In saying this Jesus makes a distinction between giving and paying a debt, which can be seen in the two Greek words used. The question of the Pharisees and Herodians used the Greek word didomi, which means to give. Jesus responds with a different Greek word apodidomi, which means to pay a debt. What He is saying that they are part of the country that issued the currency so they should acknowledge its authority to tax and pay what is required of them. The Jews did not like this answer but it centers on the sovereignty of God to choose or allow the various ruling authorities to conduct business for the government. They could protest but they would gain very little if anything by refusing to pay what was required of them (Romans 13:1-7; I Timothy 2:1-6; I Peter 2:13-17). Jesus was saying to the Pharisees that what they owed Rome was a debt for the maintenance of a stable government and peace, which the Romans brought to the region. Jesus was making it quite clear that His followers had a responsibility to be loyal to the standing government. On the reverse side of this issue Jesus was in no way saying that the secular government should be worshipped as divine. By the end of the first century the Roman emperor Domitian mandated emperor worship, which put the apostle John in prison on the Isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea.
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