What Does Mark 12:16 Mean?
And they brought it. And he said to them, Whose image is this, and the writing upon it? And they said to him, Caesar's.
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
And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Cæsar’s.THE KEY
A face and a name stamped on the same coin make likeness and claim visible together.
THE MEANING
The image and inscription identify the authority the coin displays. Together they make a visible likeness and a written claim point to the same source, while leaving the reader with a deeper question: whose likeness does human life bear?
THE ROOT
εἰκών
eikōn
GROWS FROM
εἰκ-
eik-
To resemble or be like.
English “image” can sound like a mere picture, but εἰκών carries the sense of likeness. The same Greek word names humanity made in God’s image and Christ as God’s image, opening a question beyond the coin: what does a visible likeness disclose about its source?
ALSO GROWS
eikō: To be like or resemble.
εἴκω
This verbal form makes explicit the likeness contained in the coin’s image.
eikazō: To liken or compare.
εἰκάζω
The act of comparing something to an image shows how likeness makes recognition possible.
ἐπιγραφή
epigraphē
GROWS FROM
γράφω
graphō
To write or inscribe.
“the writing upon it” in this verse is epigraphē. The word carries the sense of writing upon: the coin’s authority is not only pictured but written into view. The verse binds likeness and inscription as two marks that identify the one it represents.
ALSO GROWS
epigraphō: To write upon or inscribe.
ἐπιγράφω
This verb describes the act of placing the words on the coin.
graphē: Writing or a written text.
γραφή
The inscription is writing made visible, giving the image a name and claim.
THE PATTERN
A visible likeness identifies what it reflects and connects the bearer to its source.
And God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.Who is the image of the unseen God, the firstborn of all creation.For whom he knew beforehand, he also marked out beforehand to be shaped together into the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.THE THREAD
And God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.The Greek word εἰκών, used for the coin’s image, also appears for humanity’s image of God in the Greek text of Genesis. That shared word widens the question from whose image marks the coin to whose likeness the reader bears.
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