When reading this passage we have all no doubt always understood Jesus/Yeshua was talking about paying taxes…..but which taxes? …And then, was there something more to the connection with the fish?

It’s a well known story in Matthew where Yeshua/Jesus sends Peter to catch a fish; telling him that there would be money in the fish’s mouth and that they would then use that money to pay the tribute tax for them both.

Matthew 17:24-27
And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?

He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?

Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.

Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.

This may sound strange to western ears and other than a miracle…how could there be money in a fish’s mouth?  Consequently many answer that question by saying just that… God, by way of a miracle, placed some money in that particular fish’s mouth.

Once again, understanding the eastern culture in which the Bible was written helps us to understand the story a little better. Again these are things to think on and further research for those inclined to do so, we should all be good Bereans; and here, research showed there are fish in the middle east called the Musht.  Describing them as small fish about six inches long with a large head.  Apparently they also have what we would call a bag, or a pouch under the mouth.

Pertinent articles tell us that after new Musht hatch, the parents keep them in the pouch for a short while to protect them.  Then when it is time, the parent fish will begin to pick up pebbles from the bottom of the sea and put them into the pouch.  This is done so the new fish will not be so comfortable because it’s time for them to leave!

These Musht fish basically eat plankton, so at certain times of the year you can find them in very shallow water.  At times they do pick up shiny objects, coins, gold etc… Whether this is the fish Peter caught is not certain/proven but it is interesting nevertheless.

Another custom:

We must remember that in Bible times, offerings to God were taken very seriously.  Sometimes there were those individuals who wanted to give an offering however they didn’t want to receive any recognition; because, many believed that if you received praise from men then you had already received your reward now in this world and they preferred to receive their reward in the one to come. People would throw their offerings into the waters in order to keep it private and threw their offerings into what was considered ‘holy waters’ would be best, but, depending on where one would be, any water would do.

Many traditions have grown over the years of throwing coins into a fountain or well for good luck.  The Trevi Fountain in Rome is a famous location as well as the Ganges River which is considered a holy river. 

In the scriptures Yeshua/Jesus told Peter to go to the sea, Galilee, cast in a hook, and take the first fish that came up.  He further told him that when he opened the fish’s mouth he would find a piece of money.

Peter was a fisherman and possibly was well aware that this type of fish could have a coin in its mouth but that it was a rare thing to catch one.

Think of the sequence of events that would have been needed: First, someone had to lose or throw a coin in the water. Then, a fish had to take that coin in its mouth and keep it there. That same fish then had to bite Peter’s hook even with a coin in its mouth and be caught. This cannot be explained away so easily.

Consequently, it may not have been such an amazing miracle that the fish had a coin in its mouth; but rather the more amazing miracle being that it was the very first and only fish that Peter caught!

Just as Peter did, we can have confidence in the promises of our Heavenly Father, by accepting that what He has promised is true and believing that He can and will supply all our needs. Furthermore we should not limit the manner in which He meets those needs.

The scripture tells us that the reason Peter had to find the fish was to pay the taxes but which tax?

While they were in Capernaum, those who collected tribute money approached Peter and asked, “Doth not your master pay tribute?” (v. 24).

This tribute was not a civil tax but a religious tax, also known as the temple tax. The amount due was a coin known as a didrachma, for a day laborer this was the wages equivalent of about two days work. This was based on Exodus 30:11­-16, which required every adult male to pay half a shekel as ransom money towards the building of the tabernacle. It is not clear from the original text whether this was to be an annual tax or, more likely, just a one-time tax towards the making of the tabernacle Ex. 26:20-25; 38:25-31. Later in Nehemiah, a similar tax was levied for the rebuilding of the temple Neh. 10:32-33.

Peter, answered the question in v. 25. However in reading the verse carefully..

He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying,

when Peter went to tell Yeshua/Jesus, Who it says was in the house,

He prevented him,

or anticipated him, 

revealing His omniscience.

This is a gentle reminder that wherever we are, Messiah is the silent witness of our conversations and even what we think are our private thoughts. He asks Peter a question saying in other words:

Kings do not normally charge tax to members of their own family, but they do charge taxes from their subjects. Which am I?

An interesting question which, when we recall when Peter had declared just before in the previous chapter,

Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 16:16.

Was this highlighting a change from His earlier confession? Again possibly a gentle reminder that as disciples we often live so differently from our con­fession without thinking twice about it.

Is this also the reason that Yeshua/Jesus called him Simon in verse 25, that being Peter’s former name and a reference to the fact he had acted so eas­ily and quickly according to his old nature?

We all need to be continually doing what Rom.12:2 encourages us to do….. renewing of our minds.

He says to Peter, What thinkest thou? 

or as we might say,

What are you thinking?

We need our minds to be on the things of God and not be distracted from what He has asked us to be doing.

It is recorded that every Jewish male over the age of 20 was required to pay the temple tax each year and the money was used for the upkeep and maintenance of the temple. In Exodus 30:13–16,

In Yeshua/Jesus day, the Temple tax 

literally. מחצית השקל  – the half shekel,

was a tax paid by Israelites and Levites which went towards the upkeep of the Temple in Jerusalem/Yerushalayim.

Yeshua/Jesus pointed out that a king does not order his own son/family to pay taxes.

Since Yeshua/Jesus was and is the Son of God, Lord and Owner of the Temple, He and His family/children should have been free from paying  taxes because for Him to pay the tax would be like paying taxes to Himself. When He says, The children are exempt. v. 26, meaning that because of our relationship/connection with Him, that which applies to Him applies to us also; and in this instance meaning, neither Messiah nor His disciples should have to pay the temple tax?

The reason why Yeshua/Jesus had Peter locate a hook and line and go fishing could also be that fish have always played an important role in Jewish tradition and mysticism. Fish called gefilte fish are still popular today.  Interestingly the word gefilte means fullness.  Fish have always been symbolic of God’s provision.  Fish lay many eggs and symbolize both prosperity and multiplication. We have looked previously at the pictograph for the letter N – nun or noon which is the word fish in the Hebrew and has the idea of flowing, going with the stream.

There is another possible reason why Messiah may have asked Peter to go fishing for the coin/money. There is a tradition that says before the Day of Atonement, all observant Jews go to a river to fish. Why? This is because the Talmud (Talmud-the written oral Law); teaches that men are like fish who are often as prey when the hooks and nets are set before them by the Yeitzer Hara /evil desires/temptations.  This tradition is a reminder that freedom from sin comes only through repentance and repentance for forgiveness of sins was also a common teaching during Yeshua/Jesus’s day. Was He offering Peter a chance to reflect on how easily it is to get hooked by the enemy and the coin in the fish’s mouth represented how the enemy can use money to get you hooked? 

The money collected for the temple tax was a fund also used to help the poor, which Messiah would not have objected to.  Peter would have thought that Yeshua/Jesus as his rabbi was teaching him something in this situation. 

The coin would have had to have been a Jewish or temple coin and not a Roman coin. Yeshua/Jesus told Peter he would find a piece of money in the fish’s mouth. The Greek word used for money is sater which means a silver coin. In Aramaic, the word used is ‘astra which is a coin worth about one shekel. Scholars believe this would have been one shekel in Jewish money and the tax was one half shekel per person, so one shekel would cover both Peter and Yeshua/Jesus.  The Roman coin usually had the image of a Roman emperor on it who considered himself a god and this would have violated the 2nd commandment particularly if it were brought onto temple grounds.  This is possibly why the temple had money changers in the court in order to change the pagan coins into one the priesthood approved as clean? It could also have been a reason why Messiah turned over the money changers tables; if they were piling up pagan coins and thereby violating the 2nd commandment right on the temple grounds by using paganism and idolatry to conduct their commerce? As a rabbi, Yeshua/Jesus was not going to allow it and by overturning the tables He was performing a task well within His authority as a master teacher, which is probably why the temple guard did not try to stop him?

Which coin was it?

Quoting the section from Mark, “Whose is this image and superscription?” From the answer, we understand that the coin must have had a portrait of a ruler and also have a superscription, or in other words the word Caesar was in the title and it would be a coin of the denarius or possibly drachm denomination. Apparently denarius coins of Julius Caesar s portrait did exist but were quite rare, and would not have been minted after 44 B.C., although certainly a candidate, it would not have been a common type of coin in circulation at the time.

There were coins of Augustus, which featured the word Caesar; he issued a lot of the denarius coins in his reign with his portrait on. This would have been from before Yeshua/Jesus’ birth into His young adulthood from around 27 B.C. – 14 A.D. and would probably be a more likely coin that was shown to Him.

Traditionally the most likely coin that was referred to as being the Tribute Penny, is the silver denarius which was the coin of emperor Tiberius, he reigned 14-37 A.D. and these coins also featured the title of Caesar on them. In the context of the time period described, these would have been the most recently-minted coins and therefore the most widely-accepted form of the Tribute Penny. 

Further information gleaned says that the shekel of Tyre was minted between 125 BC and 66 AD when the first Jewish war broke out. It was the standard coin and only coin accepted in the Jewish temple at the time of Messiah. One reference to the story of Yeshua/Jesus telling Peter to pay the temple tax for the two of them says it was a Tyrian shekel which was retrieved from the mouth of a fish.

How many times we read a passage and still miss some deeper meaning Matthew 22:20-21 for example

And He said unto them, whose is this image and superscription? They say unto Him, Caesars.  Then saith he unto them Render unto Caesars the things which are Caesars and unto God the things that are God’s.

The drachma was given for the roman tax.

Looking at the whole scenario a little more carefully, the Pharisees and Herodians were on a quest to trap Jesus/Yeshua in any way they could and this time they really thought they had Him trapped when they asked Him about paying taxes.

With the Roman guards no doubt standing nearby and the Pharisees also within hearing distance, a Pharisee asked Yeshua/Jesus if it was right to pay a tithe or 10% to the Roman government in taxes.

Why?

Because If He said yes, the Jewish leaders/Pharisees, would condemn Him for giving support to a pagan government and they would probably have brought Him before the Sanhedrin accusing Him of being a law breaker.

It was taught by oral law, not the written Torah Law, but the law as man wrote it, that to pay a tax was to pay a tithe and you could only tithe to God, not man.

Paying tax to a foreign government was considered as the same thing as paying a tithe to the government which was not forbidden by Mosaic law but it was by the Traditions of the Fathers.

Torah Law taught you were to give 10% of your earnings in a tithe. Tithe means ten and strangely coincidental, the Roman government demanded that you pay 10% of your income in taxes! So to pay the government 10% was like paying a tithe and the oral law forbade paying taxes that equaled 10%.

Time after time Yeshua/Jesus was condemning much of oral law as not being authoritative. For example the Torah teaching/instruction/Law, taught that no one could work on the Sabbath. Oral teaching/law or man’s interpretation of that teaching/law was that to heal on the Sabbath was considered work; therefore if a person healed someone on the Sabbath they were breaking Torah Law by ‘working’. Messiah healed on the Sabbath in direct violation of their oral law, which is why they called Him a sinner.

These traditions were later part of the forming of what is known as the Talmud. The Talmud was not considered to be inspired, but it was nonetheless authoritative instruction; and to violate the teachings of the tradition of the Fathers was a chargeable offense and that had to be heard before the Sanhedrin which was the religious court.

If Messiah answered no it implied He agreed with the teachings of the Tradition of the Fathers…then the Roman government could arrest Him for treason and for being disloyal to the Roman government and inciting others to also rebel!

Why did His response cause the reaction it did from the Pharisees and Herodians? When Yeshua/Jesus said: Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar and to God that which is Gods.  Matthew 22:20-21

Wasn’t He saying that it was alright to pay the taxes? Meaning in so many words.. just pay taxes with Roman money and not the coins issued by the temple.

Didn’t His enemies have Him right where they wanted Him?

Why did Yeshua/Jesus call them hypocrites in verse 18?

Reading around this subject in Jewish literature there is an interesting note about the 2nd commandment. Exodus 20:4: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image in the likeness that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the sea.”

Thou shalt not make…

The word make in Hebrew is ashah which is followed by the word leka which means to you.

Ashah leka has the idea of taking something unto yourself.

So You are not

to take for yourselves any graven images.

The word for graven image is pesel

Pesel  letters: Pei Sade Lamed

which means:

to carve out and fashion something that is seen.

This carving or engraving could be done with wood or metal.

This is telling us that we are not to take upon ourselves anything that is fashioned to take on the representation which is a likeness or physical manifestation of anything in the heavens above or the earth below or in the sea.

This commandment is instructing the Jews to have no other gods before God Jehovah. They are not even to make that is the Hebrew word pasal which is an engraving or carving and it is not to be made for your own personal possession.

Obviously people recognized that a coin made of metal had an image engraved upon it however if that image was in the likeness of someone who was considered a god, then for a Jewish person to have or even carry with them such a coin meant they were violating the 2nd commandment.

What did Messiah say? He asked the Pharisee if he had a coin.

Yeshua/Jesus asked the Pharisee to show Him a coin, he took out and showed Him a coin with Caesar’s image or likeness on it.

When asked whose picture was on the coin. He said Caesars. Then Yeshua/Jesus said: Render unto Caesar that which is Caesars and to God that which is God’s.

As noted the first century, coins are called the Tribute coin and it has engraved on it the picture or image of Caesar Augustus Tiberius and the inscription

“Caesar Augustus Tiberius, Son of the Divine Augustus.”

This was blasphemous to a Jew as it was claiming that Caesar Augustus Tiberius was a god and also by carrying this coin with him the Pharisee was in violation of the 2nd commandment.

Messiah cleverly used their own Oral Tradition and their own twist on the Torah to trap them instead; and in his enthusiasm to trap Yeshua/Jesus, by having such a coin, he was admitting to a form of idolatry.

Apparently, their teaching pointed out that to ‘carry such a coin’ meant he worshipped that specific god. The Jews interpret this to mean that you cannot even possess an image of anything that declares himself or herself to be a god.

It is possible that this Pharisee could not read the Latin words, because it says on the coin:

Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus?!

So, by having and carrying that coin he was declaring in other words, that he worshipped a Roman god which was Roman money.

At the same time Yeshua/Jesus put the correct understanding onto the 2^nd commandment when He said, Render unto Caesar that which is Caesars, it was not a simple reference to paying taxes with Roman currency, it was speaking of worship.

Even if this Pharisee had Roman coins, it may have been because he had business deals with the Romans. The more likely point was that Messiah knew what was in his heart and that his god was money. He broke the second commandment, meaning his god was money not our Heavenly Father.

Was Yeshua/Jesus showing them that while they were accusing Him of breaking the Tradition of the Fathers, which was the Oral law, they were breaking the 2nd commandment by having such a coin. Messiah came to fulfill the law by pointing out the things added by men which were not from His Father and to teach people how to live correctly by the given Torah.

In the next verse of Matthew 22:21-22: They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s. (22) When they had heard [these words], they marveled, and left him, and went their way.

Matthew 22:22 tells us that everyone marveled and then left Him alone. What made them marvel about that statement?

Wasn’t He falling into the Pharisee trap, saying it was right to pay taxes?

In the Greek text the word marvel is ethaumasan. This is where we get the English word enthusiasm. It means to be astonished, amazed, surprised or stunned.

The word is damar in Aramaic which means to admire. It is in a form that means: so they were filled with admiration. So, it was the Pharisee who fell into Messiah’s trap.

The word render is yahav

which means: 

to allow which would be.. 

Allow Caesar to have that which is his

and God to have that which is his.

Allow  Yahav

יהב

Yod Hei Beth

Exodus 20:3-4: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4. Thou shalt not make (for your possession) unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth:

Not all Roman coins bore such a subscription Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus. declaring the person pictured to be divine or a god.

What may have caused them to marvel was not just how Jesus/Yeshua knew the Pharisee would pull out that specific coin and not a temple coin, that is amazing enough. But was it the fact that He caught the Pharisee breaking the first commandment that really astounded the people?

In the Aramaic Yeshua/Jesus was telling the Pharisee something in the meaning of: Allow Caesar to be Caesar thinking he is a god. But allow God to be God and bear all the glory as the God of the Universe. You are carrying Caesar’s image thereby giving him the glory of considering himself a god? Then you turn around and accuse me of breaking man’s law when you are in direct violation of the very first commandment?

Yeshua/Jesus never answered the question and He didn’t have to because He took away the Pharisees right to even ask.

Simply put, by asking such a question when he was in personal violation of Torah teaching and the 1^st commandment meant he was being a hypocrite…which is precisely what Messiah had called them.

We are to give to our Heavenly Father that which He has asked of us, and to do so willingly and to love Him first with ALL our heart, mind and strength…. He gave everything for us and the price was far beyond any coins with graven images on …. We can never repay the debt He paid for us in His own Blood

but….

we can give Him ALL that we are, and ALL that we have; and allow Him to make us into the person we are called to be and to serve Him while we still can…Our Father’s promise is to provide our needs and we should not limit His way of provision… a fish may swim to us or a bird may fly over with just what we need and just at the right time…

Shalom shalom mishpachah/family

and cheverim/friends!

It’s all about Life and Relationship,

NOT Religion.

You are greatly loved and precious in His sight.

NOT SURE?

YOU CAN BE..

SAY THE FOLLOWING FROM YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW…

Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus/Yeshua asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.

I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus/Yeshua is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus/Yeshua rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus/Yeshua. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’/Yeshua’s name. Amen.