Teaching in the Temple,[1] Jesus enters into debate successively with the Pharisees, allied with the Herodians, the Sadducees, and a lawyer, ultimately silencing them all.

[4] Protestant biblical commentator Heinrich Meyer creates a similar break in verse 13, with the final words of the king in the story being "take him away, and cast him into outer darkness" and Jesus adding the remark there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

[7] Meyer suggests that Jesus' reply, "by way of rejoinder",[9] was his answer to the chief priests' and scribes' desire to arrest him in the previous verse (Matthew 21:46).

[17] The "tax money" was τὸ νόμισμα τοῦ κήνσου (to nomisma tou kēnsou), associated with the Roman census (Luke 2:1-5, Acts 5:37).

[17] A question is asked by a lawyer, one of the Pharisees: France describes the combination of Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 as a brilliantly creative idea, as it brings the focus on the two halves of the Ten Commandments as a foundation of life, and sums up that duty as love, that is, a God-like attitude beyond the specific requirements of the Law.