NOTES for Mat 17:24-27

The question of paying the tax has several aspects. On the one hand, there is the purely historical and legal aspect. Modern exegesis offers several interpretations here. It may have been the Temple tax established by the Law of Moses, or perhaps the Roman tribute, as many Fathers of the Church believed. On the other hand, there is a spiritual question here. We have firm ideas about justice, about what is right and what is not. But we must think about this from an eschatological perspective. Here, within the confines of earthly reality, people’s concrete needs are more important. The Lord also points us to the means of obtaining the resources for these needs: earning them through our labor. On the one hand, a miracle took place. On the other hand, Peter was a fisherman. He had to go and cast a line, that is, to do his usual work. And it was then that the miracle took place.