Mat 17:25 What do you think, Simon? from whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? from their own children, or from strangers?

Here Peter was being asked to pay a tax for entering Capernaum. Taxes were apparently as big an issue in Christ's time as they are now. Christ uses "earth" here to describe human society, which Christ saw as the primary temptation for people seeking the kingdom of heaven. However, here Christ uses the kings of society as a metaphor for the way God treats his children versus the way he treats strangers.

In a chapter that began with the transfiguration and then moved to issues of reincarnation and faith, the tax becomes a symbol of a token of faith. Neither kings of the earth nor God requires tokens of faith from their children. Taxes are a form of compulsion. The absence of taxes is the absence of compulsion.

"Kings" is from basileus, which means "king," "chief," "prince," and any "great man." It is the root word for the word used throughout the NT for "kingdom" as in "the kingdom of heaven."

"Earth" is from gê, which means "earth" (as the opposite of "heaven"), "land," "country," and "ground."

"Take" is from lambanô, which means "to take," "to receive," and "to take hold of."

"Custom" is from telos, which means "consumation," "expenditure," "end," "achievement," "fulfilment," "product," "service rendered by a citizen," and "dues extracted by the state."

"Tribute" is from kênsos, which means "tax," "census," and "poll-tax," but this word is only used in the New Testament.

"Strangers" is from allotrios, which means "belonging to another," "stranger," "foriegn," and "strange."