And you do not regard the person of men, regarding disposition: and this is true, according to that passage in Acts 10: "In truth I have found that God is no respecter of persons"; and Deuteronomy 10: "God great and mighty and terrible, who does not regard persons nor accept bribes."
But you teach the way of God in truth, regarding example, on account of which he himself said in John 14: "I am the way, the truth, and the life."
Or: you speak rightly, regarding the truth of life; you do not regard persons, with respect to the truth of justice; but you teach the way of God in truth, with respect to the truth of doctrine. In this they praise Christ with true praise, but with a deceitful heart.
28. (Vers. 22.). And this is evident from their crafty interrogation, when it is added: Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not? according to the decree of divine law; in this they propose a deceitful question because, whichever answer is given, they intend to lead him into an absurdity. For either he would say yes, and thus he would seem to speak against the Law and against the Jewish people and common opinion; or he would say no, and then they would hand him over to the authority, as a rebel against Caesar and an enemy of the whole empire. Whence the Gloss: "The Pharisees, who applauded themselves for their righteousness, who gave tithes and first-fruits to God, denied that tributes should be paid to a man." And hence it is that they flattered Christ, so that they might extract from the mouth of Christ such a pronouncement, so that afterward they might say that word from John 19: "If you release this man, you are not a friend of Caesar; for everyone who makes himself king opposes Caesar."
29. (Vers. 23.). But he, perceiving their deceit. After he described the deceitful contrivance of cunning, here secondly he describes the truthful confutation. Concerning which three things are introduced, namely the circumspect consideration of the wisdom of the one responding, the truthful resolution of the proposed question, and the evident confutation of the cunning of the dissembler.
First, therefore, as regards the circumspect consideration of the wisdom of the one responding, he says: But considering their guile, in his mind: whence Jerome: "The first virtue of the one responding is to know the minds of those questioning." In their minds Wisdom itself saw the guile; whence Wisdom 7: "Malice does not overcome wisdom"; and Sirach 16: "Every heart is understood by him, and who understands his ways?" because, Hebrews 4, "the word of God is living and effective and a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
Therefore this Word said to them: Why do you tempt me? namely in word, according to that of Sirach 13: "From much speaking he will tempt you, and smiling he will question you about your hidden things." In the person of these it is said in Wisdom 2: "Let us test what shall come upon him, and we shall know what his end shall be."
30. (Verse 24). And because the cunning of temptation is refuted through the manifestation of truth, therefore it is added: Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it bear ? They answered and said to him: Caesar's, namely in the outward sign. The Lord does not ask this because he doubts, but so that from their response he might confute them. — Or he asks about the image and inscription of the denarius so that from the very form and figure and quality of the thing he might show that a judgment of equity ought to flow forth. — Or he requires this in order to show that each one is to be judged according to the inscription which he has inscribed upon the image of his mind. For by the denarius is understood man, because the denarius is of earthly matter, namely of metal, and man is of clay: Genesis 2: "God formed man from the clay of the earth"; and he himself is the tenth after the nine orders of Angels, and he is designated by the one drachma above in chapter fifteen: "Or what woman," etc.
"By the image of the denarius is understood the Trinity of Persons, concerning which Sirach 17: "God created man from the earth and made him according to his own image"; and Genesis 1: "Let us make man in our image," etc. By the inscription is understood the quality of morals, and this is twofold: one divine, the other worldly. The divine is through the light of grace and justice: Psalm: "The light of your countenance is signed upon us, O Lord"; but the worldly, which is Caesar's, is through the appetite of cupidity and avarice. On this Ambrose says: "The image of Caesar is not found except in the sea, where the dragons are"; in which he touches upon that which is read in Matthew 17, where Christ sent Peter to the sea, and he found a fish and in the fish a stater, which he paid to Caesar; in which it is understood that the inscription of earthliness is found only in worldly minds, in which, on account of various desires, there is a storm and the violence of a tempest.
31. (Vers. 25.). Secondly, as to the truthful resolution of the proposed question, he adds: And he said to them: Render therefore the things that are Caesar's to Caesar: in which he manifestly gives a just response: for it is an act of justice "to render to each one what is his own." If therefore a thing belongs to him whose inscription it bears, since temporal things bear the inscription of Caesar, it is not against God if they are paid to earthly princes. Therefore in Romans thirteen it is said: "Render to all what is owed: to whom tribute, tribute; to whom tax, tax. Owe no one anything, except to love one another." - And because justice is not sufficient unless what is his own is rendered to each one, therefore he adds: And the things that are God's to God: The Gloss says: "Just as Caesar demands the impression of his image, so also God demands the soul marked with the light of his countenance"; on account of which in First Corinthians fifteen: "Just as we have borne the image of the earthly, so let us bear the image of the heavenly."
32. And note that he first sets forth that the things of the world should be rendered, because, as is said in First Corinthians fifteen, "not first what is spiritual, but what is natural, then what is spiritual." The burden must also be laid down before one is raised upward; whence the Gloss says: "If you do not wish to be liable to Caesar, do not possess the things of the world; and if you have riches, you are liable to Caesar. If you wish to owe nothing to an earthly king, leave all your things and follow Christ. And rightly he decreed that the things that are Caesar's should be rendered first, because no one can belong to the Lord unless he first renounces the world"; above in chapter fourteen: "Unless one renounces all that he possesses, he cannot be my disciple." But the things of God are the soul and the body, because he himself formed the body and the soul—the body from the clay of the earth, the soul from nothing—and therefore both must be rendered and offered to God. This is signified in that widow who cast "two small coins into the treasury" of the Lord, below in chapter twenty-one. And therefore in Romans twelve: "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this age, but be reformed in the newness of your mind." Hence in this word is enclosed the sum of all justice and perfection.
33. (Vers. 26.). Thirdly, as to the evident confutation of shifty cunning, he adds: And they were not able to reprehend his word before the people, by any apparent contradiction. Nor is this surprising, because in Romans nine: "Who are you to answer back to God?" Whence in Job nine: "If he should suddenly question, who will answer him? Or who can say to him: Why do you act thus?"
And therefore those who contend with Christ are necessarily confounded; on account of which he adds: And marveling at his answer, they were silent, through evident confusion; whence the Gloss: "Those who ought to have believed marveled, because they have no ground for testing him." Whence Chrysostom: "Malice is sometimes confounded, but never corrected; just as one who wishes to block the channel of running water breaks open a path elsewhere, so also does malice." Whence they were not silent from prudence, as is said in Sirach twenty: "There is one who is silent and is found wise." "A wise man will be silent until the proper time." Nor from reverence, as that one of whom Sirach thirty-two says: "Listen in silence, and for your reverence good grace will come to you." Nor from patience, as that one in Isaiah forty-two: "I was silent, I was always quiet, I was patient." Nor from interior peace: Lamentations three: "He will sit alone and be silent." But from open confusion, as those of whom the Lord inquired in Mark three: "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save a life or to destroy it? But they were silent"; and 1 Kings two: "The wicked shall be silent in darkness," etc.
The confutation of the Sadducees erring from ignorance regarding two points.
34. But certain ones came forward. After he confuted the faithlessness of those erring from malice, here secondly he confutes the unbelief of those erring from ignorance; and this part has two sections. In the first he confutes the error concerning the resurrection; in the second, concerning the incarnation, at the place: But he said to them.
First the error concerning the resurrection is confuted through two points.
In describing the confutation of the error of the Sadducees concerning the final resurrection, he proceeds in this order: for first he sets forth the erroneous question; secondly he adjoins the truthful response, at the place: And Jesus said to them: The children of this, etc.
Concerning the erroneous question, the Sadducees are introduced as denying the truth, as alleging a precept, as proposing a case, as raising a doubt, through which they were cast headlong into the aforesaid error.
35. (Vers. 27.). First, therefore, regarding the error of the Sadducees denying the truth, he says: But some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward, and consequently they were destroying the foundation of divine worship. Whence Chrysostom: "In every matter or act, the driving force of action is the hope of future reward. For he who plows, plows that he may reap; and he who fights, fights that he may conquer." And afterwards: "Take away therefore the hope of the resurrection, and the entire observance of piety is dissolved"; First Corinthians fifteen: "What shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why then are they baptized for them? Why do we also stand in danger every hour?" The Sadducees denied the resurrection both on account of the mortality of souls, which they believed—whence the Gloss: "The Sadducees believed that souls perish with the body"—and also on account of the irreparability of bodies. — And in their favor seems to be what is said in the Psalm: "His spirit shall go forth, and he shall return to his earth," etc.; likewise: "Their sepulchres shall be their houses forever"; and Job fourteen: "Man, when he shall have fallen asleep, shall not rise again until the heavens be worn away," etc. But here they do not say that there will be no resurrection, but rather that it is to be deferred until the end of judgment.
For that spirits are immortal, this is proved by their very intellect, appetite, and virtuous activity; but that bodies shall be restored, this is made manifest at once by divine justice, divine clemency, and divine power. Whence against such persons it is said in First Corinthians fifteen: "But someone will say: How do the dead rise? Or with what manner of body shall they come? Foolish one, what you sow is not quickened unless it first die. And what you sow, you sow not the body that shall be, but a bare grain, as of wheat, or of some of the rest. For God gives it a body as he wills, and to each of the seeds its proper body"; and afterwards: "This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality."
36. (Vers. 27. 28.). Second, regarding the inquiry of the Sadducees alleging the precept, it is added: And they asked him, saying: Master, Moses wrote for us, that is, in authentic and just scripture, according to that of Ecclesiasticus twenty-four: "Moses commanded a law in the precepts of justices"; whence Deuteronomy thirty-one: "After Moses had written the words of this Law in a volume and completed it, he commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant, saying: Take this book and place it at the side of the ark," etc. Whatever therefore Moses wrote is authentic, and so they put forward his scripture as authoritative.
On account of which it is added: If the brother of anyone shall have died having a wife, and he shall have been without children, that his brother should take her as wife and raise up seed for his brother. This is written in Deuteronomy twenty-five: "When brothers shall have dwelt together, and one of them shall have died without children, the wife of the deceased shall not marry another, but his brother shall take her and shall raise up the seed of his brother, and the firstborn son from her he shall call by the name of his brother, that his name may not be blotted out from Israel."
37. The literal reason for this was to foster charity among relatives, to restrain cupidity, to preserve fidelity, and to maintain carnal generation. According to the spiritual understanding, our brother is Christ: Song of Songs eight: "Who will give you to me as my brother, nursing at the breasts of my mother," etc.; and the Psalm: "I will declare your name to my brothers." His wife is the Church; Revelation nineteen: "The marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has prepared herself." He died before the multitude of the faithful, who are the children of God: John one: "He gave them the power to become children of God," etc., and this in death: John eleven: "Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but that he might gather into one the children of God who were dispersed." As the brother of this one, he who bears the care of the Church takes his wife, not to beget carnal children, but spiritual ones, as Paul says, First Corinthians four: "In Christ Jesus through the Gospel I have begotten you." And he ought to call them not by his own name, but by that of the brother, because he ought to baptize them not in his own name, but in Christ's, according to that passage of First Corinthians one: "Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" But upon him who neglects to fulfill this, the penalty of unshoeing ought to be imposed, according to that passage of Deuteronomy twenty-five: "If he shall answer: 'I do not wish to take her as wife,' the woman shall approach him before the elders of the people and shall remove the shoe from his foot and shall spit in his face and shall say: 'Thus shall it be done to the man who does not build up the house of his brother'"; because from him who does not wish to raise up the seed of Christ, the authority of preaching ought to be taken away, which is understood through the removal of the shoe, according to that passage of Ephesians six: "Having your feet shod in the preparation of the Gospel of peace." On account of which, Deuteronomy twenty-three: "A eunuch, with crushed or cut off testicles, shall not enter the Church of the Lord." On the contrary, it is said of holy men in Ecclesiasticus forty-four: "With their seed good things remain, a holy inheritance their descendants."
38. (Vers. 29. 30. 31. 32.). Third, regarding the allegation of those introducing the case, it is added: Therefore there were seven brothers, and the first took a wife and died without children. And the next took her, and he himself died without a son. And the third took her. Likewise also all seven, and they did not leave seed and died. Last of all the woman also died. It could be that they fabricated this as something possible: whence the Gloss: "Those who do not believe in the resurrection of bodies and think that souls perish with the body fabricate the baseness of a fable." The Jews are accustomed to occupy themselves with such fables: on account of which First Timothy 1: "I urged you to remain at Ephesus, that you might charge certain persons not to teach otherwise nor to attend to fables and interminable genealogies, which furnish questions rather than edification." - Or it could be that this happened literally and is introduced here according to the spirit of divine ordinance on account of the figure. For spiritually, by these seven who died without children, is understood the universality of the reprobate, who left no fruit: whence the Gloss: "These seven are all the reprobate, who throughout this whole life, which consists of seven days, are barren of good work." These can be understood through the seven husbands of Sarah, of whom it is said in Tobit 3 that they were killed by a demon named Asmodeus: because in Wisdom 3 it is said: "The seed from an unlawful bed shall be exterminated."
Or by the seven husbands are understood the seven capital vices, which the soul serves, concerning which Luke 11: "He takes along seven spirits more wicked than himself."