Matthew 22:15: Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said.
22:16 So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality.
22:17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?"
22:18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites?
22:19 Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought him a denarius.
22:20 Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?"
22:21 They answered, "The emperor's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's."
"Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's."
The saying became a slogan, usually having it misrepresented in its meaning. Misrepresentation can be caught red handed when people saying that we have to obey the laws of the Caesars, and we have to pay taxes to the Caesars. Its real meaning is the opposite. Do not obey the Caesars.
At the time of this answer, there is no New Testament written at all, and when Jesus quotes the Scriptures he quotes the Hebrew Scriptures only, the Old Testament.
In the most authoritative part of the Old Testament, the Five Books of Moses, called the Torah there is nothing about paying taxes to the state and no tax system was designed except the ritual tax-wise contributions to feed the priesthood of the Temple, the Levites and the poor in the society.
However there was no, or supposed to be no tax registration at all, practically to contribution should have come from devotion to God, and to the cause of the divine purpose of Israel. And not only there was no tax registration in the Jewish Law, but if was even forbidden to count the people in order the get a census for statistics or for tax purposes.
The philosophy behind the ban is that God is the ultimate king of humanity, and within it, the ultimate king of Israel. There should not be any leader on Earth or in Israel who should dare to claim that he owns the population ordering census or tax census, because it is a blasphemy, it is revolting against the ultimate authority God, who is not only the ultimate King, but the only King.
At the beginning Israel had the prophetical level leadership by Moses, then Joshua, and the governing were in the hand of the seventy elders, as a republican parliament, though they were not legislative body. The laws were revealed by God in the five books of Moses, and a body of the seventy elders were selected to judge according to the law, to employ the law, to interpret the law and to govern.
In the case of a war, invasion of the enemy, they elected, or rather through a prophet God elected a military leader, called a judge, like Samson and the others. They acted not really like the dictators through the republican era of Rome, but rather like indigenous war chiefs.
They were mandated only for a particular task and for a limited time, under the ultimate authority of God through a prophet.
Technically all the other (quotation mark) civilized nations had kings, but it was forbidden for Israel, to select or elect a King, because God was the only king, and selecting an other one one would have gone against the authority of God, as it really happened later, culminating in blasphemy and collective sin. However when they had centuries long constant threat from the Philistine cities like Gaza, Gath Ashdod, Ashkelon and Ekron, and also in the same time the settling process of the semi-nomadic Hebrews into city dwelling life also progressed, the demand from the people to have a king grew exponentially. As it is written that they said to the prophet Samuel that “Behold, you are old, (…) now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. (…) The Lord said to Samuel, ‘ Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them. (…) Now therefore listen to their voice: however you shall protest solemnly to them, and shall show them the way of the king who shall reign over them.”
Thus the Prophet Samuel warned them in advance that they should not have a human king instead of God, because he said that the human ‘king will take your sons, and appoint them to him, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; (…) and he will set some to plow his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. He will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive groves, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
He will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. He will take your male servants, and your female servants, and your best young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks: and you shall be his servants. You shall cry out in that day because of your king whom you shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not answer you in that day.’ Samuel describes an authoritarian rule with heavy taxation. And exactly that was the very reason why the united kingdom of Israel, broke into two pieces after the death of King Solomon, and they turned against each other, and after a while both states were destroyed by external enemies.
Allegedly Albert Einstein said once that “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” His accountant answered that ‘your theory of relativity is the one hard to understand.’
‘It is quite easy’, said Einstein. To you, said his wife. It looks like that Einstein was right with the relativity, but we should accept also that he was right with the income tax too, especially when at the very start of the United States of America, there was no income tax at all and in general, as the head tax imposed on workers was unconstitutional. The income tax was established only in the year of 1913. Maybe it can be a surprise to someone, but there was no income tax in Canada till 1917.
It was introduced as an extraordinary war measure. They promised that when the war is over, they will revoke the income tax, as it was only a temporary measure to help the war effort.
According to the written law of Moses any census is forbidden, as human leadership is not allowed to own the population, because we all belong to God.
God is the creator of the Universe and by this virtue God owns the creation. The Pharisees were right that it was unlawful to pay taxes to the Caesar. Acquiescing the political reality is acquiescing tyranny. According to the law of the Caesars to pay taxes to the Caesars is mandatory supported by punishing law packages.
However the tax laws of the Caesars are illegal concerning the law of God. Even the Pharisees knew that. That is why it only seems so that Jesus evaded the entrapping question, suggesting to obey the Caesars. Quite the opposite. When God owns everything, then Caesar does not have anything, as an owner. The Laws of the Caesars are based on brute military force and on the enslavement of the majority of the population. As it is written that the Lord is our God is one: and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. We must give everything to God, and we do not owe anything to the Caesars. May we never substitute God with caesars and earthly Kings. May God’s name be praised only and be sanctified. AMEN.
