Render unto Caesar

"Render unto Caesar" is the beginning of a phrase attributed to Jesus in the synoptic gospels, which reads in full, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" (Ἀπόδοτε οὖν τὰ Καίσαρος Καίσαρι καὶ τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τῷ Θεῷ).

This phrase has become a widely quoted summary of the relationship between Christianity, secular government, and society. The original message, coming in response to a question of whether it was lawful for Jews to pay taxes to Caesar, gives rise to multiple possible interpretations about the circumstances under which it is desirable for Christians to submit to earthly authority.

All three synoptic gospels state that hostile questioners tried to trap Jesus into taking an explicit and dangerous stand on whether Jews should or should not pay taxes to the Roman authorities. The accounts in Matthew 22:15–22 and Mark 12:13–17 say that the questioners were Pharisees and Herodians, while Luke 20:20–26 says only that they were "spies" sent by "teachers of the law and the chief priests".

They anticipated that Jesus would oppose the tax, as their purpose was "to hand him over to the power and authority of the governor". The governor was Pilate, and he was the man responsible for the collecting of taxes in Roman Judea. Initially the questioners flattered Jesus by praising his integrity, impartiality, and devotion to truth. Then they asked him whether or not it is right for Jews to pay the taxes demanded by Caesar. In the Gospel of Mark the additional, provocative question is asked, "Should we pay or shouldn't we?"

Jesus first called them hypocrites, and then asked one of them to produce a Roman coin that would be suitable for paying Caesar's tax. One of them showed him a Roman coin, and he asked them whose head and inscription were on it. They answered, "Caesar's," and he responded: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's".

The questioners were impressed. Matthew 22:22 states that they "marvelled" (ἐθαύμασαν); unable to trap him any further, and being satisfied with the answer, they went away.

A similar episode occurs in the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas (verse 100), but there the coin in question is gold. Importantly, in this non-canon gospel, Jesus adds, "and give me what is mine." The same episode occurs in a fragment of the also apocryphal Egerton Gospel: Jesus is asked whether it is right to pay taxes to the rulers (i.e. the Romans), to which he becomes indignant and criticizes the questioners by quoting the Book of Isaiah; the fragment is interrupted immediately after that.

The text identifies the coin as a δηνάριον (dēnarion), and it is usually thought that the coin was a Roman denarius with the head of Tiberius. The coin is also called the "tribute penny." The inscription reads "Ti[berivs] Caesar Divi Avg[vsti] F[ilivs] Avgvstvs" ("Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus"). The reverse shows a seated female, usually identified as Livia depicted as Pax.

However, it has been suggested that denarii were not in common circulation in Judaea during Jesus' lifetime and that the coin may have instead been an Antiochan tetradrachm bearing the head of Tiberius, with Augustus on the reverse. Another suggestion often made is the denarius of Augustus with Caius and Lucius on the reverse, while coins of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Germanicus are all considered possibilities.

The taxes imposed on Judaea by Rome had led to riots. New Testament scholar Willard Swartley writes:

The Jewish Encyclopedia says of the Zealots:

At his trial before Pontius Pilate, Jesus was accused of promoting resistance to Caesar's tax.

The passage has been much discussed in the modern context of Christianity and politics, especially on the questions of separation of church and state and tax resistance.

When Jesus was later crucified, he was, in a sense, rendering unto Caesar the body that belonged to Caesar's (human, earthly) realm while devoting his soul to God. Augustine of Hippo suggested this interpretation in his Confessions, where he writes

Jesus responds to Pontius Pilate about the nature of his kingdom: "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But now (or 'as it is') my kingdom is not from the world" (John 18:36); i.e., his religious teachings were separate from earthly political activity. This reflects a traditional division in Christian thought by which state and church have separate spheres of influence. This can be interpreted in either a Catholic, or Thomist, way (Gelasian doctrine) or a Protestant, or Lockean, way (separation of church and state).

Tertullian, in De Idololatria, interprets Jesus as saying to render "the image of Caesar, which is on the coin, to Caesar, and the image of God, which is on man, to God; so as to render to Caesar indeed money, to God yourself. Otherwise, what will be God's, if all things are Caesar's?"

H.B. Clark writes, "It is a doctrine of both Mosaic and Christian law that governments are divinely ordained and derive their powers from God. In the Old Testament it is asserted that 'power belongeth unto God,' (Psalms 62:11) that God 'removeth kings and setteth up kings,' (Daniel 2:21) and that 'the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomever He will' (Daniel 4:32). Similarly, in the New Testament, it is stated that '...there is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God' (Romans 13:1)."

R. J. Rushdoony expands, "In early America, there was no question, whatever the form of civil government, that all legitimate authority is derived from God... Under a biblical doctrine of authority, because 'the powers that be are ordained of God (Romans 13:1), all authority, whether in the home, school, state, church, or any other sphere, is subordinate authority and is under God and subject to His word.' This means, first, that all obedience is subject to the prior obedience to God and his Word, for 'We ought to obey God rather than men' (Acts 5:29; Acts 4:19). Although civil obedience is commanded, it is equally apparent that the prior requirement of obedience to God must prevail."

Some read the phrase "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" as unambiguous at least to the extent that it commands people to respect state authority and to pay the taxes it demands of them. Paul the Apostle also states in Romans 13 that Christians are obliged to obey all earthly authorities, stating that as they were introduced by God, disobedience to them equates to disobedience to God.

In this interpretation, Jesus asked his interrogators to produce a coin in order to demonstrate to them that by using his coinage they had already admitted the de facto rule of the emperor, and that therefore they should submit to that rule.

Some see the parable as being Jesus' message to people that if they enjoy the advantages of a state such as Caesar's, as distinct from God's authority (for instance, by using its legal tender), they cannot subsequently choose to ignore the laws of such a state. Henry David Thoreau writes in Civil Disobedience:

Mennonite Dale Glass-Hess wrote:

Mohandas K. Gandhi shared this perspective. He wrote:

The German theologian Justus Knecht gives the typical pro-government, Roman Catholic, interpretation:

Mennonite pastor John K. Stoner spoke for those who interpret the parable as permitting or even encouraging tax resistance: "We are war tax resisters because we have discovered some doubt as to what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God, and have decided to give the benefit of the doubt to God."

As American Quaker war tax resistance developed during the 17th through 19th centuries, the resisters had to find a way to reconcile their tax resistance with the "Render unto Caesar" verse and other verses from the New Testament that encourage submission to the government. Here are a few examples:

Around 1715, a pseudonymous author, "Philalethes," published a pamphlet entitled Tribute to Cæsar, How paid by the Best Christians... in which he argued that while Christians must pay "general" taxes, a tax that is explicitly for war purposes is the equivalent to an offering on an altar to a pagan god, and this is forbidden.

In 1761, Joshua Evans put it this way:

In 1780, Samuel Allinson circulated a letter on the subject of tax resistance, in which he insisted that what was due to Caesar was only what Caesar would not use for antichristian purposes:

In 1862, Joshua Maule wrote that he felt that the "Render unto Caesar" instruction was compatible with war tax resistance, as there was no reason to believe for certain that the tax referred to in that episode had any connection to war:

Christian anarchists do not interpret Matthew 22:21 as advocating support for taxes but as further advice to free oneself from material attachment. Jacques Ellul believes the passage shows that Caesar may have rights over the money that he produces, but not things that are made by God, as he explains:

Ammon Hennacy interpreted Matthew 22:21 slightly differently. He was on trial for civil disobedience and was asked by the judge to reconcile his tax resistance with Jesus' instructions. "I told him Caesar was getting too much around here and someone had to stand up for God." Elsewhere, he interpreted the story in this way:

The extracanonical Gospel of Thomas also has a version, which reads in the Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer Version 100:

The fragmentary Egerton Gospel in the Scholar's Version translation (found in The Complete Gospels) 3:1–6 reads:

In the United States Supreme Court case of Tyler v. Hennepin County (2023), chief justice John Roberts referenced the phrase in the court's opinion regarding the Takings Clause and state property taxes. The chief justice explained the court's holding by stating that "[t]he taxpayer must render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but no more."

• Caesaropapism
• Christianity and politics
• Coin in the fish's mouth
• Doctrine of the two kingdoms
• Fiscus Judaicus
• Parables of Jesus
• King Canute and the tide
• Romans 13, another Biblical discussion of how Christians should interact with secular authorities

• How Politicians and Messiahs Avoid Giving Straight Answers – A tax resister's point-of-view
• Render to All What Is Due Them: What Every Christian Needs to Know about Honoring Civil Authority and Paying Taxes, Part 2 by David G. Hagopian – advancing the argument that Jesus commanded people to pay taxes to their de facto rulers
• Netterville, Ned (17 March 2008). "Jesus of Nazareth, Illegal-Tax Protester" (PDF) (34th ed.). Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 December 2011. – A comprehensive analysis of everything Jesus said or did relative to taxes and tax collectors as recorded in the canon and non-canon gospels.
• Cromartie, Michael, ed. (1996). Caesar's Coin Revisited: Christians and the Limits of Government. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans.
• Render Unto Caesar by R.J. Rushdoony – Christian Reconstructionist perspective.
• McGlone, Mary M. (21 October 2017). "What we owe to God is a blank check". National Catholic Reporter.