To imagine that because a coin bears Caesar's head, _therefore_ it is Caesar's property, and that he may demand to have as many of such coins as he chooses paid over to him, is puerile, and notoriously false.

The circulation of foreign coin of every kind was as common in the Mediterranean then as now; and everybody knew that the coin was the property of the _holder_, not of him whose head it bore.

Thus the reply of Jesus, which pretended to be a moral decision, was unsound and absurd: yet it is uttered in a tone of dictatorial wisdom, and ushered in by a grave rebuke, "Why tempt ye me, hypocrites ?" He is generally understood to mean, "Why do you try to implicate me in a political charge ?" and it is supposed that he prudently _evaded_ the question.

I have indeed heard this interpretation from high Trinitarians; which indicates to me how dead is their moral sense in everything which concerns the conduct of Jesus.

No reason appears why he should not have replied, that Moses forbade Israel _voluntarily_ to place himself under a foreign king, but did not inculcate fanatical and useless rebellion against overwhelming power.