- Very observant Jews would have refrained from carrying Roman coins, because with the image of the Emperor on them, they were idolatrous and sins against the first commandment. (They sometimes defaced the image of the Emperor on the coin, as well.) When Jesus asks to see a coin, this hyper-observant Jew readily produces a ‘sinful’ one, so Jesus is able to show up the man’s own hypocrisy.
- Sadducees did not believe in life after death. They were actually more in line with ancient Jewish tradition on this matter than the Pharisees. A belief in the afterlife grew slowly in Judaism over the millennia. Before this idea took hold, Jews believed that dead was dead. (For example, see Psalm 6:5 or Psalm 115:17.
- In this passage Jesus quotes God in his appearance to Moses at Sinai. (See Exodus 3.)
- The question about the “greatest commandment” is in the tradition of scholarly disputation. Jesus quotes two passages from the Law, Deuteronomy and Leviticus, to form his reply.
- Jesus’ question about David’s son seems to be less about proving a point about the Messiah than showing his own powers of disputation.
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