What does Mark 12:17 Mean?

Verse Meaning

Jesus avoided the "either or" problem with a "both and" response. God has authority over those who bear His image. Therefore the Jews should give Him His due, namely, complete personal submission. Caesar also had some authority over those who used his image on his coins. Therefore the Jews should pay their tax. [source][source]

[source]

"Though the obligation to pay to Caesar some of his own coinage in return for the amenities his rule provided is affirmed, the idolatrous claims expressed on the coins are rejected. God"s rights are to be honored. Here Jesus is not saying that there are two quite separate independent spheres, that of Caesar and that of God (for Caesar and all that is his belongs to God); but he is indicating that there are obligations to Caesar which do not infringe the rights of God but are indeed ordained by God." ^[1] [source]

This answer amazed (Gr. exethaumazon) Jesus" critics. He had avoided the trap they had laid for Him and had given a profound though simple answer to their question. [source][source]

[source]

This teaching would have been especially helpful to Mark"s original Roman readers. It helped them and all subsequent disciples understand that Christianity does not advocate disloyalty to the state (cf. Romans 13:1-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-6; 1 Peter 2:13-17). Duty to God does not eliminate duty to government. Nevertheless duty to government does not eliminate one"s higher duty to God either. [source][source]

[source]

Context Summary

Our Lord reviews the history of the theocracy. He recounts the long roll of God's servants who had been persecuted and misused from the first to the last, including Himself. In doing so, He openly implied that He was the Son of God and made the Pharisees realize how clearly He foresaw the fate which they were preparing for Him. They were accustomed to apply Psalms 118:22 to the Messiah, and recognized at once what Jesus meant, when He claimed it as an emblem of His own rejection.

How admirably our Lord defined the relations of His Kingdom to the civil power! If we accept Caesar's protection and ordered government we are bound to maintain it by money payment and such other service as conscience permits. This indeed is part of our duty to God; and with equal care we must give Him the dues of the spiritual world.

Jesus silenced the Sadducees by a quotation from the Pentateuch, whose authority they admitted. God could not be the God of persons not in existence. Therefore since He used the present tense of His relationship with the patriarchs in speaking to Moses three hundred years after their death, they must have been still in existence. [source]

Chapter Summary: Mark 12

¹  Jesus tells the parable of the tenants
¹³  He avoids the snare of the Pharisees and Herodians about paying tribute to Caesar;
¹⁸  convicts the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection;
²⁸  resolves the scribe, who questioned of the first commandment;
³⁵  refutes the opinion that the scribes held of the Christ;
³⁸  bidding the people to beware of their ambition and hypocrisy;
⁴¹  and commends the poor widow for her two mites, above all