Mark 12:13-17

The Question of Tribute. The Pharisees and the Herodians perhaps represent the two horns of the dilemma by which they try to catch Jesus. The Pharisees leant to the popular view which chafed at tribute, and which found its extreme expression in the Zealots (cf. Josephus, Ant. XVH 1. 16). The Herodians probably desired the status quo which ensured Herod's throne. If Jesus says it is lawful to pay tribute, the Pharisees will denounce Him to the people; if He says it is not lawful, the Herodians will denounce Him to the authorities. The flattering address, which shows that truth may be spoken in flattery, does not conceal the fact that the question is a trap, not a serious inquiry. Mk. notes a dramatic pause, while the questioners fetch a denarius to show to Jesus. Of the final answer of Jesus, Lord Acton says, Those words. gave to the civil power, under the protection of conscience, a sacredness it had never enjoyed and bounds it had never acknowledged: and they were the repudiation of absolutism and the inauguration of freedom. That this was the intent of the utterance may be doubted (see views of Loisy and Wellhausen, in Montefiore, i. 281). That the words as usually interpreted have exerted some such influence is undeniable.