And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?
| Word | Greek | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| And | καὶ kai | G2532 | and · conjunction |
| saith | λέγει legei | G3004 | properly · verb — present active indicative, 3rd person singular |
| them | αὐτοῖς· autois | G846 | the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — dative plural masculine |
| Whose | τίνος tinos | G5101 | an interrogative pronoun · interrogative pronoun — genitive singular masculine |
| this | αὕτη hautē | G3778 | the he (she or it) · demonstrative pronoun — nominative singular feminine |
| image | εἰκὼν eikōn | G1504 | a likeness · noun — nominative singular feminine |
| and | καὶ kai | G2532 | and · conjunction |
| superscription | ἐπιγραφή; epigraphē | G1923 | an inscription · noun — nominative singular feminine |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
For many are called, but few are chosen--So Mat 19:30. See on Mat 20:16. Next: Matthew Chapter 23
And he saith unto them,.... Having the penny in one hand, and pointing to it with the other, whose is this image and superscription? or inscription? for the penny that was, brought him had an image upon it, the form of a man's head struck on it, and round about it an inscription, or writing, showing who it was the image of, and whose money it was, and when it was coined: this is enough to show, that this penny was not a Jewish, but a Roman one; for the Jews, though they put inscriptions, yet no images on their coin; and much less would they put Caesar's thereon, as was on this: it is asked (r), "What is the coin of Jerusalem? The answer is, David and Solomon on one side, and Jerusalem the…
Read the whole note in the consoleMatthew 22:15-22 Matthew 22:15-22 Mark 12:13-17 Luke 20:20-26 15. Then the Pharisees went away, and took counsel how they might entrap him in his words. 16. And they send to him their disciples, with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, and carest not for any man; for thou regardest not the person of men. 17. Tell us then, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? 18. But Jesus, perceiving their wickedness, saith, Why do you tempt me, hypocrites? 19. Show me the tribute money. And they presented to him a denarius. 20. And he saith to them, Whose is this image and inscription? 21. They say to him, Caesar'…
Read the whole note in the consoleThe poll tax had to be paid using the denarius coin, which bore the picture and title of Caesar. Old Testament prohibitions against images (Exod 20:4; Lev 26:1; Deut 4:15-24) made the use of this coin controversial among Jews (see Josephus, War 2.9.2-3). Some Roman procurators apparently produced coins without images for use in Palestine in order not to offend the Jewish conscience.
Let those who think that the Saviour asks because He is ignorant, learn from the present place that it is not so, for at all events Jesus must have known whose image was on the coin.
(Verse 20) And Jesus said to them, Whose image is this and superscription? Those who think that this question indicates ignorance on the part of the Savior, and not dispensation, let them learn from the present passage that Jesus could certainly know whose image was on the coin; but he asks in order to respond appropriately to their words.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
