Matthew 17:24 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And when they were come to Capernaum— Josephus has expressly asserted, that each of the Jews used yearly to pay a didrachma, or half shekel, the piece of money here mentioned, and in value about fifteen-pence of our currency, to the service of the temple, (See Antiq. lib. 18. 100. 9.) a custom which probably took its rise from the demand of that sum from each of the Israelites when they were numbered, Exodus 30:13. Thus Casaubon, Hammond, and many other great critics, understood it. It was gathered every year through all their cities; and, as it should seem from the manner of the collectors' making the demand, was a voluntary thing, which custom rather than law had established. See Nehemiah 10:32. Beza is of opinion, that it was the poll-tax levied by the Romans, after Judea was reduced into the form of a province, (see Ch. Matthew 22:17.) and which Agrippa Major, in the reign of Claudius, remitted to the Jews. If this was the tribute which the collectors demanded of Peter, the import of their question was this: "Is your master of the sect of Judas of Galilee, whose opinion is, that taxes should be paid to no foreign power?" They demanded the tribute for Jesus from Peter, either because the house in which Jesus lived was his, or because they observed him to be more forward than the rest, or because none of them were with him at that time but Peter. See Macknight.