THUS far the efforts of the ruling powers had been of no avail. The authority of the Lord with the people remained unshaken, His career was unchecked, and they themselves had been humiliated in the very midst of the Temple-courts[460]. A formal council was therefore held (Mtt. xxii. 15), and it was resolved to organize some plan for _ensnaring_ Him in His speech (Mtt. xxii. 15; Mk. xii. 13), and beguiling Him into statements which might afford a pretext for delivering Him up to the Roman procurator (Lk. xx. 20). United, therefore, in one formidable conspiracy, the Pharisees[461], Sadducees[461], and Herodians[461], suborned (Lk. xx. 20) men, to all appearance right-minded and thoroughly in earnest, to propose various cases of conscience to Him as the Lord and Judge in the land[462]. i. First, then, approached the Herodians with certain of the Pharisees (Mtt. xxii. 16) enquiring whether it was _lawful to give tribute to Cæsar, or not_? How keenly this question was debated in Palestine, and what disturbances it had caused, especially in Galilee, the province of Herod, has been already noticed[463]. To answer it now, and to avoid on the one hand giving offence to the excited crowds in the Temple-courts, and on the other supplying matter for accusation before the Roman governor in the Tower of Antonia, so close at hand, appeared impossible. No patriotic Jew would admit that tribute was due to Cæsar. No one claiming to be the Messiah could allow it for a moment, unless he would forfeit all his popularity with the people. And yet if the Redeemer denied this, a charge of treason, which the Romans were always quick to hear, was clearly made out. But the Holy One, thrown off His guard neither by the affected courtesy nor adulation of their address (Mtt. xxii. 18; Lk. xx. 23), saw through their hypocrisy and the snare they had laid. With infinite wisdom He called for the tribute-money. They brought Him a _denarius_[464]. _Whose image and superscription is this?_ He enquired. They answered, _Cæsar’s_. _Render, therefore_, He replied, _to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s_. The snare they had laid so cunningly was broken. A single word had rent the whole “web of craft and hypocrisy.” The enquirers themselves acknowledged the wisdom of His answer. There was nothing they could _take hold of_ (Lk. xx. 26). _They were silent, and went their way_ (Lk. xx. 26).