신약성서는 정교분리를 지지하는가? - 마가복음 12장 17절과 요한복음 18장 36절을 중심으로-

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to examine a political implication of Mark. 12:17and John 18:36, Each verse has been considered as one of the most important verses that shows the separation of church and state. Traditionally, these two verses have been only interpreted in terms of the spiritual realities. However, the recent studies of the historical Jesus show us that Jesus’ teaching is politically specific in the sense that it addresses specific situations in the 1st Greco-Roman society. Since the Judaism of Jesus’ times was deeply embedded in that religious roles, employment, organization, and systems of worship governed by political and economical considerations, it is impossible to separate politics from religion in the context of the first century Judaism. Therefore, Jesus’ statement about rendering to Caesar and God what belongs to each cannot be understood as a timeless thesis concerning the separation of Politics and religion in the modern sense. Rather, Mark. 12:17 should be understood as an antithetical aphorism against his opponents who kept distance Caesar’ tax from God’s ownership to Israel. Jesus’ saying in Mark 12:17 and John 18:36 is in some degree conditioned by the social and political context in which it arose. Ideologically, these verses have been exploited by a Reformation “two realms” theory and the modern idea concerning the separation of church and state. It would be anachronistic to read Mark 12:17 and John 18:36 in the light of the contemporary notion that separate of church and state. By placing the texts of Mark and John in the socio-political context of the first century Judaism, it is possible to avoid the problem of ideological and literary decontextualization.