Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
THE TRIBUTE MONEY. (Matthew 17:24-27)
And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money—the double drachma; a sum equal to two Attic drachmas, and corresponding to the Jewish "half-shekel," payable, towards the maintenance of the temple and its services, by every male Jew of twenty years old and upward. For the origin of this annual tax, see Exodus 30:13-14; II Chronicles 24:6, II Chronicles 24:9. Thus, it will be observed, it was not a civil, but an ecclesiastical tax. The tax mentioned in Matthew 17:25 was a civil one. The whole teaching of this very remarkable scene depends upon this distinction.
came to Peter—at whose house Jesus probably resided while at Capernaum. This explains several things in the narrative.
and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?—The question seems to imply that the payment of this tax was voluntary, but expected; or what, in modern phrase, would be called a "voluntary assessment."
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Matthew 17:24:
Exodus 30:11-16
Matthew 17:24
Luke 20:22
John 2:14-17
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