Much has been written about Mark’s pericope on the payment of taxes to Caesar (Mk 12.14–17), but there has been no analysis of whether the word καῖσαρ functions as a title or a proper name. Nor is there a clear consensus as to when the cognomen Caesar became a title referring to the emperor and when the word καῖσαρ became a loanword integrated in Greek. This article analyses the evolution of the meaning of Caesar/καῖσαρ as well as its functions in Mk 12.14–17. The proposal made here is that the word καῖσαρ functions in Mk 12.14–17 simultaneously as a proper name and a title. This deliberate ambiguity allows the scene to function meaningfully both for Jesus’s context and the author’s own.
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