Mar 12:17 Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's...
Mar 12:17 Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.
Alternative: Give back to Caesar Caesar's and to God God's.
Wordplay: The original Greek just uses the regular and possessive forms of the noun one after the other, as we show in in the alternative above. Repetition in a slightly different form, along with rhyming, alliteration, reversals, contradictions, and similar elements represents the typical wordplay we see in Christ's Greek.
Hidden meaning: The wordplay above works especially well because the Greek translated as "render" means literally "to give back." It captures the idea of returning to the original owner. Hence, anything that originates with Caesar or God, should be returned.
The brings in the larger idea of debt and free will in Christ's words, which are easily misunderstood. We explain those concepts in some detail in this article.
Thematically and Linguistically Related Verse(s): Mat 22.21 is the parallel verse in Matthew.
Vocabulary:
"Render" is from apodidômi, (apodidomi) which means "to give back," "to restore," and "to deliver." It has the economic sense of "to sell" or "to give something for one's own profit." It begins with apo the preposition of separation and origin, the idea of "from" in English, didômi which means "to give," "to grant," "to hand over," and "to describe."
"Caesar" is from Kaisar (Kaisar), which means "Caesar" primarily Julius but also Augustus and, generally, "the emperor."
