Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Matthew 22:21 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 21. 21They say unto him, Cæsar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Answers Caesar-and-God ownership in a way that exceeds the trap.
Read It With
- Matthew 22:15–22:22
Read Matthew 22:21 with 22:15–22:22. In isolation, this verse's contribution—answers Caesar-and-God ownership in a way that exceeds the trap—can be detached from its speaker, audience, narrative or teaching sequence, and outcome. The complete unit establishes: Pharisee disciples and Herodians flatter Jesus, ask about Caesar's poll tax, show his coin, and hear him distinguish what belongs to Caesar and God.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Answers Caesar-and-God ownership in a way that exceeds the trap. This precise contribution belongs inside “Jesus refuses the tax trap's false ownership” because Pharisee disciples and Herodians flatter Jesus, ask about Caesar's poll tax, show his coin, and hear him distinguish what belongs to Caesar and God.
Follow the Context
- Pharisee disciples and Herodians flatter Jesus, ask about Caesar's poll tax, show his coin, and hear him distinguish what belongs to Caesar and God.
- The saying exposes a trap and God's larger claim; it does not provide a complete theory of taxation, church-state relations, resistance, or imperial legitimacy.
- This answer does not sanctify every government, excuse tax fraud, erase conscientious resistance, or reduce God's claim to a private remainder.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
This verse does not detach its specific contribution—answers Caesar-and-God ownership in a way that exceeds the trap—from the complete unit or override the unit's explicit boundary: This answer does not sanctify every government, excuse tax fraud, erase conscientious resistance, or reduce God's claim to a private remainder.
What Remains True
Pharisee disciples and Herodians flatter Jesus, ask about Caesar's poll tax, show his coin, and hear him distinguish what belongs to Caesar and God. Matthew 22:21's proportionate contribution is this: Answers Caesar-and-God ownership in a way that exceeds the trap.
How It Can Shape Life
- Matthew 22:21 contributes this specific claim: Answers Caesar-and-God ownership in a way that exceeds the trap. Meet civic obligations honestly while recognizing God's larger claim on every part of life; neither sanctify every government nor use resistance language to excuse fraud or harm.
Teach It Back
Explain how Matthew 22:21 answers Caesar-and-God ownership in a way that exceeds the trap. Then identify its speaker or narrator, first Jewish and scriptural setting, one affected person, the material uncertainty, and the specific conclusion this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Matthew 22:15–22:22 — Jesus refuses the tax trap's false ownershipSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Matthew 22:15–22:22, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording and punctuation control without treating one edition as a complete apparatus.
Exact location: SBLGNT official text file data/sblgnt/text/Matt.txt, Matthew 22:15–22:22
Open the Matthew Greek text file ↗Lexical and grammatical evidence
STEP Bible Data
Tyndale House Cambridge
Tyndale House Cambridge, repository snapshot verified 2026
Supports: Morphology and lexical cross-check for the expressions actually discussed in this thought unit.
Exact location: STEP Bible Data TAGNT rows for Matthew 22:15–22:22
Open source ↗open translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Matthew with Translators' and Textual Notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2005-2026 online edition
Supports: Verse-attached textual, translation, language, historical, Jewish-background, and Synoptic notes for this unit.
Exact location: NET Bible Matthew PDF, printed pp. 1808-1867, exact tn/tc/sn entries attached to 22:15–22:22
Open source ↗open university bible study course
The Gospel of Matthew Course and Study Guides
Harold W. Attridge and Michal Beth Dinkler
Yale Bible Study, Yale Divinity School, current 2026 online edition
Supports: Critical literary orientation with source, setting, historical, and theological judgments retained as interpretations.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, course unit 'Stories of the End,' Matthew 21-25 study guide
Open source ↗open seminary bible study course
Matthew Course
James L. Boyce; revised by Kristofer Phan Coffman
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, 2023 revision
Supports: Whole-book orientation and unit placement, including visible uncertainty about authorship, date, setting, and purpose.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Matthew course, 'Summary,' 'Outline,' 'Background,' 'Introductory Issues,' 'Theological Themes,' and passage index entry for Matthew 22:15–22:22
Open source ↗open confessional commentary
Matthew
Douglas Sean O'Donnell
The Gospel Coalition Bible Commentary, current 2026 online edition
Supports: One complete confessional reading checked against the text, critical scholarship, and Jewish-context controls.
Exact location: O'Donnell, online Matthew commentary, heading and paragraphs explicitly covering Matthew 22:15–22:22
Open source ↗scholarly annotated translation
Matthew, in The Jewish Annotated New Testament
Aaron M. Gale; edited by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler
Aaron M. Gale, Matthew introduction and annotations, print pp. 1-54; related essays and sidebars in The Jewish Annotated New Testament, first edition.
Supports: Jewish setting, Scripture, Torah debate, named groups, practices, and anti-Judaism control at the passage address.
Exact location: Gale, Matthew introduction and verse-addressed annotations, first-edition print pp. 1-54, exact annotation at Matthew 22:15–22:22
Open source ↗open access scholarly essay collection
Matthew within Judaism: Israel and the Nations in the First Gospel
Anders Runesson and Daniel M. Gurtner, editors
SBL Press, 2020
Supports: Specialist control for Matthew's Jewish setting, Torah, Israel and nations, polemic, parables, Passion, resurrection, or mission as material to Matthew 22:15–22:22.
Exact location: Turner on Israel and the nations, printed pp. 135-167; Eubank on parables and anti-Judaism, pp. 427-447
Open source ↗