The Temple Tax Fish

Jesus gave Peter rather unorthodox payment instructions when the tax collectors came knocking:

Matthew 17:27: ...Go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.

A bit of background here: All of the religious festivals were centered around the Temple in Jerusalem, three of which were mandated by Scripture for every adult male. The Jewish (v. Roman) ruling body convened on the Temple grounds, the tangible glory of all Israel was centered in the gleaming gold and limestone of its walls; indeed, even the top of the Temple had gold posts spaced around the top to prevent bird doo from sullying its holiness.

A lot of money was required to keep up the Temple itself, it's expansive grounds, and its workers. To this end, every Jew paid an annual half-shekel tax. Jesus told Peter to pay it with a coin he'd find in a fish's mouth.

What's called "St. Peter's fish" today, and has been since the days of the Roman Empire, actually can't be that fish, because you didn't catch it with a line. However, it's a great marketing strategy: cheaper than the real fish (a barbel, most likely), easier to clean, easier to cook, more plentiful...

Love that money!

Expanded Versions of This Article:
The Temple Tax Fish
The Temple Tax

It's really disconcerting to eat something that's looking at you. I finally yanked off some fin or something, I don't know what it was, and plopped it over its head.

St. Peter's Fish At a Kibbutz
I had a front-row seat for somebody that absolutely loves pretty views, and the sunset rewarded me for having the grit to eat on the patio with a heavyweight windbreaker pulled tight around me and dreams of hot cocoa.

Unfortunately I didn't get the camera out a minute earlier, but this is the fading glory of a sunset over the Galilee, from Kibbutz Ein Gev, looking west toward Tiberias. To the right of Tiberias 10 - 15 miles lays Nof Ginosar, with the Jesus Boat (see previous entry), Capernaum, and Bethsaida (which may not be on the water any longer - earthquakes and avalanches and whatnot during Roman times).

Picking out the bones - or whatever the sharp things you could choke on were, since musht apparently don't have many bones to pick out - was hazardous to my sanity, and it was only the peace given by this pretty view that saved me!

Peculiar People
Well anyway. So I told you yesterday I put on the Do Not Disturb sign, and the maid cleaned it anyway, and also took the bedspread? Well I don't mind someone cleaning my room if they really insist, except I lock my suitcase when it's being cleaned, so it's a bit of a pain. But no big deal - unless you take my spread away. So I trotted down to reception, who looked at least as astonished as I was, and eventually someone came. Turned out she had stuffed it in a cupboard?

Whatever floats your boat. So today I put on the sign again. I know it was there because I checked when I came back from breakfast. Well apparently she really thinks my room should be cleaned, because she took it away. So she came in and I said "No, I don't want it cleaned..." Later I left and when I came back presto! it had been cleaned.

I was like okay, if she's really determined to clean it, go for it. Then I realized she'd left me two chocolate muffins wrapped in plastic and tied with ribbon, and a bottle of water. Now this is service! For this, hey, she can have the dumb sign. Food is definitely the way to a poor tourists heart!

The Full Scripture Passage
Matthew 17:24-27: When Peter came into the house [after talking with the tax collector], Jesus was the first to speak. "What do you think, Simon?" he asked. "From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own sons or from others?"

"From others," Peter answered.

"Then the sons are exempt," Jesus said to him. "But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours."


Last Updated: May 29, 2009