Lange Commentary - Luke 20:20 - 20:26

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Lange Commentary - Luke 20:20 - 20:26


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

2. Controversy with the Pharisees and Herodians respecting the Tribute (Luk_20:20-26)

(Parallels: Mat_22:15-22; Mar_12:13-17)

20And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words [of some word of his], that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor. 21And they asked him, saying, Master [Teacher], we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any [or, showest no partiality], but teachest the way of God 22,truly: Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Cesar, or no [not]? 23But he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt ye me? 24Shew me a penny [a denarius]. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Cesar’s. 25And he said unto them, Render therefore [Then render] unto Cesar the things which be [are] Cesar’s, and unto God the things which be [are] God’s. 26And they could not take hold of his words [saying] before the people: and they marvelled at his answer, and held their peace.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luk_20:20. And they watched Him.—After the defeat just suffered, nothing is more natural than that the Pharisees should look around partly for other confederates and partly for other weapons. While they before sought in vain to make their authority weigh, they now take refuge in craft, and after old combatants for the law have been put to shame and obliged to leave the field vanquished, now new and, in great part, vigorous picked troops are despatched. While, after what has just taken place, the Pharisees remain standing on the watch ( ðáñáôçñÞóáíôåò ), they send the Herodians to Jesus (see Lange on Mat_22:15), together with some of their disciples (Mat_22:16). Even earlier we have met with a similar temporary coalition of heterogeneous forces (Mar_2:18; Luk_23:5-17); later on, we shall find the same in yet greater measure. Moreover, it is easily comprehensible that two enemies should give up their mutual hatred for a while, when the concern is to strive against a dangerous third. Equally explicable is the change in the choice of the weapons. After the open defeat they pass over to a more concealed manner of waging war. A new disappointment will then be less ignominious, the ardently desired triumph not less advantageous. They choose, therefore, ambassadors who, as people strict in the law, must put on the guise of being concerned with a personal question of conscience, as if they were by no means set on by others to come to Him, and who must seek to accomplish their object through flattering speeches.

To the power and authority of the governor.—A statement of the purpose peculiar to Luke, which, however, is probable on internal grounds also. They wish to bring matters to this pass, that the civil power shall lend them its hand to remove this man out of the way, against whom the spiritual authority has in vain armed itself. Upon this support they reckon definitely in case He gives to the question proposed, as is expected, a negative answer, in order to please the people, with whom He now appears to be making common cause against their own rulers, Luk_20:9. If He, on the other hand, espouses the party of the foreign oppressors, He would thereby lose all His credit with this same people. After such a mature deliberation they came forward, like Satan, as angels of light, 2Co_11:14.

Luk_20:21. Teacher, we know.—There is something naïve and at the same time a proof of the incorrigible self-conceit of the Pharisaical party in this, that they even now, after the elders of the people had just before, Luk_20:7, seen themselves constrained to a public confession of their ignorance, begin with a presumptuous “We know.” The purpose of this eulogy is, as to the rest, intelligible enough. “In thee,” do they mean, “we believe we meet with exactly that independent man, from whose position our question can be answered with entire impartiality.” That they could scarcely have uttered sharper satire on themselves than by this eulogy on the Saviour does not even remotely occur to them. As to the rest, the question how far they themselves really believed anything of the favorable testimony which they here publicly depose in reference to our Lord, can only be answered conjecturally.—Showest no partiality.—Literally, “Acceptest not the person (the countenance),” ïὐ ëáìâÜíåéò ðñüóùðïí , comp. Gal_2:6, yet stronger than the ïὐ âëÝðåéò åἰò ðñüóùðïí in the parallel, and a definite designation of judicial impartiality.

Luk_20:22. Is it lawful for us.—For the emphatical and most categorical form of the question, see Mark. Luke uses the Greek word èüñïí äïῦíáé , while the others make use of the Latin êῆíóïí : “Poll and ground taxes, to be distinguished from ôÝëïò , the indirect taxes (on goods).” Meyer. The question has its peculiar difficulty. It appeared to be forbidden, Deu_17:15, for a stranger to rule over Israel, as was now the case. The malcontents, with Judas Galilæus at their head, who would have no other taxes paid than the temple-taxes, stood, therefore, apparently upon the ground of the Scripture. But if Jesus declared their principle valid, He would oppose Himself to the order of things that had now been induced under higher guidance, and would come into personal conflict with the civil power, with that of the Procurator.

Luk_20:23. Perceived their craftiness, êáôáíïÞóáò .—Still more strongly does Matthew say ãíïýò , and Mark åἰäþò , by which the immediateness of His knowledge is made prominent, which was by no means the result of a long deliberate reflection. Not to gain time, does He desire that a denarius should be shown Him. With the inquiry, Whose image and superscription hath it? the question is in effect already decided. A number of Rabbinical declarations, for more particular explanation of the immutable principle, “He whose coin is current is lord of the land,” we find in Lightfoot and Wetstein, ad loc.

Luk_20:25. Then render.—The wisdom in the answer becomes first fairly visible if we give heed to the tacit presupposition from which the question had proceeded. “The silly question,” as the Wandsbecker Bote names it not unjustly, could not have arisen in their heart if they had not proceeded from the principle that such a civil transaction was in conflict with a higher religious duty. Our Lord resolves this antagonism in a higher unity, and already distinguishes the political from the religious sphere, while they confound the two jurisdictions. By the receiving of the coin of the Emperor—not the name of Tiberius, but the official title Cœsar, is given, because it is here not a person but a principle that is in question—they had shown that they regarded themselves as his subjects, and they now, therefore, would be inconsistent with themselves if they refused to fulfil the first civil duty towards him. Without expressing the least preference for the Roman dominion, our Lord was yet too well acquainted with the condition and the views of the Jewish nation not to have at once regarded every external essay for the restoration of civil freedom, which as such could not at that time have proceeded from a purely Theocratical, but only from an earthly temper, as mischievous and superfluous. He combated at the same time the opinion that such an obedience was in conflict with religious duties. The denarii were not even received as temple-taxes; the shekel of the sanctuary could therefore, as ever, be paid in addition. Here, therefore, the suum cuique holds good in the higher sense of the word, and they had only to see to it that they fulfilled each part of their double obligation with equal conscientiousness. The admirableness of the answer of our Lord consists, therefore, in this, that He: 1. Shows how the whole alternative in the present condition of things was entirely untenable; that He, 2. puts to shame before the judgment-seat of their conscience those who had come forward with the pretence of knowledge, since this must have given them plainly enough to know that they had fulfilled befittingly neither the one nor the other half of His double requirement; while He, 3. utters a principle for all following centuries, by which, on the one hand, the independence, on the other hand, the practically social direction, of the religious life is sufficiently secured. See below.

Luk_20:26. And they could not take hold.—All the Synoptics are careful to speak of the astonishment of the questioners, which, therefore, must have revealed itself in a very visible manner. Luke denotes particularly the completeness of their defeat by this, that they themselves ïὐê ῥῆìá ἐíáíôßïí ôïí ͂ ëáïῦ ἐðéëáâÝóèáé ß ̓ ó÷õóáí . The critical character that this moment would have had for the reputation of our Lord with the people, if He had not succeeded in rending the snare laid, is brought by this intimation to light.—̓ Åóßãçóáí .—Not only these speakers, but also in and with them the Pharisees, who now venture no further attack. Before their departure they stand there for a moment holding their peace.—A well-known painting of the whole event by Dietrici.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1.See on the parallel passages in Matthew and Mark, as also above.

2. The principle uttered by our Lord on this occasion, is not in conflict with the way in which He previously expresses Himself to Peter respecting the payment of the temple-tax, Mat_17:24-27. Here it is a civil, there it is a religious tax that is spoken of; here the rule is established according to which subjects have to conduct themselves with reference to earthly authority; there, on the other hand, the freedom vindicated which the Son may assert for Himself in reference to the house of His Royal Father.

3. The answer of the text has been on one hand judged with considerable disfavor (Gfrörer); on the other hand greeted with warm praise, e. g., by the Wandsbecker Bote: “What a sense there is in all that comes out of His mouth! It seems to me therewith as it does with those boxes where there is one inside of another and another inside of that, &c.” That this praise is not pitched too high, appears plain if we consider how our Lord has here said no word too much, nor yet a word too little, and how His utterance is peculiarly adapted not only to remove for Himself every perplexity and difficulty, but also to hurl back the arrow which they had directed upon Him into their own conscience. Had they at all times given to God the things that were God’s, they would now have had no tribute to pay to a foreign ruler. Therefore, even assuming that there prevailed here a conflict of duties, this had arisen from their own folly. If they give truly to the emperor his own— ôὰ ôïῦ êáßó . denotes first the coin, but then also, latiori sensu, the civil faithfulness and submission which, as it were, concentrated themselves in the tribute—they would then not so eagerly long to withdraw themselves from the imperial yoke, nor yet to make common cause with its enemies. Thus does our Lord coördinate and subordinate the different duties which in their opinion stood in irreconcilable opposition.

4. To Cœsar the things which are Cœsar’s. By the answer of our Lord the fulfilment of the civil duty actually imposed is partly allowed, partly commanded, partly restrained within sacred limits. It shows plainly that it was not His business to encroach arbitrarily upon social life, comp. Luk_12:14; that even from reverence to God we are to honor the authority appointed by Him; that the duty to the earthly lawgiver may be refused only in the one case when it comes into irreconcilable conflict with the requirements of the heavenly one. The principle here expressed is developed fully in the spirit of our Lord, Act_4:20; Act_5:29; Rom_13:1-7; 1Pe_2:13, and elsewhere; comp. also the writings of the elder apologists, and Calvin’s Preface to his Institutes, &c. The Divine right to govern is, therefore, taken by our Lord and His first witnesses under their protection as definitely as the freedom of conscience, and political absolutism is as far from finding a support in His word as radicalism or the diseased craving for revolution. The independence of the church and of the state within the sphere appointed to each, is assured by the principle here uttered, and every essay towards the untimely absorption of the one in the other condemned, as in conflict with the spirit of the gospel.

5. To God the things which are God’s.—The general rule, of which the preceding is only the application to a particular sphere. To Cæsar what is his, so far as it is required, but to God thyself, since thou art created after His image. Only if we assume that this thought hovered before the soul of our Lord, do we learn to understand the depth and beauty of His answer. The soul of man is to Him the coin which originally bore God’s image and superscription (the new birth cannot come here into view), and for this reason belongs wholly to the Heavenly Owner. Not only repentance, therefore (Ebrard), but faith, obedience unconditionally rendered, and faithfulness to God, is here demanded by our Lord. Comp. Pro_23:26. Whoever understands this, will even for God and conscience’ sake render to Cæsar also his own, and be thoroughly free, to what earthly lord soever he may owe service and obedience. The ôὰôïῦÈåïῦ ôø ͂ Èåø ͂ may be called a short summary of all the commandments of the first table, and affords at the same time a new proof how the Son even to the end at every opportunity sought not His own but the Father’s glory.

6. Quesnel:—The image of princes that is stamped upon coins, signifies that temporal things belong to their province. The image of God that is stamped in our soul, teaches that our heart belongs to Him.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The controversy of the lie against the truth; the triumph of the truth over the lie.—The unnatural coalitions of ecclesiastical and political parties which are in principle opposed.—Craft over against our Lord is as powerless as force.—The end sanctifies the means, a rule that was not first discovered by Ignatius de Loyola.—Even His enemies are constrained to proclaim the praise of our Lord.—The ideal of a perfect teacher, as the Pharisees portrayed it, is to be taken to heart by every servant of the Lord: 1. He teaches the way of God truly; 2. he takes account of no man’s authority; 3. he is in himself true, without depending on any one.—The masters in Israel not the only ones who have remained far below their own ideal.—What in each sphere is permitted and what not, must be made out by Jesus.—The crafty heart lies naked and open in its depths before the Omniscient, Jer_17:10-11.—“Render to Cæsar,” &c., the fundamental law of the kingdom of God, whereby: 1. On the one hand the relation of the Christian to the earth; 2. on the other hand his vocation for heaven, is defined.—Our obligation towards God the natural consequence of our relation to God.—Render to God what is God’s: 1. A simple but very comprehensive requirement; 2. a natural but necessary requirement; 3. a difficult but blessed requirement.—How many are put to shame and condemned by this word of our Lord: 1. There are those who give neither to Cæsar nor to God; 2. to Cæsar indeed, but not to God; 3. to God indeed, but not to Cæsar; 4. as well to God as to Cæsar what is His own, but still too weakly, too slothfully, and too little.—How the impotency of sin is every time revealed anew.—The best tribute have His foes stubbornly refused the Messiah, and therefore with the fullest right paid forced tribute to Cæsar.

Starke:—When an ungodly man makes himself devout, he is worse than bad.—Bibl. Wirt.:—The ungodly continually torment themselves.—Brentius:—To be able to settle their position and unsettle it is a troublesome evil, but the righteous marks it and abominates it.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Even the ungodly can tell the truth, and God may use them as instruments for His glory.—The children of the devil have great likeness to their father.—Take time in everything, and answer considerately.—It is a singular wisdom to convict the enemies of the truth by their own words.—Luther:—Fear of God and honor due the king are two fundamental particulars of the Christian religion, which are inseparably united.—Hedinger:—To every one his own, to God obedience, to our neighbor love, to the government its dues, to the devil sin (? rejection).—The spiritual and the secular realm must neither abrogate nor hinder one another.—Brentius:—The Divine truth imposes at the last on all witlings an eternal silence.—Heubner:—The true Christian is to be lifted above political parties.—The true saint inspires a reverence even in his enemies.—The saints are not fools.—The best Christian the best subject.—Of the three systems, the hierarchical, the territorial, and the collegial system, the latter appears to admit best of agreement with this passage.—Fuchs:—Render to God what is God’s: 1. A penitent; 2. believing; 3. patient; 4. obedient heart.—Couard:—The confession of His enemies that Christ teaches the way of God aright obliges us: 1. To receive His doctrine believingly; 2. to follow His doctrine willingly; 3. to work for His doctrine with joyful courage.—Westermeyer:—The right hand of the Lord getteth the victory.

On the Pericope.—Ahlfeld:—The world’s craft shattered against the simplicity of the humble Christian.—Gabler:—What assures us best against the falsehood of the world?—Stier:—Why and how are we as Christians subject to every earthly authority? —Seubert:—The true Christian is also the freest citizen.—Steinmeyer:—In all uncertainties say only: Show me the coin! Look upon it carefully, whose its image and superscription is, and then render to every one his own. If you are wavering on the Lord’s day, whether you should use it for earthly activity or for participation in the sweet services of the Lord’s house, only look upon the coin; the image and superscription of this day is God’s: He hath hallowed it; therefore must we give Him what is His own, &c.—Arndt:—The repulse of the Pharisees: 1. The rich intelligence; 2. the widely comprehensive application of the pregnant answer of our Lord.—By this requirement to give every one not what we please, but what belongs to him, the might of selfishness is broken, from which the whole attack and coalition of the Pharisees and Herodians had proceeded.—The Lord addresses Himself with this His principle to the natural feeling of right, which even in fallen man is yet extant.

Footnotes:

[Luk_20:20.—Van Oosterzee translates äéêáßïõò , gesetzesstrenge Leute, “strict observers of the law,” which is doubtless its meaning in this place. They professed an anxious desire to know just how they could reconcile their duty to the law with their actual subjection to the Romans.—C. C. S.]

[Luk_20:20.—According to the most approved reading: ἐðéëÜâùíôáé áὐôïῦ ëüãïõ . It appears better, with Bleek, to make the first genitive depend on the second, than to regard both as depending directly on the verb, although, it is true, De Wette, Meyer, Van Oosterzee, and Alford adopt the latter construction.—C. C. S.]

[Luk_20:20.— Ôῇ ἀñ÷ῇ êáὶ ôῇ ἐîïõóßᾳ ô . ἡ . Van Oosterzee translates: “to the authorities, and especially to the power of the procurator,” taking the two nouns as indicating respectively the Jewish and the Roman power. In this Meyer agrees with him, but it seems to be straining a point. It is enough to regard it as a formula for Pilate’s jurisdiction, rendered pleonastically full by the solemnity of the events which it introduces.—C. C. S.]

Luk_20:23.—In B., L., [Cod. Sin.,] and some Cursives, these words [Why tempt ye Me?] do not appear. Perhaps they have crept in here from the parallel passage in Mat_22:18.