What Does Mark 12:17 Mean?
And Jesus answered and said to them, Give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marveled at him.
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 Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marvelled at him.THE KEY
The coin bears Caesar’s image, while the person bears God’s, so returning one does not exhaust the claim of the other.
THE MEANING
A mark can reveal who has a claim on what bears it: the coin carries Caesar’s image, while the human being carries God’s image. The verse holds both claims together, so what is owed to Caesar does not define the whole person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief that meeting an earthly claim exhausts what belongs to you is undone. The coin may bear Caesar’s image, but the person is not reduced to it.
THE ROOT
ἀπόδοτε
apodote
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
Give; in the compound here, give back or repay what is due.
The command ἀπόδοτε (apodote, render) comes from ἀποδίδωμι (apodidōmi, give back or repay), built on δίδωμι (didōmi, give). In the exchange just before this verse, the coin’s image identifies Caesar’s claim; the verb frames its transfer as returning what is due, while the phrase about God opens the larger question of what bears God’s image.
ALSO GROWS
didonai: To give.
διδόναι
This is the basic giving at the root of “render”; the compound adds the sense of giving back what is due.
apodidonai: To give back, repay, or render.
ἀποδιδόναι
This form makes the return explicit: the coin goes back to the one whose image it bears.
paradidonai: To hand over, deliver, or entrust.
παραδιδόναι
The same give-root can describe placing something into another’s hands, showing how the verse’s question turns on who a thing is handed over to.
THE PATTERN
What bears an image points to its claimant, while that smaller claim does not erase the wider belonging from which life comes.
And God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD's, and what fills it; the inhabited world, and those who settle in it.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 God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.The exchange just before this verse identifies the coin by its image. Genesis says the human being bears God’s image, so the coin can be returned to Caesar while the person remains within God’s claim.
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