“Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?” They answered, “Caesar’s.”
- KJV Shew me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Caesar’s.
- BSB “Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?” “Caesar’s,” they answered.
- NKJV Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?” They answered and said, “Caesar’s.”
- NLT “Show me a Roman coin. Whose picture and title are stamped on it?” “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus asks for a denarius and notes that it bears Caesar's image and inscription. The coin itself frames his answer.
Overview
By drawing attention to Caesar's image on the coin, Jesus prepares to distinguish what is owed to the state from what is owed to God. The denarius bore the emperor's likeness, marking the sphere of civil authority. The simple object becomes the means of a profound teaching about competing loyalties.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Matt 18:28“But that servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, who owed him one hundred denarii, and he grabbed him, and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’
- Matt 20:2When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
- Luke 23:2They began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man perverting the nation, forbidding paying taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.”
- Acts 25:8–12while he said in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar, have I sinned at all.”
- Acts 11:28One of them named Agabus stood up, and indicated by the Spirit that there should be a great famine all over the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius.
- Luke 2:1Now in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled.
- Luke 20:22Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
- Acts 26:32Agrippa said to Festus, “This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”
- Luke 3:1Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,
- Phil 4:22All the saints greet you, especially those who are of Caesar’s household.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 20:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.