Payment of the Temple Tax

²⁴ On their arrival in Capernaum, the collectors of the Temple tax^[a] came to Peter and asked him, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the Temple tax?”

²⁵ “Yes, he does,” Peter replied. Then he went into the house.

But before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, “What do you think, Peter?^[b] Do kings tax their own people or the people they have conquered?^[c]”

²⁶ “They tax the people they have conquered,” Peter replied.

“Well, then,” Jesus said, “the citizens are free! ²⁷ However, we don’t want to offend them, so go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin.^[d] Take it and pay the tax for both of us.”

The Return to Nazareth

¹⁹ When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. ²⁰ “Get up!” the angel said. “Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”

²¹ So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother. ²² But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee. ²³ So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

²⁰ But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man^[a] has no place even to lay his head.”

²⁴ “Show me a Roman coin.^[a] Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

The Escape to Egypt

¹³ After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

¹⁴ That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, ¹⁵ and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”^[a]