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Bible chapter guide
Matthew 22
Jesus tells the parable of the wedding feast, then answers three tests in the temple courts: paying taxes to Caesar, the resurrection, and the greatest commandment, to love God and neighbour. He asks in turn whose son the Christ is.
Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.
What happens in this chapter
Still teaching in the temple, Jesus tells the parable of the wedding feast: the invited guests refuse, the king's servants bring in everyone they can find, and a man without wedding clothes is thrown out. Then come three tests, from the Pharisees' disciples with the Herodians about tax to Caesar, from the Sadducees about the resurrection, with their story of a woman married in turn to seven brothers, and from a lawyer about the greatest commandment. Jesus joins love of God (Deuteronomy 6:5) to love of neighbour (Leviticus 19:18), and Matthew adds that the whole law and the prophets hang on these two. Jesus ends by asking how David can call the Christ his Lord in Psalm 110, and after that no one dares to question him.
What the lab shows, and where to look
No lab has a scene for this chapter's parable or its debates, so there is little to show here. In Mark's order these questions fall on Tuesday, and the Holy Week lab's Tuesday stop, 'In the temple courts and on the Mount of Olives', names them in its summary, though the scene itself shows the poor widow at the offering chests from Mark 12. To picture where a crowd could gather round a teacher, open the Court of the Gentiles in the Temple Mount scene: the wide outer court, open to anyone, with colonnades on every side.
- In the temple courts and on the Mount of Olives · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- The Court of the Gentiles · The Temple Mount
Questions people ask
Whose image was on the tax coin?
Jesus asks for the coin used for the tax, and they bring a denarius (22:19), a Roman silver coin. The emperor at the time was Tiberius, whose common denarius bore his laureate head and a title calling him son of the divine Augustus; it is the coin usually shown as the 'tribute penny'. Older denarii of Augustus were still in use, so the exact coin cannot be known; the text says only that it bore Caesar's image and inscription.
Who were the Herodians?
They appear only in Matthew 22:16 and in Mark (3:6; 12:13); no other ancient source uses the name, though Josephus speaks of Herod's partisans a generation earlier. The name suggests supporters of the Herod family, who ruled Galilee through Herod Antipas under Rome and had reason to back Roman taxes. Pairing them with the Pharisees, many of whom resented the tax, made the question a trap whichever way Jesus answered.
What did Jesus say was the greatest commandment?
He answered with two texts from the Law: to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind (Deuteronomy 6:5), and to love your neighbour as yourself (Leviticus 19:18). Matthew alone adds that 'all the law and the prophets' hang on these two (22:40). Mark's account (12:28–34) has a scribe who agrees warmly and is told he is not far from the kingdom, which Matthew leaves out.