Matthew 22:15–32

Is It Right to Pay Taxes or Not?

¹⁵Then the Pharisees left that place and made plans to trap Jesus in saying something wrong. ¹⁶They sent some of their own followers and some people from the group called Herodians. ⁿ They said, “Teacher, we know that you are an honest man and that you teach the truth about God’s way. You are not afraid of what other people think about you, because you pay no attention to who they are. ¹⁷So tell us what you think. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

¹⁸But knowing that these leaders were trying to trick him, Jesus said, “You hypocrites! Why are you trying to trap me? ¹⁹Show me a coin used for paying the tax.” So the men showed him a coin. ^{n 20}Then Jesus asked, “Whose image and name are on the coin?”

²¹The men answered, “Caesar’s.”

Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.”

²²When the men heard what Jesus said, they were amazed and left him and went away.

Some Sadducees Try to Trick Jesus

²³That same day some Sadducees came to Jesus and asked him a question. (Sadducees believed that people would not rise from the dead.) ²⁴They said, “Teacher, Moses said if a married man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. ²⁵Once there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died. Since he had no children, his brother married the widow. ²⁶Then the second brother also died. The same thing happened to the third brother and all the other brothers. ²⁷Finally, the woman died. ²⁸Since all seven men had married her, when people rise from the dead, whose wife will she be?”

²⁹Jesus answered, “You don’t understand, because you don’t know what the Scriptures say, and you don’t know about the power of God. ³⁰When people rise from the dead, they will not marry, nor will they be given to someone to marry. They will be like the angels in heaven. ³¹Surely you have read what God said to you about rising from the dead. ³²God said, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ⁿ God is the God of the living, not the dead.”