20. Jesus' enemies kept watching him closely, because they wanted to hand him over to the Roman governor. So they sent some men who pretended to be good. But they were really spies trying to catch Jesus saying something wrong.
21. The spies said to him, “Teacher, we know that you teach the truth about what God wants people to do. And you treat everyone with the same respect, no matter who they are.
22. Tell us, should we pay taxes to the Emperor or not?”
23. Jesus knew that they were trying to trick him. So he told them,
24. “Show me a coin.” Then he asked, “Whose picture and name are on it?”“The Emperor's,” they answered.
25. Then he told them, “Give the Emperor what belongs to him and give God what belongs to God.”
26. Jesus' enemies could not catch him saying anything wrong there in front of the people. They were amazed at his answer and kept quiet.
27. The Sadducees did not believe that people would rise to life after death. So some of them came to Jesus
28. and said:Teacher, Moses wrote that if a married man dies and has no children, his brother should marry the widow. Their first son would then be thought of as the son of the dead brother.
29. There were once seven brothers. The first one married, but died without having any children.
30. The second one married his brother's widow, and he also died without having any children.
31. The same thing happened to the third one. Finally, all seven brothers married that woman and died without having any children.