Image Details

National Museum, Poznan, Poland

In answer to the question whether it is lawful (in God’s eyes) to pay taxes to Caesar, Jesus answers with the famous phrase, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21//Mark 12:17//Luke 20:25)—a moment intimately rendered in this 1908 painting by the Polish artist Jacek Malczewski.

Jesus tells his interlocutor (the man on the right in Malczewski’s painting) to hold up a coin. The coin, Jesus says, is owed to the emperor, because it bears the emperor’s likeness.

But Jesus didn’t stop there. He also told his listener to render to God what is God’s. So, asks David T. Ball in the accompanying article, just what belongs to God?