They
brought it. He said to them, “Whose is this image and inscription?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.”
Mark 12:16
Mark 12 [12.] They tried to seize him, but they feared the multitude; for they perceived that he spoke the parable against them. They left him, and went away. They sent some of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to him, that they might trap him with words. When they had come, they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you are honest, and don’t defer to anyone; for you aren’t partial to anyone, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give?”
But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why do you test me? Bring me a denarius, that I may see it.”
Mark 12 [16.] They brought it.
He said to them, “Whose is this image and inscription?”
They said to him, “Caesar’s.”
Mark 12 [17.] Jesus answered them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
They marveled greatly at him.
Meaning:
Pharisees and Herodians had asked Jesus, with flattering words, whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus saw their hypocrisy and asked them to bring him a denarius (Mark 12:12-15). This short verse records what happened next. With one simple question about a coin, Jesus turned the trap around and prepared the way for one of his most famous sayings.
- “They brought it”
The denarius was a small silver coin, worth about a day’s wages for a farm worker. It was the coin required for the Roman head tax. Jesus did not take one from his own purse; his questioners had to produce it. That detail already said something. Men who claimed to be troubled about paying the tax were carrying the emperor’s money and using it in the temple courts. Their own pockets showed that they were living under Caesar’s rule and benefiting from his coinage.
- “Whose is this image and inscription?”
The silver denarius of the time showed the head of the emperor Tiberius. The inscription around it called him “son of the divine Augustus”, and the reverse described him as high priest. For devout Jews such a coin was offensive. The Law said, “You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath” (Exodus 20:4), and the coin bore the likeness of a ruler who allowed himself to be honoured almost as a god.
Jesus’ question was simple enough for anyone in the crowd to follow. It did not ask for an opinion about Roman politics. It asked a plain fact: whose picture and whose name is on this?
- They said to him, “Caesar’s.”
The questioners had to give the obvious answer, and in giving it they supplied the first half of Jesus’ reply. A coin that bears Caesar’s image and title belongs, in a real sense, to Caesar. It was minted by his authority and circulated under his rule. Matthew records the same exchange in almost the same words (Matthew 22:19-21).
But the word “image” would have made a thoughtful listener think further. The Scriptures say that “God created man in his own image” (Genesis 1:27). If a coin belongs to the one whose image it bears, then every human being, stamped with the image of God, belongs to God. Jesus would draw out this point in the next verse (Mark 12:17).
The Significance of Mark 12:16
- Simple truth answers clever traps
Jesus did not argue at length. He asked a plain question about everyday things, and the truth became clear to everyone listening.
- We bear God’s image
Every person carries the likeness of the Creator. In Christ that image is being restored, as believers are “transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
- Whose name is written on us?
A coin carries the name of its owner. Those who belong to Christ carry his name, and they are called to live as people who are owned and loved by God.
Cross-References:
Genesis 1:27: "God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them." The image that every person bears.
Matthew 22:20-21: "He asked them, “Whose is this image and inscription?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.”" Matthew’s account of the same question.
Exodus 20:4: "You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath" Why images troubled devout Jews.
Conclusion: When Jesus asked for a denarius, his questioners brought one, showing that they used Caesar’s coin themselves. He asked whose image and inscription it bore, and they had to answer, “Caesar’s.” With this simple exchange Jesus turned their trap into a lesson: what bears Caesar’s image may be given back to Caesar, while human beings, who bear the image of God, belong to God.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible