Luke 20:20-40

Paying Taxes to Caesar

20:20 Then ¹  they watched him carefully and sent spies who pretended to be sincere. ²  They wanted to take advantage of what he might say ³  so that they could deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction ⁴  of the governor. 20:21 Thus ⁵  they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach correctly, ⁶  and show no partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. ⁷  20:22 Is it right ⁸  for us to pay the tribute tax ⁹  to Caesar ¹⁰  or not?” 20:23 But Jesus ¹¹  perceived their deceit ¹²  and said to them, 20:24 “Show me a denarius. ¹³  Whose image ¹⁴  and inscription are on it?” ¹⁵  They said, “Caesar’s.” 20:25 So ¹⁶  he said to them, “Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” ¹⁷  20:26 Thus ¹⁸  they were unable in the presence of the people to trap ¹⁹  him with his own words. ²⁰  And stunned ²¹  by his answer, they fell silent.

Marriage and the Resurrection

20:27 Now some Sadducees ²²  (who contend that there is no resurrection) ²³  came to him. 20:28 They asked him, ²⁴  “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, that man ²⁵  must marry ²⁶  the widow and father children ²⁷  for his brother. ²⁸  20:29 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman ²⁹  and died without children. 20:30 The second ³⁰  20:31 and then the third married her, and in this same way all seven died, leaving no children. 20:32 Finally the woman died too. 20:33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? ³¹  For all seven had married her.” ³² 

20:34 So ³³  Jesus said to them, “The people of this age ³⁴  marry and are given in marriage. 20:35 But those who are regarded as worthy to share in ³⁵  that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. ³⁶  20:36 In fact, they can no longer die, because they are equal to angels ³⁷  and are sons of God, since they are ³⁸  sons ³⁹  of the resurrection. 20:37 But even Moses revealed that the dead are raised ⁴⁰  in the passage about the bush, ⁴¹  where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. ⁴²  20:38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, ⁴³  for all live before him.” ⁴⁴  20:39 Then ⁴⁵  some of the experts in the law ⁴⁶  answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well!” ⁴⁷  20:40 For they did not dare any longer to ask ⁴⁸  him anything.

[20:20]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[20:20]  ² tn Grk “righteous,” but in this context the point is their false sincerity.

[20:20]  ³ tn Grk “so that they might catch him in some word.”

[20:20]  ⁴ tn This word is often translated “authority” in other contexts, but here, in combination with ἀρχή (arch), it refers to the domain or sphere of the governor’s rule (L&N 37.36).

[20:21]  ⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “thus” to indicate the implied result of the plans by the spies.

[20:21]  ⁶ tn Or “precisely”; Grk “rightly.” Jesus teaches exactly, the straight and narrow.

[20:21]  ⁷ sn Teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Very few comments are as deceitful as this one; they did not really believe this at all. The question was specifically designed to trap Jesus.

[20:22]  ⁸ tn Or “lawful,” that is, in accordance with God’s divine law. On the syntax of ἔξεστιν (exestin) with an infinitive and accusative, see BDF §409.3.

[20:22]  ⁹ tn This was a “poll tax.” L&N 57.182 states this was “a payment made by the people of one nation to another, with the implication that this is a symbol of submission and dependence – ‘tribute tax.’”

[20:22]  ¹⁰ tn Or “to the emperor” (“Caesar” is a title for the Roman emperor).

[20:23]  ¹¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:23]  ¹² tn Or “craftiness.” The term always has negative connotations in the NT (1 Cor 3:19; 2 Cor 4:2; 11:3; Eph 4:14).

[20:24]  ¹³ tn Here the specific name of the coin was retained in the translation, because not all coins in circulation in Palestine at the time carried the image of Caesar. In other places δηνάριον (dhnarion) has been translated simply as “silver coin” with an explanatory note.

[20:24]  ¹⁴ tn Or “whose likeness.”

[20:24]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “whose likeness and inscription does it have?”

[20:25]  ¹⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate that Jesus’ pronouncement results from the opponents’ answer to his question.

[20:25]  ¹⁷ sn Jesus’ answer to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s was a both/and, not the questioners’ either/or. So he slipped out of their trap.

[20:26]  ¹⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “thus” to indicate the implied result of Jesus’ unexpected answer.

[20:26]  ¹⁹ tn On this term, see BDAG 374 s.v. ἐπιλαμβάνομαι 3.

[20:26]  ²⁰ tn Grk “to trap him in a saying.”

[20:26]  ²¹ tn Or “amazed.”

[20:27]  ²² sn The Sadducees controlled the official political structures of Judaism at this time, being the majority members of the Sanhedrin. They were known as extremely strict on law and order issues (Josephus, J. W. 2.8.2 [2.119], 2.8.14 [2.164-166]; Ant. 13.5.9 [13.171-173], 13.10.6 [13.293-298], 18.1.2 [18.11], 18.1.4 [18.16-17], 20.9.1 [20.199]; Life 2 [10-11]). They also did not believe in resurrection or in angels, an important detail in v. 36. See also Matt 3:7, 16:1-12, 22:23-34; Mark 12:18-27; Acts 4:1, 5:17, 23:6-8.

[20:27]  ²³ sn This remark is best regarded as a parenthetical note by the author.

[20:28]  ²⁴ tn Grk “asked him, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[20:28]  ²⁵ tn Grk “his brother”; but this would be redundant in English with the same phrase “his brother” at the end of the verse, so most modern translations render this phrase “the man” (so NIV, NRSV).

[20:28]  ²⁶ tn The use of ἵνα (Jina) with imperatival force is unusual (BDF §470.1).

[20:28]  ²⁷ tn Grk “and raise up seed,” an idiom for procreating children (L&N 23.59).

[20:28]  ²⁸ sn A quotation from Deut 25:5. Because the OT quotation does not include “a wife” as the object of the verb, it has been left as normal type. This practice is called levirate marriage (see also Ruth 4:1-12; Mishnah, m. Yevamot; Josephus, Ant. 4.8.23 [4.254-256]). The levirate law is described in Deut 25:5-10. The brother of a man who died without a son had an obligation to marry his brother’s widow. This served several purposes: It provided for the widow in a society where a widow with no children to care for her would be reduced to begging, and it preserved the name of the deceased, who would be regarded as the legal father of the first son produced from that marriage.

[20:29]  ²⁹ tn Grk “took a wife” (an idiom for marrying a woman).

[20:30]  ³⁰ tc Most mss (A W Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat) have the words, “took the wife and this one died childless” after “the second.” But this looks like a clarifying addition, assimilating the text to Mark 12:21. In light of the early and diverse witnesses that lack the expression (א B D L 0266 892 1241 co), the shorter reading should be considered authentic.

[20:33]  ³¹ sn The point is a dilemma. In a world arguing a person should have one wife, whose wife will she be in the afterlife? The question was designed to show that (in the opinion of the Sadducees) resurrection leads to a major problem.

[20:33]  ³² tn Grk “For the seven had her as wife.”

[20:34]  ³³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate that Jesus’ response is a result of their framing of the question.

[20:34]  ³⁴ tn Grk “sons of this age” (an idiom, see L&N 11.16). The following clause which refers to being “given in marriage” suggests both men and women are included in this phrase.

[20:35]  ³⁵ tn Grk “to attain to.”

[20:35]  ³⁶ sn Life in the age to come is different than life here (they neither marry nor are given in marriage). This means Jesus’ questioners had made a false assumption that life was the same both now and in the age to come.

[20:36]  ³⁷ sn Angels do not die, nor do they eat according to Jewish tradition (1 En. 15:6; 51:4; Wis 5:5; 2 Bar. 51:10; 1QH 3.21-23).

[20:36]  ³⁸ tn Grk “sons of God, being.” The participle ὄντες (ontes) has been translated as a causal adverbial participle here.

[20:36]  ³⁹ tn Or “people.” The noun υἱός (Juios) followed by the genitive of class or kind (“sons of…”) denotes a person of a class or kind, specified by the following genitive construction. This Semitic idiom is frequent in the NT (L&N 9.4).

[20:37]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “But that the dead are raised even Moses revealed.”

[20:37]  ⁴¹ sn See Exod 3:6. Jesus used a common form of rabbinic citation here to refer to the passage in question.

[20:37]  ⁴² sn A quotation from Exod 3:6.

[20:38]  ⁴³ sn He is not God of the dead but of the living. Jesus’ point was that if God could identify himself as God of the three old patriarchs, then they must still be alive when God spoke to Moses; and so they must be raised.

[20:38]  ⁴⁴ tn On this syntax, see BDF §192. The point is that all live “to” God or “before” God.

[20:39]  ⁴⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[20:39]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “some of the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 5:21.

[20:39]  ⁴⁷ sn Teacher, you have spoken well! The scribes, being Pharisees, were happy for the defense of resurrection and angels, which they (unlike the Sadducees) believed in.

[20:40]  ⁴⁸ sn The attempt to show Jesus as ignorant had left the experts silenced. At this point they did not dare any longer to ask him anything.