temple, Vespasian imposed a tax of two drachmas on all Jews for support of the temple of Jupiter at Rome (Josephus, Ant. 7.218). This pericope in Matthew’s plot is pre-70, so the issue is a Jewish religious tax, not a Roman one. 17:25b–27. In the second scene the characters are Jesus and Peter. When Peter came to the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of earth receive taxes, from their children or from others?” And when Peter said, “from others,”