Ἐλθόντων δὲ αὐτῶν εἰς Καφαρναοὺμ προσῆλθον οἱ τὰ δίδραχμα λαμβάνοντες τῷ Πέτρῳ καὶ εἶπαν, Ὁ διδάσκαλος ὑμῶν οὐ τελεῖ [τὰ] δίδραχμα;
Jesus and the Temple Tax
24When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?”
The Greek that is translated as “teacher” (also: “master”) in English is translated in the 1941 Yiddish by Einspruch as rebe (רֶבּי) or “Rabbi” in an effort to identify Jesus as a teacher of the Jews. (Source: Naomi Seidmann in Elliott / Boer 2012, p. 151ff.)
Likewise, a number of Hebrew translations, including the 2018 and 2020 editions by the The Bible Society in Israel also use “Rabbi” (רַבִּי).
See also rabbi.
The name that is transliterated as “Capernaum” in English means “city of consolation.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )
In Spanish Sign Language it is translated as “town base camp” (referring to information about Capernaum being Jesus’ home base during his ministry in Matthew 4:13 and Mark 2:1) (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. )
“Capernaum” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España
For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .
See also Capernaum.
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Capernaum .
Following is a Armenian Orthodox icon of Peter (found in the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shusha, Azerbaijan).
Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
Following is a hand colored stencil print on momigami of Peter by Sadao Watanabe (1970):
Image taken with permission from the SadaoHanga Catalogue where you can find many more images and information about Sadao Watanabe. For other images of Sadao Watanabe art works in TIPs, see here.
In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the sign signifying “key” (referring to Matthew 16:19). (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
“Peter” or “Cephas” in Finnish Sign Language (source )
In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with the sign for “rock,” referring to the meaning of the Greek word for “Peter.”
“Peter” in Swiss-German Sign Language, source: DSGS-Lexikon biblischer Begriffe , © CGG Schweiz
For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .
See also Peter – rock.
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Peter .
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 17:24:
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
When they came to Capernaum introduces a new section where public reading is frequently begun. Therefore it is important to identify they as “Jesus and his disciples” (Good News Translation, New International Version, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Bible en français courant).
Capernaum has already been identified as a town in this Gospel, but some translators have nevertheless said here “the town of Capernaum.”
The collectors of the half-shekel tax went up to Peter and said: there is apparently a time lapse between the arrival of the group in Capernaum and this event, since Jesus is evidently in the house (verse 25) at the time that the tax collectors approach Peter. The verse may then be opened as follows: “Jesus and his disciples came to Capernaum. While they were there, the collectors of the Temple tax came to Peter and asked….”
The half-shekel tax (literally “the two-drachma coin”) indicates the amount, while Good News Translation defines the nature of the tax (“the Temple tax”). New Jerusalem Bible translates “the half-shekel,” with a footnote “a yearly tax levied on individuals for the upkeep of the Temple.” Reference is to the tax which, according to Exodus 30.13, was required of every male Jew from the age of twenty onward. After the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, the Romans continued to collect this annual tax, but applied it to the support of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.
It is not the amount of the half-shekel tax that is really important in this verse, but rather the nature of it, as seen in Good News Translation. Translators can say “the tax all the men (or, all Jewish men) paid for the Temple expenses” or “the tax paid to support the Temple.”
The collectors of the half-shekel tax can then be “the men who collected the money everyone (or, all Jewish men) paid for the Temple.”
Some translators have wanted to give some indication of the amount of money and have said “the tax of money of half a shekel” or even “the money called a half-shekel that people had to pay to the Temple.” It is also possible to indicate in a footnote that this was about half the wages a laborer would earn in a day. But this is marginal information and does not need to be specified in the text. Another rendering some have used is “the small amount of money people had to pay to support the Temple.” But translators should be careful not to make the expression too cumbersome nor such that it gives more emphasis to the amount of money than to its function.
For “Temple,” see comments on 4.5.
Does not your teacher pay the tax? is a difficult question form in English, which is simplified in Good News Translation: “Does your teacher pay the Temple tax?” The question does seem to expect “Yes” as an answer, so “Your teacher does pay his Temple tax, doesn’t he?” will also be a good rendering. Tax is the same Greek word translated half-shekel tax by Revised Standard Version in the first half of the verse; both Good News Translation and New English Bible have “Temple tax” for each of the two occurrences.
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Section 17:24–27
Jesus taught about the temple tax
In this section, Jesus taught Peter an important lesson about his relationship to his heavenly father. He used a question about paying the temple tax to show Peter that both he and Jesus were sons of the Father. That meant that they really did not need to pay this tax. But Jesus did not want to offend people over this issue. So he did a miracle to provide the money to pay the tax.
Here are some other possible headings for this section:
Jesus Talks About Paying Taxes (New Century Version)
-or
Payment of the Temple Tax (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
The Temple Tax (NET Bible)
Paragraph 17:24–27
17:24
After they had arrived in Capernaum: The pronoun they refers to Jesus and his disciples. The word Capernaum is the name of a town in the region of Galilee. In 17:22–23 Jesus and his disciples were somewhere in the region of Galilee. In this verse they arrived in the town of Capernaum.
Here are some other ways to translate this clause:
When Jesus and his followers came to Capernaum (New Century Version)
-or-
Then Jesus and his disciples arrived in the town of Capernaum.
17:24b
the collectors: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the collectors refers to some officials in Capernaum. These particular officials were responsible for collecting the temple tax and sending it to Jerusalem.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
the tax collectors (New Living Translation (1996))
-or-
the men who collected (New Century Version)
-or-
certain men who receive/gather money
the two-drachma tax: This phrase refers to a tax that all adult Jewish men were required to pay. They paid this tax once a year. It was used to pay for the services and maintenance of the temple in Jerusalem.
A “drachma” was a Greek coin. It was made of silver. It had about the same value as a Roman denarius. It was worth the same as the wages for a farm worker for one day of work. This was likely an average wage at that time in Israel.
In this verse, the important idea is that this was a tax for the temple. The amount of the tax can be explained in a footnote. (See a sample footnote below.)
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
the temple tax (NET Bible)
-or-
the money for the temple
-or-
the money that each Jewish man paid each year for the temple
Here is a sample footnote:
In Greek, this “tax” refers to a sum of money equivalent to two day’s work. All adult Jewish men paid this tax once a year. The money was used to maintain the temple in Jerusalem.
came to Peter: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible here translates as came to also occurs in 17:7a. There the Berean Standard Bible translated this verb as “came over.” The translation of this verb depends on the storyteller’s point of view.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
went up to Peter (English Standard Version)
-or-
approached Peter
17:24c
Does your Teacher pay the two drachmas?: This is a real question. In Greek, this question is stated in a way that expects a positive answer. In other words, the collectors seemed to believe that Jesus did indeed pay the temple tax, and they wanted to confirm that with Peter.
Here is another way to translate this question:
Your teacher pays the tax, does he not?
You should translate in such a way that the reader will know the collectors expected “Yes” for an answer.
your Teacher: This phrase refers to Jesus. Here, the word Teacher refers to a religious teacher. It was a polite way to refer to a Jewish man who had authority to teach the things about God. Use a title that is an appropriate way to address a religious teacher in your culture. It should not refer only to a school teacher.
Here is another way to translate this phrase:
your master
© 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.
No comments yet.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.