Instead, he simply told stories and often stated, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." A famous example of the way Jesus spoke the plain truth was when he responded “then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's” to the Pharisees who were trying to trap him. To understand the genius of this statement, some background information is needed. At the time the Roman Empire, Herod first and foremost, treated the Jews as second class citizens (Lending, n.d.). Aware that the people would refuse to follow a Roman sympathizer who claimed to be the Messiah who would put in place a new government, the Pharisees tried to play a game of “gotcha” with Jesus. However, Jesus does not use persuasive tactics to bring crowd at His side. Instead, he asks only two questions: “Why do you test me, you hypocrites? Show me the money used for the poll tax... Whose image and inscription is this?" Then Jesus proceeds to tell them the truth once he has heard their answer. "They said to him, 'Caesar's.' Then he said to them: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's.” Jesus did not employ manipulative tactics or strategies to influence public opinion in His response which caused the Pharisees to flee from the scene. Therefore, the Bible shows a stark contrast between the persuasion used by the serpent