Pharisees try to Entrap Jesus over Taxes

Those who were part of the temple administration apparently gave up and left, but a group of Pharisees replaced them in confronting Jesus. They thought they had a surefire way to either rob Jesus of his influence or make him subject to Roman justice. They came trying to appear as open students seeking his wisdom. Their hypocrisy didn’t fool Jesus, however.

Mark makes the point that the officials still had a hand in the tax question. He says “they” sent this mix of Pharisees and Herodians. Most likely, the “they” were the temple officials and therefore Sadducees. These three groups vied for political power and perhaps the officials felt they would win either way. Either their competitors would succeed and lessen the influence of Jesus, or they would fail, being less of competitors to them.

Luke tells us it was a plan to entrap Jesus and turn him over to Pilate for punishment. Religious power had failed to silence him. Now they shifted to try political power.