184 points

Didn’t Jesus say something along the lines of “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”? Sounds to me like he was pro taxes.

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68 points

Matthew 22:20,21: He said to them: “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said: “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them: “Pay back, therefore, Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God.”

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54 points

He probably didn’t want to get crucified for encouraging tax evasion.

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25 points

You are really crossing a line here with your comment!

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28 points

I thought he kinda nailed it

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3 points

At least they arent crossing a man.

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9 points

Duh, because in the Bible he was crucified for blasphemy so if he ended up crucified for tax evasion the whole story would have fallen apart.

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1 point

Didn’t stop fundamentalists from retroactivity trying to create links of “prophecy” all throughout the OT for shit that wasn’t even remotely related or intended as such.

They’d just have claimed he wasn’t killed for tax evasion, no problems there for the fundies.

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10 points

Exactly what my dad said when I tried to teach him about pirating media lol

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10 points

Caeaers dead, dad.

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3 points

Only Caesar I’ve ever seen, was a salad.

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-28 points

No he didn’t. That line was added at the Council of Nicea a couple of hundred years later

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56 points

Every line in the Bible about Jesus was added later.

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17 points

Source?

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0 points

My A-Level in biblical criticism thirty years ago. Sorry, I don’t have the notes any more. Maybe google can help?

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-40 points
*

Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s

except that’s not what taxes are - taxes are citizens money going in to a pot to pay for things citizens need.
Also doesn’t sound like something Jesus would say (in the context being portrayed) considering how much he hated the rich and their greed (to be clear, I’m not even christian, but this is well known).
Either way, some rich fuck trying to claim them for themsleves (or whoever added it later to serve the ruler of the time) doesn’t change what taxes are.

I love people so deliberately missing the point… Fuck Jesus and what he did or didn’t say, taxes aren’t for and don’t belong to the ruler of a country/community/whatever, no matter what that ruler tells you, it really isn’t that fucking complicated.

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59 points

Also doesn’t sound like something Jesus would say

It is literally something he said, after specifically being asked about paying taxes.

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18 points

Mf really talked out of his ass didn’t he?

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-15 points

Someone else said this line was a later addition.

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20 points

Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” He saw through their duplicity and said to them, “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”“Caesar’s,” they replied. He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Luke 20 NIV

It’s pretty clear they’re taking about taxes.

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82 points
*

The Bible actually says to shut up and pay your taxes without complaining lmao. Wonder who wrote that?

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14 points

Yeah, you can bet your ass the Pope wanted everyone paying up.

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55 points

There is very specifically tax fraud issues in the Bible. Mostly by tax collectors themselves. Lots of other places where it says to follow the laws of government.

The meme does encapsulate the views of a crap ton of fake Christians though.

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35 points

It doesn’t really discourage rape or slavery either, though. It’s not a good manual for modern society.

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15 points

You’re mostly correct about slavery, but rapists got stoned to death. Deuteronomy 22.

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22 points

AFAIK they had to pay 50 shekels and marry the woman they raped right?

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14 points

Yeah, I suppose I shouldn’t have left out that detail. Raping an unbetrothed virgin doesn’t get the same treatment as raping another man’s wife. I’d still say paying a fine and never being able to divorce counts as “discouraging” rape, but… damn.

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8 points

Wasn’t JC kind of nice to slaves or sth?

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13 points

Idunno, probably? Being nice to the downtrodden seemed to be more or less his thing when he wasn’t telling people that he was his own imaginary sky daddy 🤷

Pretty sure he didn’t actually FREE all the slaves or even told slavers to please do so, though. Spartacus is a much better role model than Jesus in that aspect.

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7 points
*

Here, here! Jesus just did lame stuff like die on a cross. He could have saved a bunch of slaves sometime around 30 AD, specifically in the region of Roman occupied Israel. That would have been more important for the history of humanity.

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6 points

For the time, maybe. But the few times slavery is mentioned in the NT the focus is on treatment of slaves, not abolition. And even then, for slave owners who didn’t follow Christian teachings, slaves were basically told to suck it up and get back to work (1Peter 2:18). Paul appears to free Onesimus in the book of Philemon (although I can’t tell if his intended meaning is literal), and it’s also worth noting that Christian nations were the first to abolish chattel slavery, but it’d be a stretch to say the Bible directly discourages slavery.

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9 points

Actually, the first nation to abolish chattel slavery was Haiti, which was NOT a Christian nation at the time. The country as we know it today was literally founded through a successful slave revolt!

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34 points

There is a verse in the Bible which specifically says you have to follow the law unless it conflicts with the Bible.

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0 points

Too bad it said nothing like that about science.

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