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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gavin Richardson, post: 3751112, member: 83956&quot;]I enjoyed this post. I think there’s also another much less satisfying option. So much depends upon timeframe--the time of Jesus or the time of the composition of the Gospels. The earliest Gospel is probably that of Mark in the 60s C.E. (it’s a matter of dispute). By this time you would have had denarii of Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero (and potentially Julius Caesar with a portrait denarius) establishing a pattern of having an emperor portrait on the obverse—some scarce, some common. But by now the portraiture is a convention. If the Gospel narrative is trying to capture a general teaching and not a specific detailed moment in the lifetime of Jesus of Nazareth, then the question might be akin to me saying in the U.S today, “Show me a coin. Whose picture is on it” and you saying “The President’s,” while not thinking of any one president (Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, etc.). But that reading doesn’t sell ancient coins, so we get the Tribute Penny. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie14" alt=":angelic:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />&nbsp; But I’m not going to be too cool for school here; I bought a Tiberius denarius a few years ago just so I could have a “Tribute Penny.”</p><p><br /></p><p>BTW, the more I learn about the political environment in the first-century, the more interesting that question becomes. Judas the Galilean had led an uprising ca. 6 C.E. against the Roman census because its end goal was taxation, which he urged Jews not to pay. Why should Jews fund their own hated foreign occupation? Judas was eventually captured and executed. Jesus would have known this Uprising since its leader had come from his home area. It’s pretty clear to me that the Pharisees&#039; question put to Jesus about paying taxes to Caesar was designed to get him in the same bind with Rome and depict him as a dangerous insurrectionist like his Galilean predecessor. Jesus doesn’t fall for it.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1005867[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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