Jesus Sends the Pharisees to School on Traps

Credit to St. Pete's Toronto

And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances,[a] but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius[b] and let me look at it.” And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar's.” Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” And they marveled at him.

- Mark 12:13-17 -

Odds are there has been a sermon or two preached about this very point in Mark's gospel story of the ministry of Jesus. I would guess it had to do with how to be a civil Christian under the appointment of a government you may or may not have fond feelings about. While that is a valid topic that can be exegetically understood in reading the text in it's face value, I always like to ask, "What would 1st century Jews and Gentiles think if they were listening to this story?" This is where we must exercise the arts of literary criticism and hermeneutics to answer that very question. Let me start by giving the mere highlights of the passage, along with some given assumptions about the story. Many people know the joke about what happens when you use the assume things, but assumptions can help preserve time as long as the assumptions are precise. 

The Pharisees were not fans of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth; nor his associate, John the Baptist. The main reason for this can be deduced through seeing the interactions of the Pharisees with the said characters. Both the protagonist (Jesus) and the supporting character (John) are seen consistently criticizing the Pharisees for what they perceive and declare as religious hypocrisy. Because of this, the Pharisees try persistently to interfere with, or interrupt, the ministry of Jesus. In this scenario, we see an example of said attempts in a verbal trap that is laid out. 

The Pharisees begin by "schmoozing" him; telling him about how good and true of a teacher he is. Then they ask him a question that contains potentially dangerous religious & socio-economic consequences. They ask him if it is lawful to pay taxes to the reigning Caesar of Rome (who at this time would have been Augustus). Augustus was a well-disdained political figure to the common people of Jerusalem and all of Judea because of his pagan belief that he was an adopted son of a god. So in the text, we have the Son of God being asked if God's people should pay taxes to someone who also claims divine sonship. Jesus responds in the way a good rabbi would, answering a question first with another question in response: "Whose face is on the coin?" I remember watching the History channel's The Bible television show. When this story is played out in the show, Jesus asks the question in a more curious tone of voice rather than rhetorical. When told it is Caesar's, Jesus essentially to give the government what is theirs, and to give God what is his. This puts the discernment back on the Pharisees and lay-people that were following him. How do we give Caesar what is his while also recognizing God is the supreme ruler of the world? Then it says that the crowds marveled at Jesus. I believe this surface-level reading of the text can have us very impressed by the witty comeback that Jesus lays out. I believe Jesus' response is in line with the attitude that the apostles Paul and Peter had in regards to honoring the government that Yahweh's people are under. I believe it is also an appropriate response based on the God has spoken to his people in similar situations before in the Old Testament. 

I mention all of this to say: the sermons we have probably have all heard are not wrong or partially true in regards to this part of Mark's gospel. I am not writing this blog to act as if I am smarter and other people are not in my league. There are far more intelligent people who have probably already done the research on the very subject I am about to talk about when it comes to what may be a historical context that I did not hear when sermons and writings were given about this particular part of the biblical text. My whole purpose in writing this is not to impress or "wow" anyone but to do something that I enjoy doing, hope that it adds something to the faith of other believers, and say amen to the teachings of people much older and wiser than I. With that being said, I hope you continue with me in this article now.  

What makes the Pharisees' question a trap?

Most people would agree that the Pharisees are trap Jesus with a verbal fork in the road that he must take.

1.He can tell the Pharisees that the Jews should not pay taxes to the Caesar. This could be because Augustus claims to be a god and that would be blasphemy. This could also be because the Old Testament Scriptures clearly teach that God gave the Israelites the land of Israel to inherit. This could also be a combination of the two. With either remark, Jesus could be endangering his life through imprisonment or a death penalty because it would questioning the authority of Caesar in a Roman-governed land. The normalizing of a common currency across the Roman Empire (inlcuding Jerusalem) was Julius Caesar's form of military propaganda and social intimidation. Today, such a tactic is called the cult of personality, not to be confused with the famous rock song.

2. He can tell the crowd that we should pay taxes and recognize Augustus as the Caesar, which could cause Jewish people to stop following him. The Jews were expecting their religious heroes to be military leaders. It is littered throughout the Old Testament of God's chosen leaders conquering pagan nations through military combat. In the deuterocanonical text of the Maccabees, we see a heroic stand to pagans who had defiled the Jewish temple, followed by that temple's re-consecration. It can make sense that the Jews would be disappointed to hear of a Messiah who would not be courageous like Judas Maccabeus against an empire reigning over God's beloved people. There is also the chance that some Jews would want Jesus stoned to death for blasphemy because it was common for recognition of Augustus to equate acknowledging the divine existence of Julius Caesar and the divine sonship of Augustus. Caesar's recognition as relating to divinity was such a strong belief to Roman loyalists that there was even a statue of the deified Caesar in the famous Roman Pantheon temple. This is why the Pharisees don't just ask if they simply should pay taxes, but rather they ask if it is lawful to pay taxes to a blasphemer like the Caesar.

While Jesus' answer is very witty and clever, I would like to propose that Jesus' response is historically rhetoric as well. 

Around the time of the the Hasmonean Civil War, the great Roman general Pompey had decided to make conquest of Jerusalem. The leaders of the two sides in the civil war were representative figures of the Pharisees and the Saducees (two relevant figures we see in the New Testament). The first would be Hyrcanus II, representing the side of the Pharisees. The second would be Astrobulus I, representing the side of the Saducees. Two diametrically opposed sides were at war with each other in division of control of Jerusalem and Judea. Both champions of their respected causes being children of Maccabean heritage. When Pompey had arrived in Jerusalem though, both sides ended up trying to persuade the pagan army to let their army fight with them against the opposition. Obviously both sides knew that Pompey was here to conquer the capital city of God's people, not merely pick a side to assist and form an alliance with. It would be Hyrcanus, the representative of the Pharisees who would bend the knee to Pompey and allow him to siege the city. In result, the Roman army slaughtered over 12,000 resisting Jewish forces and Pompey had stepped into the Holy of Holies making it ritually defiled. Astrobulus was no better, as he was also trying to ally with Pompey; but Hyrcanus ended up being the one that handed over Jerusalem to the dominion of pagan Rome. Pompey had made Hyrcanus the leader of Jerusalem in return, because he saw Hyrcanus as the easiest to manipulate. A Maccabean descendant had just been responsible for undoing all of the work that Judas Maccabeus had accomplished in preserving Judea as independent and under the direct authority of God alone. This would most importantly include the defiling of the sacred temple. 

At this same time, Julius Caesar was making his conquest of the Roman Empire in a power struggle with Pompey. When he had Pompey down in Alexandria, Egypt; he had made a crucial mistake and required assistance in his final defeat of Pompey. Hyrcanus could have simply used the moment to try to liberate Jerusalem from the conflicting powers. However, Hyrcanus decided to side with Caesar by sending 3,000 soldiers to his help. This would play a crucial role in Julius Caesar eventually becoming the sole emperor of the great Roman Empire. Hyrcanus was still in role as the leader, but the consequences of siding with the pagan empire are seen in the future rather than the present. In the long run of things Caesar would later be deified; Judea is now under the rule of Roman law; and Judea would find itself under the reign of Herod the Great. This same Herod the Great would be the tyrannical ruler named in the Gospels of the New Testament. 

Some questions may arise: 

"Why does all of this matter? Isn't this all background noise to the main point of Jesus teaching? Didn't you say that the main interpretation used is correct?"

While my answer to the last question is an emphatic YES, I believe the historical context makes such an interpretation go even deeper than it already was. 

If you take all these points as context clues, the richness of the historical emotions the Jewish audience would have been feeling at the time of this story come to life. The Pharisees are playing on the emotions of the Jewish crowd as a way to try to turn them against Jesus. These are the same Pharisees whose party  had been the very reason that the Jewish armies surrendered in fear and gave up their God-given right to dominion over the land in the first place (less than a century ago). Now, those same Pharisees (who are too politically powerful to overrule due to the backing of the Roman government) are trying to make Jesus the coward before Rome. They have seen it done before, and they are trying to do it again. They are trying to prove that Jesus (who identifies as the Messiah) is no different Hyrcanus. 

Although, one could argue that the stakes are even higher for Jesus compared to Hyrcanus and Astrobulus. Julius Caesar was not yet deified in Roman culture until he had died. Jesus recognizing the Caesar’s rule could have been much worse because to recognize the emperor strongly enough at that time would have been to recognize the deity of Julius and the deific sonship of the Roman emperor who was reigning at that time. 

Then there is the other side of the trap.  The Pharisees are also hoping that Jesus will try to be the next Judas Maccabeus and say “No way Jose. We are the people of God, and we shouldn’t be in this conundrum in the first place. It is time that we stand up to the false-god believing pagans and take back the land that God gave us. This would also prove Jesus to be another Hyrcanus, as Hyrcanus did not see his army as marching into a death sentence if they had tried to fight the Romans. The Pharisees knew that Jesus declaring un-allegiance to Rome was to find oneself under the judgement of Rome for treason. That is what many false messiahs had done in the past and were still doing at the time of Jesus. All of them faced the same result, a gruesome defeat and death penalty. 

Now we see in a richer context just how clever the remarks of Jesus truly are. Jesus says “whose face is on the coin?” The odds are in favor that Jesus had seen a denarius before. The odds are in favor that Jesus knew about the Maccabean revolt and had heard about in his visits to the synagogue. The odds are in favor that Jesus knew about Julius Caesar, Pompey, Hyrcanus, and Astrobulus. Therefore, one can conclude that the questions of whose face is on the coin is not a question of ignorance, but rhetoric. 

The reply of “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s” is like a loaded rubber band answering back at the Pharisees. Jesus puts the conflict back with even more weight on the Pharisees. 

In the Old Testament, God has told the Jews before to be submissive to the pagan nation’s laws of governance in regards to taxes and labor. However, many Jewish leaders (inlcuding the Pharisees) were in denial that they were under the imprisonment/exile from the Romans because of their partnering with Caesar in the battle versus Pompey. Ironically, the Pharisees refused to see that they were ultimately under the law of Rome as servant citizens rather than Yahweh's. This is why the Pharisees are seen as hypocritical all throughout the gospels and the passage is a prime example of that hypocrisy. The same Pharisee group that was responsible for surrendering Jerusalem to Caesar are the ones trying to get Jesus to surrender Jerusalem to Caesar or be killed for blasphemy of worship of a false god.

Jesus replies to the Pharisees with the perfect, awe-striking answer documented in a few words in this gospel. “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.” In other words, pay the government what they want while the people of God are in exile and under evil authority. The people of God have been instructed to do this before. Save your allegiance & worship for the one-true God.” 

If you are a Pharisee, how do you respond to that question? If you try to grill Jesus to have more allegiance to Caesar, you sound like you are trying to instruct another Jew to recognize a false god. If you try to grill Jesus to speak more against Caesar, the Roman authorities might have you arrested for trying to start a rebellion. 

If you add this with the fact that it was the Pharisees and Sadducees surrender to Rome that placed them in this exile in the first place, there is a weight that can be felt from their perspective.

Jesus’ mass of followers would have known this was a trap. That’s why Mark writes down that it is an attempt to verbally trap Jesus. This is also why Mark writes down the crowd was marveling at him. This was not only a moment of wit and cleverness, but a moment of profound teaching Jesus is giving to the Pharisees who were claiming to be the purifying teachers of God. The Pharisees knew the correct answer to give to their question, but they were attempting to see if Jesus would take the fork in road's two options. Instead, Jesus does what he always does and goes straight putting the pressure back on his enemies. The question of if the Jews should pay taxes goes back to laps of the ones who are responsible for Rome's taxation of God's people in the first place. 

The same message is in effect from a surface level reading of the English translation of the Bible, but I believe a little bit of historical research can help us see the message come to life with even more color than their was before. We see not only a Jesus who is incapable of being trapped by the Pharisees, but a Jesus who also turns that very trap against them. 

In a metaphor: Jesus pulls a Bugs Bunny by turning the accusation of "rabbit season" back at the Pharisees with their own point causing the Pharisees to say "it's duck season."