What Does Luke 20:22 Mean?
Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Cæsar, or no?THE KEY
The word translated “give” opens toward “render back,” turning a tax question into a question of rightful claim.
THE MEANING
This question brings the boundary between permission and obligation into view for you now. A demand for tribute does not justify itself; the question of what may rightly be given remains open. The verse holds that tension without resolving it.
THE ROOT
δοῦναι
dounai
GROWS FROM
δο- (from δίδωμι, didōmi)
to give, grant, or put
English “give” can sound like a one-way transfer, but this Greek word belongs to a family that also means giving back, rendering what is due, and sharing. That connection presses the question of whose claim makes tribute rightfully owed; the word itself does not settle the answer.
ALSO GROWS
apodidōmi: give back, repay, render
ἀποδίδωμι
The reply in Luke 20:25 uses this related verb, shifting the wording from giving tribute to rendering what is due.
metadidōmi: share, impart
μεταδίδωμι
This related word shows the same giving family can describe sharing what one has, widening the verb beyond payment.
THE PATTERN
Giving becomes a question of what is rightfully due to each claimant.
And he said to them, Then give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.They said to him, Caesar's. Then he said to them, Give back therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.Therefore give back to all what is owed; the carried to whom the carrying is owed, the toll to whom the toll is owed, the trembling to whom trembling is owed, the weight to whom weight is owed.THE THREAD
And he said to them, Then give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.The question uses δοῦναι (dounai), “to give”; the reply uses ἀπόδοτε (apodote), “render” or “give back,” from the same verb family. That shift opens the question of what is owed to each claimant.
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