ave become through the corrosion or attrition of sin;[1111] and as unto
Caesar should be rendered the coins upon which his effigy appeared, so
unto God should be given the souls that bear His image. Render unto the
world the stamped pieces that are made legally current by the insignia
of worldly powers, and give unto God and His service, yourselves--the
divine mintage of His eternal realm.

Pharisees and Herodians were silenced by the unanswerable wisdom of the
Lord's reply to their crafty question. Try as they would, they could not
"take hold of his words," and they were put to shame before the people
who were witnesses to their humiliation. Marveling at His answer, and
unwilling to take the chance of further and possibly greater
embarrassment, they "left him, and went their way." Nevertheless these
perverted Jews persisted in their base and treacherous purpose, as
appears nowhere more glaringly evident than in their utterly false
accusation before Pilate--that Jesus was guilty of "forbidding to give
tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King."[1112]

SADDUCEES QUESTION ABOUT THE RESURRECTION.[1113]

Next, the Sadducees tried to discomfit Jesus by propounding what they
regarded as an involved if not indeed a very difficult question. The
Sadducees held that there could be no bodily resurrection, on which
point of doctrine as on many others, they were the avowed opponents of
the Pharisees.[1114] The question submitted by the Sadducees on this
occasion related directly to the resurrection, and was framed to
discredit the doctrine by a most unfavorable and grossly exaggerated
application thereof. "Master," said the spokesman of the party, "Moses
said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his
wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven
brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and,
having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: Likewise the second
also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died
also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the
seven? for they all had her." It was beyond question that the Mosaic law
authorized and required that the living brother of a deceased and
childless husband should marry the widow with the purpose of rearing
children to the name of the dead, whose family lineage would thus be
legally continued.[1115] Such a state of affairs as that presented by
the casuisti