Matthew 17

CHAPTER 17

The Transfiguration (17:1-13)

(Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:27-36)

1-13 See Mark 9:2-13 and comment.

The Healing of an Epileptic Boy (17:14-23)

(Mark 9:14-32; 11:22-23; Luke 9:37-45)

14-19 See Mark 9:14-29 and comment.

20 See Mark 11:22-23 and comment.

21-23 See Mark 9:29-32 and comment.⁵⁷

The Temple Tax (17:24-27)

24 All Jews over twenty were required to pay a two-drachma⁵⁸ temple tax (Exodus 30:11-14). In Jesus’ time there was no two-drachma coin, so two men would join together and pay four drachmas between them (verse 27). The temple was an enormous complex of buildings in Jerusalem, which was costly to maintain. It was the center of the Jewish religion; Jews came to the temple from all areas to worship God and to offer sacrifices. Therefore, by taxing all these Jews, the Jewish priests were able to pay for the maintenance of the temple.

25-26 Peter told the tax collectors that Jesus would pay the temple tax. In Peter’s mind, Jesus and His disciples were required to pay the tax, just like all other Jews.

But Jesus told Peter that it was not necessary for the sons to pay the tax (verse 26). By sons, Jesus means the true sons of God—that is, those who believe in Christ. Ordinary earthly kings did not collect tribute from their own children. Therefore, the Jewish leaders should not demand taxes from God’s true sons—Jesus and His followers.

For believers in Christ, worship in the temple was no longer necessary. Before Christ’s time it was necessary to offer sacrifices for sin in the temple. But Christ Himself was the final sacrifice for sin (see Hebrews 7:27 and comment). Therefore, sacrifices were no longer necessary after Christ came. The old Jewish temple was no longer necessary. One greater than the temple had come, that is, Jesus (Matthew 12:6). Indeed, the believers, the “new Israel,” had themselves become the new spiritual temple (see 1 Corinthians 3:1617; Ephesians 2:21-22 and comments). Therefore, Jesus told Peter, “It is not necessary for us to pay the tax.”

27 However, Jesus told Peter to pay the tax anyway, “so that we may not offend them.” Even though they did not have to pay the tax, Jesus and Peter paid it so that they might not give unnecessary offense to the Jews, and thereby turn some of them away from Jesus (see 1 Corinthians 8:9 and comment). God provided the needed four-drachma coin in a miraculous way—it was in the mouth of a fish!