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TRIBUTE MONEY And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented [anticipated] him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee (Matt. 17:24-27).
The theocentric focus of this passage is the fatherhood of God. The great king of the universe takes tribute from strangers, not from His sons.
Tribute and Sanctions The Romans imposed their will on the Mediterranean world. They extracted payments from the captive nations. The government sold to favored businessmen the right to collect taxes from the subject peoples of the Roman Empire. The tax farming system enabled the businessmen to extract wealth from the foreign residents of the Empire. The mark of a captive nation was its requirement to pay tribute. This was not a tax that citizens paid. It was a military exaction. The Empire singled out defeated peoples as tribute payers.
Tribute was common in the ancient world. One benefit of operating an empire was the government's ability to transfer to the subject peoples the costs associated with governing them. They paid for their own subordination. The payment of tribute was a way of reminding the victims that they were not part of the ruling class. They were part of a mass of subjects without rights. They were not citizens of a larger commonwealth.
There were ways out from under: a successful revolt, buying one's citizenship, being granted citizenship for special service to Rome, personal escape into another jurisdiction, or the breakdown of the empire from internal causes. Israel attempted the first approach, but this led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple.(1)
Roman rule brought advantages. Rome's navy cleared the Mediterranean Sea of pirates. Roman roads made transportation and communication easier. Roman law created an international economy. All of this was good for trade. It increased the division of labor and specialization. This increased output per unit of input. People generally got richer as a result of Rome's system of administration. The Pax Romana was in its early stages in Jesus' day -- peace that offered many economic opportunities.
These benefits were paid for by beneficiaries. When the Pharisees challenged Jesus regarding the payment of tribute, He had them bring him a coin. "Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's" (Matt. 22:19-21). Caesar's government had extended trade to the Empire. A tribute coin, which the denarius was,(2) became the coin of the realm. The coin used for paying taxes was also used to increase trade and wealth.
So, there were positive and negative sanctions associated with the Empire. The positive sanctions were mainly economic. The negative sanctions were mainly political.
Born Free Freedom in Rome's Empire meant Roman citizenship. This gave a person special legal privilege. For example, a Roman citizen could not be physically punished without a trial. This was a mark of civil liberty. Paul, who was a Roman citizen, reminded the centurion of this prior to a whipping. "The chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle, and bade that he should be examined by scourging; that he might know wherefore they cried so against him. And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned? When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman. Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea. And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born. Then straightway they departed from him which should have examined him: and the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him" (Acts 22:24-29).
Jesus told them to pay tribute. He then provided them with a miracle. If they went fishing, they would be able to pay their tribute money. A fish would provide the coin. Furthermore, Jesus said that this payment would be on His behalf, not just theirs. He was announcing that He was under Roman authority. He proved this by submitting to arrest by the agents of Rome. He told Pilate, "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" (Matt. 26:53-54).
He was the true son, yet He accepted the designation of stranger. He refused to give offense. He was telling His disciples not to revolt against Rome. This message was lost on the Jews a generation later. It was the church's subordination to persecution in A.D. 64/65 under Nero that gained it separate legal status from Israel. Previously, the special legal status of Israel had protected Christians. Not after A.D. 63.(3) So, when Israel revolted in A.D. 66, the Jews' status as revolutionaries did not extend to the Christians. The Christians' subordination to persecution earlier was what saved them from the Great Tribulation: the destruction of Israel.(4)
The true-born sons of God -- sons of the Great King -- are required to pay a tithe to God's church.(5) This is not tribute. This is citizenship money. Their citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). The mark of their sonship is the payment of the tithe. Yet they also pay taxes in times of military defeat and tyranny. They do so in order not to give offense to civil rulers.
There is an old slogan, "one rotten apple spoils the barrel." In the New Covenant, this is not the case. The freeborn sons incorrupt the rotten whole. Rome fell to the church, not the other way around. Evil is far more threatened by good than good is threatened by evil. This was not the case under the Old Covenant. Israel was separated from the nations by rituals and laws governing land and seed. Egypt's corrupt leaven was a threat to Israel. This is why they celebrated Passover: a week without leaven. But under the New Covenant, the old laws of ritual cleanliness have been replaced by the law of the Lord's Supper. It is open to all who subordinate themselves to Christ. Separation is not based on a threat of corruption through eating. It is based on a promise of incorruption by eating.
Salvation's New Birth
The new birth of salvation establishes a man's status as an adopted son of the Great King. This is an important doctrine for citizenship. Christians are citizens of heaven, and they are to work to bring this citizenship down to earth (Phil. 3:20). The Lord's Prayer says, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10). Christians are to work for the creation of Christian nations, covenanted formally under the Trinitarian God of the Bible. They are to become citizens of the same kingdom, heavenly and earthly.
If they must pay tribute for a time in order not to give offense to their rulers, this is not to be seen by them as a permanent condition. They are sons of the Great King. His kingdom is forever. They must serve as leaven of righteousness. They pay tribute as strangers today in order to pay taxes as citizens of the holy commonwealth tomorrow. The goal is dominion in history by subordination and loyalty to God's commonwealth. A mark of this loyalty is their acceptance of temporary tribute-paying status.
This means that ethics is more powerful than power. Dominion religion is more powerful than power religion.(6) In the long run, righteousness triumphs in history.(7) This is why Christians can afford to be patient. They bear the burden of tribute payment for the sake of a larger program of world conquest. It is not that the pen is mightier than the sword. It is that the word is mightier than the sword -- the word of God. Freeborn sons bring the message of liberation through adoption to a disinherited world. Men pay tribute to Satan through their sin. Liberation from bondage begins with liberation from sin. Paul wrote: "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness" (Rom. 6:16-18). "For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life" (Rom. 6:20-22). Liberation from sin leads to liberation from fear. Paul wrote: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together" (Rom. 8:14-17). "Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21).
From Tribute to Taxes I remember hearing a speaker offer the example of the fish and the coin in defense of the requirement to pay taxes. A tax protester responded: "The fish paid the tax." Clever, but wrong. Once the disciples had the coin in their possession, it was their responsibility to pay tribute. They could have used the coin to buy something rather than pay tribute. That which they might have purchased was their cost of paying tribute. They, not the fish, bore this cost.
Taxes become tribute payments when those who pay them are not part of the household of faith that collects the taxes. The household of the king was religious. To be a citizen of Rome meant being part of the Roman system of religion -- Rome's confession. Citizenship, like sonship, is confessional. When men take an oath of citizenship, they announce their loyalty to a system of ideals, laws, and sanctions. This oath is religious.
Jesus did not tell His disciples not to pay tribute. He told them to pay. Why? Because their presence inside the borders of the Roman Empire was a means of conquest. They would work to spread the confession of adopted sonship. As more people confessed faith in God's son, they would threaten the basis of Rome's confession. The new confession would undermine Rome's confession, which ceased in the fourth century with the death of the last pagan emperor, Julian the Apostate, in 363. The freeborn sons of God inherited the kingdom of Rome. This was an aspect of "thy kingdom come." From that time on, they ceased to be tributaries. They became citizens. They continued to call this kingdom Rome, but Romulus would not have recognized it. Neither would Pontius Pilate.
Citizens can protest the level of taxation in a way that noncitizens cannot. Citizens are part of the oath-bound civil covenant. In a democracy or a republic, they can bring political sanctions against their rulers. What they pay may resemble tribute, but the confession and the sanctions indicate that they are paying taxes. They are part of the household of the national faith.
Conclusion Jesus set forth a principle of dominion: do not give offense to those foreigners who rule over you. They have a rival confession. This confession can be undermined through preaching and obedience to God, which involves outward obedience to civil rulers. It can be transformed. The basis of this transformation is not revolutionary action. Rather, it is confessional and ethical: word and deed evangelism.
Jesus here established a program of conquest: dominion by subordination. He established priorities: the payment of tribute rather than giving offense by revolutionary action. The church's acceptance of these political priorities is what saved it from the Great Tribulation in A.D. 70.
The top priority here was peace. By paying tribute, His disciples avoided a confrontation with Rome. This gained time for the work of evangelism. Evangelism eventually undermined Rome's confession. Rome was baptized in the fourth century, as the Great Commission mandates (Matt. 28:19).
Footnotes:
1. David Chilton, The Days of Vengeance: An Exposition of the Book of Revelation (Ft. Worth, Texas: Dominion Press, 1987).
2. Ethelbert Stauffer, Christ and the Caesars: Historical Sketches (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1955), pp. 122-23.
3. Carsten Peter Thiede and Matthew D'Ancona, Eyewitness to Jesus (New York: Doubleday, 1996). pp. 48-51.
4. David Chilton, The Great Tribulation (Tyler, Texas: Dominion Press, [1987] 1997).
5. Gary North, Tithing and the Church (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1994).
6. Gary North, Moses and Pharaoh: Dominion Religion vs. Power Religion (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1985).
7. Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., He Shall Have Dominion: A Postmillennial Eschatology (2nd ed.; Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1997).
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