Matthew 22:15-46

Christian Standard Bible

God and Caesar

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to trap him by what he said.^{[a](A) 16} So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians.^(B) “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are truthful and teach truthfully the way of God. You don’t care what anyone thinks nor do you show partiality.^{[b](C) 17} Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar^(D) or not?”

¹⁸ Perceiving their malicious intent, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, hypocrites? ¹⁹ Show me the coin used for the tax.” They brought him a denarius.^{[c] 20} “Whose image and inscription is this?” he asked them.

²¹ “Caesar’s,” they said to him.

Then he said to them, “Give, then, to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”^{(E) 22} When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

The Sadducees and the Resurrection

²³ That same day some Sadducees,^(F) who say there is no resurrection, came up to him and questioned him:^{(G) 24} “Teacher, Moses said, if a man dies, having no children, his brother is to marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.^{[d](H) 25} Now there were seven brothers among us. The first got married and died. Having no offspring, he left his wife to his brother. ²⁶ The same thing happened to the second also, and the third, and so on to all seven. ²⁷ Last of all, the woman died. ²⁸ In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had married her.”^[e]

²⁹ Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, because you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God. ³⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like^[f] angels in heaven.^{(I) 31} Now concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read what was spoken to you by God: ³² I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob?^[g](J) He^[h] is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

³³ And when the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

The Primary Commands

³⁴ When^(K) the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. ³⁵ And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him:^{(L) 36} “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?”

³⁷ He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.^{[i](M) 38} This is the greatest and most important^[j] command. ³⁹ The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.^{[k](N) 40} All the Law and the Prophets depend^[l] on these two commands.”^(O)

The Question about the Messiah

⁴¹ While the Pharisees were together, Jesus questioned them,^{(P) 42} “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

They replied, “David’s.”

⁴³ He asked them, “How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit,^[m] calls him ‘Lord’:^(Q)

⁴⁵ “If David calls him ‘Lord,’ how, then, can he be his son?” ⁴⁶ No one was able to answer him at all,^[p] and from that day no one dared to question him anymore.^(S)