¹⁴ When they came, they said to him, “Teacher, we know you are truthful and don’t care what anyone thinks, nor do you show partiality^(A) but teach the way of God truthfully. Is it lawful to pay taxes^(B) to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”

¹⁶ They brought a coin. “Whose image^(A) and inscription^(B) is this?” he asked them.

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

¹⁷ Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”^(C) And they were utterly amazed^(D) at him.

The Birth of Jesus

2 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus^(A) that the whole empire^[a] should be registered.

The Messiah’s Herald

3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,^(A) Herod was tetrarch^[a] of Galilee,^(B) his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,

²² Is it lawful^(A) for us to pay taxes^(B) to Caesar^(C) or not?”

²⁴ “Show me a denarius.^[a] Whose image and inscription does it have?”

“Caesar’s,” they said.

²⁵ “Well then,” he told them, “give to Caesar^(A) the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

¹² From that moment Pilate kept trying^[a] to release him. But the Jews shouted, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Anyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar!”

¹⁵ They shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

Pilate said to them, “Should I crucify your king?”

“We have no king but Caesar!” the chief priests answered.