Commentary on Matthew

Chapter Twenty-Three

234 CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE hen the Pharisees went out and made plans to trap him in his words,1 etc. Often the Pharisees were confound- ed and were not able to find an occasion for falsely accusing him on the basis of past deeds, for no one could impugn his deeds or words with any fault. Nonetheless, with a malicious intent, they attempted in every instance to find grounds for making an accusation. Surely the Lord has called all people away from their worldly sins and from the superstition of human religion2 to the hope in the Kingdom of heaven. The Pharisees tested him [to see] whether he would oppose secular authority on the basis of a prepared question, namely, whether it was necessary to render tribute to Caesar.3 Since the Lord knew the inner secrets of their thoughts4 —for there is nothing that God does not see which is hidden within men5 — he ordered them to produce a denarius, and he asked what inscription and portrait was on it. They responded that it was of Caesar.6 He said to them that one should render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and render to God what is God’s. 2. O wholly miraculous response and perfect clarity of heavenly words! The entire matter has to do with negotiating between contempt for the world and the affront of opposing Caesar .7 When the Lord declared which things should be rendered 1. Mt 22.15. 2. The term superstitio already had a long history in Christian apologetics . Both pagans and Christians used it to disparage one another. See R. L. Wilken’s The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, 2d edition (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003). 3. Mt 22.17. 4. Mt 22.18. 5. Jn 2.25. 6. Mt 22.21. 7. Cf. Tertullian, De resurr. 22; De pat. 7.2; Apol. 33.3, as it concerns the Christian’s rejection of the world and responsibility within it. ON MATTHEW, CHAP. 23 235 to Caesar, he freed hearts8 devoted to God from every worry and human need. If there is nothing left for us to render to Caesar, we will not be bound by the limitation of surrendering to him what is his. If we have a possessive attitude toward the things which are Caesar’s and acknowledge his right of authority , and, if we behave like mercenaries who claim the right of another’s inheritance,9 then we can make no complaint about rendering to Caesar what is Caesar’s and rendering to God what belongs to God: our body, soul, and will.10 It is from God that we possess these [three], which grow and increase. As a result, we are completely justified in rendering to him everything , seeing that we owe to him our origin and development. 3. On that day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him,11 and the rest. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection . Because the Lord preached about it, they put to him a trick question about how God’s will was realized. How would he respond to the question: if seven brothers have the same wife, whose wife will she be at the resurrection?12 4. In general, public opinion accepted that nothing concerning the resurrected state was contained in the prophetic Scriptures.13 But the Lord said, You are in error, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.14 It is written so that no ambiguity about the Lord’s condemnation of such a view should remain.15 Many are in the habit of posing these kinds of trick questions when it comes to the form of the resurrected feminine sex and whether it will be restored in a way consistent with its nature 8. mentes. 9. alieni patrimonii procurationi. 10. Cf. Tertullian, De idol. 15.3; De corona 12; for the threefold description of the person as body, soul, and will, see supra, 10.23. 11. Mt 22.23. 12. Mt 22.24–28. 13. Doignon claims that Hilary bases this view on Tertullian, De resurr. 19.2, who writes against those who reduce the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead to allegorical or figurative expressions concerning ignorance of God (Sur Matt. II.156, n.14). In terms of the Gospel accounts, it appears that most Jews did accept some kind of bodily resurrection. Lk 14.14; Jn 11.24. 14. Mt 22.19. 15. auctoritas. [3...