Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?
Ver. 17. Is it lawful] They make it a case of conscience. Dissembled sanctity is double iniquity. Covetousness goes cloaked or coloured, 1 Thessalonians 2:5. So doth malice most times; but God will wash off its varnish with rivers of brimstone.
To give tribute] Κηνσον, a kind of coin proper to this purpose. The Jews paid then to the Romans, as now they do to the pope, and other princes of Italy, a yearly rent for the very heads they wear. And yet how they brave it to our Saviour, and say, John 8:33; "We were never in bondage to any man." And there is not a more vain glorious people this day under heaven than the Jews, saith Alsted.