Matthew 22:15-40

Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar

15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.

16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are.

17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax^[a] to Caesar or not?”

18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?

19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius,

20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

21 “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

Marriage at the Resurrection

23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.

24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.

25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother.

26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh.

27 Finally, the woman died.

28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you,

32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’^[b] ? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

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

The Greatest Commandment

34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.

35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^[c]

38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[d]

40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Cross References

• 1. Mark 3:6
• 2. Matthew 17:25
• 3. Romans 13:7
• 4. Mark 12:12
• 5. S Acts 4:1
• 6. Acts 23:8; 1 Corinthians 15:12
• 7. Deuteronomy 25:5,6
• 8. John 20:9
• 9. Matthew 24:38
• 10. Exodus 3:6; Acts 7:32
• 11. S Matthew 7:28
• 12. S Acts 4:1
• 13. Luke 7:30; Luke 10:25; Luke 11:45; Luke 14:3
• 14. Deuteronomy 6:5
• 15. Leviticus 19:18; S Matthew 5:43; Matthew 19:19; Galatians 5:14
• 16. Matthew 7:12; Luke 10:25-28

Footnotes

• [a] A special tax levied on subject peoples, not on Roman citizens
• [b] Exodus 3:6
• [c] Deut. 6:5
• [d] Lev. 19:18