he was making an analogy — the coin is made on the orders of the emperor and is stamped with the image of the emperor, and the emperor may call on you to give it to him in tribute; by analogy, you were made by God and in God’s image, and you must therefore devote your life in tribute to God, rather than Caesar.
TertullianQuintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian, was a prolific and controversial early Christian Berber author, and the first to write Christian Latin literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy...
, in
De Idololatria, interprets Jesus as saying to render “the image of Caesar, which is on the coin, to Caesar, and the image of God, which is on man, to God; so as to render to Caesar indeed money, to God yourself. Otherwise, what will be God’s, if all things are Caesar’s?”
Leo TolstoyLeo Tolstoy, or Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy , was a Russian writer widely regarded as among the greatest of novelists. His masterpieces War and Peace and Anna Karenina represent in their scope, breadth and vivid depiction of 19th-century Russian life and attitudes, the peak of realist...
wrote: “Not only the complete misunderstanding of Christ’s teaching, but also a complete unwillingness to understand it could have admitted that striking misinterpretation, according to which the words, ‘To Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s,’ signify the necessity of obeying Cæsar. In the first place, there is no mention there of obedience; in the second place, if Christ recognized the obligatoriness of paying tribute, and so of obedience, He would have said directly, ‘Yes, it should be paid;’ but He says, ‘Give to Cæsar what is his, that is, the money, and give your life to God,’ and with these latter words He not only does not encourage any obedience to power, but, on the contrary, points out that in everything which belongs to God it is not right to obey Cæsar.”
Highlighting the dangers of cooperating with the state
Some see the parable as being Jesus’s warning to people that if they collaborate too closely with godless state authority (for instance, by using its legal tender), they become beholden to it. In
Henry David ThoreauHenry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, philosopher, and leading transcendentalist...
’s
Civil DisobedienceCivil Disobedience is an essay by Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849. It argues that people should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that people have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of...
, he writes:
Christ answered the Herodians according to their condition. “Show me the tribute-money,” said he; — and one took a penny out of his pocket; — If you use money which has the image of Caesar on it, and which he has made current and valuable, that is, if you are men of the State, and gladly enjoy the advantages of Caesar’s government, then pay him back some of his own when he demands it; “Render therefore to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God those things which are God’s” — leaving them no wiser than before as to which was which; for they did not wish to know.
Mennonite Dale Glass-Hess wrote:
It is inconceivable to me that Jesus would teach that some spheres of human activity lie outside the authority of God. Are we to heed Caesar when he says to go to war or support war-making when Jesus says in other places that we shall not kill? No! My perception of this incident is that Jesus does not answer the question about the morality of paying taxes to Caesar, but that he throws it back on the people to decide. When the Jews produce a denarius at Jesus’ request, they demonstrate that they are already doing business with Caesar on Caesar’s terms. I read Jesus’ statement, "Give to Caesar…" as meaning “Have you incurred a debt in regard to Caesar! Then you better pay it off.” The Jews had already compromised themselves. Likewise for us: we may refuse to serve Caesar as soldiers and even try to resist paying for Caesar’s army. But the fact is that by our lifestyles we’ve run up a debt with Caesar, who has felt constrained to defend the interests that support our lifestyles. Now he wants paid back, and it’s a little late to say that we don’t owe anything. We’ve already compromised ourselves. If we’re going to play Caesar’s games, then we should expect to have to pay for the pleasure of their enjoyment. But if we are determined to avoid those games, then we should be able to avoid paying for them.
Mohandas K. Gandhi shared this perspective. He wrote:
Jesus evaded the direct question put to him because it was a trap. He was in no way bound to answer it. He therefore asked to see the coin for taxes. And then said with withering scorn, “How can you who traffic in Caesar’s coins and thus receive what to you are benefits of Caesar’s rule refuse to pay taxes?” Jesus’s whole preaching and practice point unmistakably to noncooperation, which necessarily includes nonpayment of taxes.
Non-instructional, merely adroit
Some people consider this parable as not primarily instructional but as an example of Jesus’s skill in thinking on his feet. His questioners tried to trap him between the horns of a dangerous either/or question, and he deftly gave an answer that seemed to meet the question head-on but actually avoided taking a position.
In another incident (
Matthew 21:23-27,
Luke 20:1-8,
Mark 11:27-33), Jesus reverses the roles — putting his critics between the horns of a dilemma when he asks “John’s baptism — was it from heaven, or from men?”:
They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.” So they answered, “We don’t know where it was from.”
Perhaps the incident with Caesar’s coin is merely meant to highlight Jesus’s superior debate skills, not what position Jesus had on taxation or on the proper relationship of people to their conquerors.
Indifference to wealth
This phrase can also be interpreted as Jesus saying that, since the money belongs to the government (the government made the money and thus is the real owner of it), and that the government mandates that one must pay taxes, then one should not resist and simply pay the tax, rather than be upset over having to give it up and coveting the money, since money is nothing but an earthly distraction.
Caesar's money is not money for the peoples benefit
Christians who believe the current monetary system is corrupt and is designed only to benefit the few rich and powerful
enslaving the common man, consider this phrase to suggest that we ought not covet currencies that are imposed on us by the rich and powerful. This view is believed to be supported by the one violent act of Jesus,
turning over the tables of the money changersThe narrative of Jesus and the Money Changers occurs in all four Gospels in the New Testament. It occurs near the end of the Synoptic Gospels and near the start in the Gospel of John...
.
American Quaker war tax resisters
As American Quaker war tax resistance developed during the 17th through 19th centuries, the resisters had to find a way to reconcile their tax resistance with the "Render unto Caesar" verse and other verses from the New Testament that encourage submission to the government. Here are a few examples:
Around 1715, a pseudonymous author, "Philalethes," published a pamphlet entitled
Tribute to Cæsar, How paid by the Best Christians... in which he argued that while Christians must pay "general" taxes, a tax that is explicitly for war purposes is the equivalent to an offering on an altar to a pagan god, and this is forbidden.
In 1761, Joshua Evans put it this way:
Others would term it stubbornness in me, or contrary to the doctrine of Christ, concerning rendering to Caesar his due. But as I endeavored to keep my mind in a state of humble quietude, I was favored to see through such groundless arguments; there being nothing on the subject of war, or favorable to it, to be found in that text. Although I have been willing to pay my money for the use of civil government, when legally called for; yet have I felt restrained by a conscientious motive, from paying towards the expense of killing men, women and children, or laying towns and countries waste.
In 1780, Sameul Allinson circulated a letter on the subject of tax resistance in which he insisted that what was due to Caesar was only that which Caesar would not use for antichristian purposes:
…the question put to our Savior on the point was with evil intention to ensnare and render him culpable to one of the great parties or sects then existing, who differed about the payment of taxes, his answer, though conclusive, was so wisely framed that it left them still in doubt, what things belonged to Cæsar and what to God, thus he avoided giving either of them offence which he must inevitably have done by a determination that tribute indefinitely was due to Cæsar. Our first and principle obedience is due to the Almighty, even in contradiction to man, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). Hence, if tribute is demanded for a use that is antichristian, it seems right for every Christian to deny it, for Cæsar can have no title to that which opposes the Lord’s command.
In 1862, Joshua Maule wrote that he felt that the “Render unto Caesar” instruction was compatible with war tax resistance, as there was no reason to believe for certain that the tax referred to in that episode had any connection to war:
The words of Christ, “Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” have often been brought forward as evidence that He approved of paying all taxes; it being said, in connection, that Cæsar was then engaged in war. The distinction, however, is sufficiently clear: the things that were Cæsar’s were, doubtless, those which appertain to the civil government; the things which belong to God are, surely, a clear and full obedience to His commands and to His laws. We know that all the precepts and commands of Christ which can be applied in reference to this subject are of one tendency, enjoining “peace on earth and good-will to men.” We do not know, after all, however, what was the exact nature and use of the tribute collected in those days, nor what were the situation and circumstances in which Christians or others were then placed in regard to such things.
Christian anarchist tax resisters
Dorothy DayDorothy Day was an American journalist, social activist, distributist, anarchist, and devout Catholic convert...
of the
Catholic WorkerThe Catholic Worker is a monthly newspaper published by the Catholic Worker Movement community in New York City. The newspaper was started by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin to make people aware of church teaching on social justice. Day said the word "Worker" in the paper's title referred to "those...
movement put it this way: “If we rendered unto God all the things that belong to God, there would be nothing left for Caesar.” She also advocated a life of voluntary poverty by saying “the less you have of Caesar’s, the less you have to give to Caesar.”
Ammon HennacyAmmon Hennacy was an American pacifist, Christian anarchist, vegetarian, social activist, member of the Catholic Worker Movement and a Wobbly. He established the "Joe Hill House of Hospitality" in Salt Lake City, Utah and practiced tax resistance.-Biography:Hennacy was born in Negley, Ohio to...
was on trial for
civil disobedienceCivil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government, or of an occupying power, without resorting to physical violence. It is one of the primary methods of nonviolent resistance...
and was asked by the judge to reconcile his tax resistance with Jesus’s instructions. “I told him Caesar was getting too much around here and some one had to stand up for God.” Elsewhere, he interpreted the story in this way:
[Jesus] was asked if He believed in paying taxes to Caesar. In those days different districts had different money and the Jews had to change their money into that of Rome, so Jesus asked, not for a Jewish coin, but for a coin with which tribute was paid, saying “Why tempt me?” Looking at the coin He asked whose image and superscription was there inscribed and was told that it was Caesar’s. Those who tried to trick Him knew that if He said that taxes were to be paid to Caesar He would be attacked by the mobs who hated Caesar, and if He refused to pay taxes there would always be some traitor to turn Him in. His mission was not to fight Caesar as Barabbas had done, but it was to chase the moneychangers out of the Temple and to establish His own Church. Whether He winked as much as to say that any good Jew knew that Caesar did not deserve a thing as He said, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s,” or not, no one knows.
…Despite what anyone says each of us has to decide for himself whether to put the emphasis upon pleasing Caesar or pleasing God. We may vary in our reasons for drawing the line here or there as to how much we render unto Caesar. I make my decision when I remember that Christ said to the woman caught in sin, “Let him without sin first cast a stone at her.” I remember His “Forgive seventy times seven,” which means no Caesar at all with his courts, prisons and war.
Versions
The
extracanonicalThe New Testament apocrypha are a number of writings by early Christians that give accounts of Jesus and his teachings, the nature of God, or the teachings of his apostles and of their lives. These writings often have links with those books which are regarded as "canonical"...
Gospel of ThomasThe Gospel According to Thomas , also known as The Gospel of Thomas, is a New Testament apocryphon, nearly completely preserved in a Coptic papyrus manuscript discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt...
also has a version, which reads in the Scholar's Version 100:
They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him, “The Roman emperor’s people demand taxes from us.” He said to them, “Give the emperor what belongs to the emperor, give God what belongs to God, and give me what is mine.”
The fragmentary
Egerton GospelThe Egerton Gospel refers to a group of fragments of a codex of a previously unknown gospel, found in Egypt and sold to the British Museum in 1934; the physical fragments are now dated to the very end of the 2nd century AD, although the date of composition is less clear - perhaps 50-100 AD...
in the Scholar’s Version translation (found in
The Complete Gospels) 3:1-6 reads:
They come to him and interrogate him as a way of putting him to the test. They ask, “Teacher, Jesus, we know that you are [from God], since the things you do put you above all the prophets. Tell us, then, is it permissible to pay to rulers what is due them? Should we pay them or not?” Jesus knew what they were up to, and became indignant. Then he said to them, “Why do you pay me lip service as a teacher, but not [do] what I say? How accurately Isaiah prophesied about you when he said, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart stays far away from me; their worship of me is empty, [because they insist on teachings that are human] commandments […]’”
See also
- Doctrine of the two kingdoms
Martin Luther's doctrine of the two kingdoms of God teaches that God is the ruler of the whole world and that he rules in two ways....
- Christianity and politics
The relationship between Christianity and politics is a historically complex subject.-Foundations:The Hebrew Bible contains a complex chronicle of the Kings of Israel and Judah, written over the course of many generations by authors whose relationships and intimacy with the rulers of the several...
- Parables of Jesus
The parables of Jesus, found in the synoptic gospels, embody much of Jesus' teaching.Jesus' parables are quite simple, memorable stories, often with humble imagery, each with a single message. Jesus, for example, likened the Kingdom of God to leaven or a mustard seed. Like his aphorisms, Jesus'...
External links