The Pharisees: Is It Lawful to Pay Taxes to Caesar?^(A)

^20 (B)So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on His words, in order to deliver Him to the power and the authority of the governor.

⁵⁴ lying in wait for Him, ^[a]and ^(A)seeking to catch Him in something He might say, ^[b]that they might accuse Him.

The Pharisees: Is It Lawful to Pay Taxes to Caesar?^(A)

^15 (B)Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. ¹⁶ And they sent to Him their disciples with the ^(C)Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not ^[a]regard the person of men. ¹⁷ Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

¹⁸ But Jesus ^[b]perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? ¹⁹ Show Me the tax money.”

So they brought Him a denarius.

²⁰ And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”

²¹ They said to Him, “Caesar’s.”

And He said to them, ^(D)“Render^[c] therefore to Caesar the things that are ^(E)Caesar’s, and to God the things that are ^(F)God’s.” ²² When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.

² And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and ^(A)delivered Him to ^[a]Pontius Pilate the governor.

¹⁹ But I was like a docile lamb brought to the slaughter; and I did not know that they had devised schemes against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, ^(A)and let us cut him off from ^(B)the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more.”

³ By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction ^[a]does not slumber.

In Pilate’s Court^(A)

^28 (B)Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. ^(C)But they themselves did not go into the ^[a]Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. ^29 (D)Pilate then went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this Man?”

³⁰ They answered and said to him, “If He were not ^[b]an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you.”

³¹ Then Pilate said to them, “You take Him and judge Him according to your law.”

Therefore the Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death,” ^32 (E)that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled which He spoke, ^(F)signifying by what death He would die.

²⁶ But they could not catch Him in His words in the presence of the people. And they marveled at His answer and kept silent.