Luke 20:19-24

¹⁹The chief priests and the men who taught the Jewish laws realized that he was accusing them when he told the parable about what those wicked men did. So they immediately tried to find a way to seize MTY him, but they did not seize him, because they were afraid of what the people there would do if they did that.

²⁰So they watched him carefully. They also hired ◄spies/secret agents► who pretended to be sincere. But they really wanted to get him to say something for which they could accuse him. They wanted to be able to turn him over to the authority of the governor of the province. But they also knew that the Jews were disgusted with having to pay taxes to the government.

²¹So one of them asked Jesus, “Teacher, we (exc) know that you (sg) speak and teach what is right. You tell the truth even if important people do not like it. You teach truthfully what God wants us to do.

²²So tell us what you think about this matter: Is it right that we pay taxes to the Roman government MTY, or not?”

²³But Jesus knew that they were trying to trick him to get him into trouble, either with the Jews, who hated to pay those taxes, or with the Roman government. So he said to them,

²⁴“Show me a Roman coin. Then tell me whose picture is on it. And tell me whose name is on it.” They showed him a coin and said, “It has the picture and name of Caesar, the head of the Roman government.”