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Matthew 17:24-27

When

they had come to Capernaum, those who collected the didrachma coins came to Peter, and said, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the didrachma?” He said, “Yes.” When he came into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth receive toll or tribute? From their children, or from strangers?” Peter said to him, “From strangers.” Jesus said to him, “Therefore the children are exempt. But, lest we cause them to stumble, go to the sea, cast a hook, and take up the first fish that comes up. When you have opened its mouth, you will find a stater coin. Take that, and give it to them for me and you.”
Matthew 17:24-27

Context / meaning

Matthew 17 [22.] While they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered up into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and the third day he will be raised up.” They were exceedingly sorry.

Matthew 17 [24.] When they had come to Capernaum, those who collected the didrachma coins[a] came to Peter, and said, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the didrachma?” He said, “Yes.”

When he came into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth receive toll or tribute? From their children, or from strangers?”

Matthew 17 [26.] Peter said to him, “From strangers.”

Jesus said to him, “Therefore the children are exempt. But, lest we cause them to stumble, go to the sea, cast a hook, and take up the first fish that comes up. When you have opened its mouth, you will find a stater coin.[b] Take that, and give it to them for me and you.”

Matthew 18 [1.] In that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”

Matthew 18 [2.] Jesus called a little child to himself, and set him in the middle of them, and said, “Most certainly I tell you, unless you turn, and become as little children, you will in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever therefore humbles himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever receives one such little child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him that a huge millstone should be hung around his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depths of the sea.

Footnotes:

a. Matthew 17:24 A didrachma is a Greek silver coin worth 2 drachmas, about as much as 2 Roman denarii, or about 2 days’ wages. It was commonly used to pay the half-shekel temple tax, because 2 drachmas were worth one half shekel of silver. A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces.
b. Matthew 17:27 A stater is a silver coin equivalent to four Attic or two Alexandrian drachmas, or a Jewish shekel: just exactly enough to cover the half-shekel temple tax for two people. A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces, usually in the form of a silver coin.


tax
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible

 

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