HEBREW WORD STUDY – GRAVEN IMAGE –  PESEL   lsp  Pei Sade Lamed

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.”

Matthew 22:20-21: “And He said unto them, whose is this image and superscription? They say unto Him, Caesars.  The saith he unto them “Render unto Caesars the things which are Caesars and unto God the things that are God’s.”

Until I started to study the Jewish Talmud, I never really understood this passage in Matthew 22:20: 21. The Pharisees and Herodians really thought they had Jesus trapped when they asked Him about paying taxes.  If He said “yes” the Jewish leaders would take a hard line with him for supporting a pagan government and probably bring Him before the Sanhedrin as a law breaker.  Paying tax to a foreign government was consider paying a tithe to the government forbidden not by Mosaic law but by the Traditions of the Fathers which later became the Talmud, which was not considered to be inspired, but authoritative and to violate the teachings of the Tradition of the Fathers was a chargeable offense to be heard before the religious court or Sanhedrin.  If Jesus said “no” and agreed with the teachings of the Tradition of the Fathers the Roman government would arrest him for treason.

What baffled me is how did Jesus response of : “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar and to God that which is God” really embarrass the Pharisees and Herodians.  I mean he basically said that it was ok to pay the taxes ie., just pay with Roman money and not the coins issued by the temple.  

I heard preachers and teachers say that Jesus’s response was clever but they never explained why it was clever, at least to me it didn’t seem clever, he just as well have said: “Pay the taxes.”  It sounded to me like His enemies had Him right where they wanted Him.

Note in verse 18, Jesus calls them hypocrites.  Why were they hypocrites?  I read something very interesting in Jewish literature about the second commandment. “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.   You are not to take for yourselves any graven images. This word for graven image  is pesel which means  to carve out and fashion something that is seen. This carving or engraving may be done with wood or metal.  We are not to take upon ourselves anything that is fashioned to take on the representation or the mun which is a likeness  or physical manifestation of anything in the heavens above or the earth below or in the sea. 

So here is what I found interesting. The Jews recognized that a metal coin had an image engraved upon it. If that image was in the likeness of someone who was considered a god, then to possess or even carry such a coin was in violation of the second commandment. 

So when Jesus asked the Pharisee to produce a coin he pulls out a coin with Caesar’s image or likeness on it.  Numismatists have such first century coins, I have such a coin. It is called the Tribute coin.  It bears the picture or image of Caesar Augustus Tiberius and the inscription  “Caesar Augustus Tiberius, Son of the Divine Augustus.”  To the Jew this was blasphemous as it claimed that Caesar Augustus Tiberius was a god. Thus, to carry this coin with them was in violation of the second of the ten commandments.  Jesus used their own Oral Tradition, their own spin on the Torah to corner them. The poor slob who shared his coin sort of forgot in his enthusiasm that he was admitting to idolatry by possession such a coin. In fact the teaching was that to carry such a coin meant he worshipped that god.  In other words by possessing that coin he was declaring that he worshipped a Roman god which was Roman money. 

The poor guy got stuck with egg on his face as Jesus busted him.  But at the same time Jesus put that commandment into it’s proper perspective.   Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar is not reference to paying taxes with Roman currency, it was speaking of worship.  This Pharisee had Roman coins because he was dealing in business deals with the Romans. That was ok, but Jesus knew his heart and what was not ok is that in his heart his god was money.  He broke the second commandment to make drachma, his god was money not Jehovah. 

So Jesus basically said: “You accuse me of breaking Oral law, the Tradition of the Fathers when you are breaking the second commandment by possessing such a coin.”  It is sort of like a fundamentalist pastor I knew who followed a lot of tradition, not drinking, going to movies or dances and condemning anyone who did as sinful, yet he ended up having a adulterous affair with a woman in his church. He was breaking the 8^th commandment while following laws established by tradition.