NEUOFFENBARUNG← Gifts of Heaven · Volume 3 · Contents
Once again: Emperor and God
10th June 1849
[1] When the Pharisees, through their servants and those sent by Herod to Me, wanted to catch Me with all sorts of intricate questions in order to get a reason to imprison Me, these very clever apostles asked Me whether it was right that the Jews should pay [tribute] to the emperor in Rome, although they had to pay a hardly affordable tribute to Herod's tenant of the land anyway, as well as the demanded interest; for the emperor had in any case to raise from Herod the whole tribute of the country, for which Herod was then granted the right to tax the land according to his arbitrariness and to bring about extortion which hardly leaves the Jews the begging staff. To this now come the emperor himself and demand his own interest!
[2] Therefore this question to Me, as the designated Messiah, to finally determine whether one should still pay the emperor the extra interest or not. The question was therefore seriously a very precarious one, since the emperor, who had ceded all rights to Herod in return for a large rent, now also came up with an extra but certainly legal interest tax.
[3] Anyone who could not immediately see through all the relationships that existed between the Jews, the tenant Herod and the emperor would certainly get caught with the right answer stuck in his throat as not to make himself captious on the one hand or on the other. But this could not be the case with Me, since I obviously knew all the relations only too clearly, which existed in My earthly time between people and emperor both in secret and between the tenant and emperor and people.
[4] Herod the tenant also had among many rights, the right to mint money under his name and likeness. Money was then, as now, a medium of exchange; and all businessmen, all merchants and exchange agents used the same as a "conditio sine qua non”(*1). But in order to get hold of this medium of exchange, they had to buy it, either for raw metal or for other substances of good and noble kind, in which case they then became the complete owner of the Herodian money for fifty years.
[5] In this way, however, every other person who either deposited a good pledge or had a plot of land and pledged it to the Mint, could obtain Herodian money, which he used as a medium of exchange, especially with the Greeks. But by this means of money distribution he then had to pay Herod ten groschen or ten pounds as interest on every hundred groschen or pounds, with the obligation that he would not be expected to repay the money borrowed for fifty years; and if he were then insolvent, he would either remain an eternal debtor (a kind of slave) and pay the interest continuously; or Herod as well as his heirs had the right to sell such a debtor’s land, cattle, wife and children, which happened not too seldom.
[6] But it is easy to think that the Jews were very badly off because of Herod's fastidiousness, and that in the process many were impoverished to the highest degree and many became slaves to be sold. But this evil circumstance soon led the Jews to the idea of finding out whether the emperor was lending money against pledge and prescription, and what percentage he would then take. The actual answer, however, was that the emperor also lent his money to each of his subjects against pledge or prescription, but did not sell any, which was not pleasant for the money-changers.
[7] But the emperor demanded of noble money of gold and silver, five per cent per year, and for common money of copper and ore, only one to one and a half percent.
[8] The consequence of this was quite natural that the people, if possible, got rid of the Herodian debt and, through the mediation of the Roman governor, also canceled the Herodian loan contracts in favor of the emperor and borrowed money from the emperor in the above-mentioned manner, so that he could pay it off at will whenever he wanted and could.
[9] Now this was a very desperate thing for the Pharisees, who were mainly engaged in exchange, buying and selling, as well as for Herod, who coined the money for them, in that their business had to come to a standstill as soon as the much cheaper money of the emperor came into circulation among the people.
[10] But the ticklish question, which the Pharisees and the officials of Herod put before Me to answer in order to try Me, also originates from this presented circumstance.
[11] But whoever considers these exact circumstances more closely, will find it easy of his own accord what these two horn-butting parties wanted to achieve quite infallibly by this question to Me, in their opinion, namely: that I will either join Myself to the party of the imperials, where they would then have said "Well, then you are no Messiah! For you trample the rights of the Jews underfoot and do a thing against your people with many unfaithful ones. According to Moses, Samuel and David, you are guilty of death! But if I had said, "No interest is due to the emperor, but to all Herod, who annually ransoms the people of God from the Gentiles by a strong tribute – then they would have declared Me to be an adversary of the emperor and would have handed Me over to the Roman judges.
[12] But I had the emperor's coin shown to Me, on which the image and signature of the emperor were clearly visible, and I asked them: “Whose is this image and signature? Is it Herod's, whose money you call God's money, or is it the emperor's, who also has the right to lend his money to his subjects, especially when the subjects themselves demand it?” The well-known answer was: "This is the emperor's picture and signature!"
[13] Whereupon I said very easily and naturally in a just and fair way: "Well, then give to the emperor what is his!" but also to the one who lent you God's money, from God's coin, what is due to him!" Or in short: "Render to the emperor what is of him and to God what is of Him!" And the questioners were thus dealt with and could not counter anything.
[14] On the other hand, it also becomes clear by itself what really is "the emperor" and what is "God" in this understanding.
[15] If the subjects have entered into legal obligations with the emperor, these may be a thousand years or a year old, they must keep them. Excepted from this are forced stipulations which are not intended to bring about any evident good for the subjects, but only that of the mighty dictators. If, however, in the case of a forced stipulation, the welfare of the subjects and the good will of the violent stipulator is evident, then the subjects are likewise obliged to recognize the stipulations as legal and to comply faithfully with them.
[16] The same is true of what is God’s, by which is meant not only the special inner obligation of love toward God, but also that toward all people, as there are believers, benefactors, teachers, leaders, servants and slaves, then all servants and maidservants and all hired laborers, to whom one is obliged to give all that which is due to them, as to the emperor what is due to him.
[17] All these private obligations are the actual debt to God – just as all those where the name of the emperor is written underneath are called debts to the emperor and must be kept.
[18] This, then, is the actual outer, political-moral meaning of this text, which of course also has an inner, purely spiritual meaning, but which does not belong here, but on a completely different page. Hence about it another time! The first and greatest politician of all the world gives it to you. Amen.
Footnote (*1) “as something inevitable”