Ver. 17.—Render unto Cesar the things that are Casar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s. it is as though our Lord said, ‘Since you Jews are now subject to Ceaar—and there is here this evidence of it, that his coin is current amongst you; you would not use it were you not obliged, be- cause all Gentile rites and symbols are an abhorrence to you;—but since Oxsar de- mands nothing of you but his tribute—the coin stamped with his own image and name —it is your duty to render to him his own denarius for tribute. But spiritual things, such as worship and obedience, give these to God; for these he demands from you as his right, and by so doing you will offend neither God nor yet Casar.” Our Lord, in his infinite wisdom, avoids the ques- tion altogether whether the Jews were rightly in subjection to the Romans. This was a doubtful question. But there could be no doubt as to the fact that they were tributary. This was made plain by the evidence of the current coin. Now, this being #0, it was manifestly the duty of the
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Jewish people to give to Cxsar the tribute money which he demanded of them for the expenses of government, and especially of supporting an army to defend them from their enemies. And it was no less their duty to give their tribute to God, which he in his own right demanded of them as his creatures and faitliful subjects. The rights of Cesar are one thing, and those of God are another; and there is nothing that need clash between them. State polity is not opposed to religion, nor religion to state. Tertullian says, “‘Render to Cesar the things that are Cmsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s;’ that is, give to Cesar his image stamped upon his coin, and give to God his own image stamped upon you; so that while you render to Ossar the coin which is his due, you may render your own self to God.” This wonder- ful answer of our Lord t-aches us that we ought to try to speak so wisely, and 80 to moderate our speech amongst those who are captious, that we may, if possible, offend neither side, but steer safely between Scylla and Charybdis. And they marvelled at him. The true Greek reading of the verb here is not cdatuacay, but éteAatuaCor, they marvelled greatly at him; they stood marvel- ling greatly at him. They marvelled at his wisdom and skill in extricating himself so readily out of this net in which they had hoped to entanvle him. Indeed, the words of the psalmist (Ps. ix. 15) were verified in them: “The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.” He vaulted over the trap set for him, leaving them entangled in it. He lifted ap the question far above the petty controversy of the hour, and affirmed @ great principle of natural and religious obligation which belongs alike to all times and persons and places.
Vers. 18—23.—And there come unto him Sadducees, which gay that there is no resur- rection. Josephus stutes that in the time of Judas Maccabseus there were three sects of the Jews, differing amongst themselves, namely, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Esgenes. The Hebrew word Zadoo, from which the Sadducees derive their name, means “ just,” or “ righteous.” These Sadducees accepted the Pentateuch, and probably more than the Peitateuch; but they rejected any oral tradition. They were known in the time of our Lord as denying those doctrines which connect us more im- mediately with another world, such as the existence of spirits and of angels, and the resurrection of the hody. They altogether denied fate, affirming that all things are in our own power. They heard Christ preach the resurrection, and by means of it persuade men to repentance and a holy life. They therefore proposed to him
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THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK.
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a question which appeared to them to be fatal to the doctrine of a future state and a resurrection. The case supposed is that of seven bretliren, who, in compliance with the Law of Moses, one after another, as each died in succession, took the same woman to wife. It is probable that such a case may actually have occurred; at any fate, it was a possible case. And the question founded upon it by the Sadducees was this—W hose wife would she be of them in the resurrec- tion? Here, then, they hoped to entangle him, and to show that the doctrine of the resurrection was absurd. For if our Lord should say that in the resurrection she would be the wife of one only, the other brethren would have been excited to envy apd continual strife. Nor could he have said that she would be common to the seven brothers. Such were the absurdities which, as they intimated, would flow out of his doctrine of the resurrection, if it could be proved. But our Lord scatters to the winds all this foolish reasoning, by adding one clause omitted by them, and overlooked by men of mere earthly minds, namely that in the world to come this widow would be the wife of none of the seven brethren. Ver. 24.—These Sadducees erred in two ways: (1) They did not know or remember the Soriptures, such as that in Job (xix. 25), “] know that my Redeemer liveth,” etc., or in Isaiah (xxvi. 19), “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise;” or in Daniel (aii. 2), “ Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,” etc. (2) They did not know the power of God, namely, that he can raise the bodies of the dead again to life, even as at first he created them out of nothing; for a greater power is required to make that to be which was not, than to make thut again to be which once was. But then the resurrection life will be a new life, spiritual, glorious, eternal, like that of the angels. So in these words our Lord struck at the double root of the error of the Sadducees : (1) ignorance of the Scriptures, which plainly teach the resurrection; and (2) ignorance of the power of God, which led them to interpret these Scriptures, which speak of the resurrection, to mean only @ mystical resurrection from vice to virtue. Wer. 25.—But are as angels in heaven— not “the angels;” the of is omitted. The blessed, after the resurrection, will be like angels as to purity, as to a spiritual life, as to immortality, as to happiness and glory. There will be no necessity for marriages in heaven. Here, on earth, the father dies, but he lives on in his children after death, In heaven there is no death, but every one will live and be blessed for ever; and there- fore it is that St. Luke adds here, “ Neither
can they die any more.” St. Augustine says, “ Marriaves are on account of children ; children on account of succession ; succession on account of death. But in heaven, as there is no death, neither is there any mare riage.”