Dig in: Matthew 22:15-22
There are some dates on the calendar that bring a feeling of anticipation. Christmas. A birthday. An anniversary. Tax Day is not one of them. This year, on April 15th, a number of Americans voiced their displeasure in paying their taxes at a series of “Tea Parties” held across the country. Many lawmakers (especially Republican lawmakers) faced tense interviews on television and radio as reporters asked them if they believed in paying taxes or not. These lawmakers were not the first public figures to face such a deceptively simple question about the legality of taxation.
Jesus once faced a tricky riddle on the matter of whether it was lawful to pay taxes to the oppressive Roman government of his day. And like our day, various parties were looking closely to Jesus’ answer to the question. For us to understand the nature of Jesus’ reply - and to have a balanced perspective on Jesus' teaching in the gospels overall - we must understand the nature of the various political / religious parties who prompted so much of Jesus' teaching.
These first century parties can be roughly placed into two groups, those that sought to work toward the protection of Jewish interests in the midst of society by maintaining the status quo between the Jewish masses and the Roman government, such as the Sadducees and the Herodians, and those who sought ways to maintain Jewish identity by separating themselves to keep themselves pure from society, among them the Pharisees and Essenes. Though particular parties may have found commonality in their response to the culture of Palestine with others parties, they did not always work cooperatively. Those parties which differed in their level of willingness to engage or “taint” themselves with society fostered deep, long-lasting animosity toward one another.
In the next few posts, we'll be digging into some background information on two of these Jewish socio-religious parties, the Pharisees and the Essenes. While the precise origins of the Pharisees and Essenes are unclear, it appears that they share common roots that provide insight into their belief in the necessity of maintaining a pious distance from the evils of what they viewed as a corrupt world ripe for the judgment of God. In order to understand their reaction to the culture in Jesus’ time, we must examine their roots in the years of political and social upheaval leading up to the time of Christ.
Next time...we'll explore the rise of the Pharisees and Essenes during the time between the Old and New Testaments...
This is part of a series looking at the origins and nature of two important Jewish political parties active during Jesus' ministry, the Pharisees and the Essenes. To see the panorama of BibleDig info on this topic, check out the BibleDig 360: Pharisees & Essenes.
