COINS
Are
stamped metal disks issued by a government for trade and valuation?
Old
Testament: Gen. 23:16; Ex. 30:13; 2 Sam.
12:30.
New
Testament: Matt. 20:2; 22:21; Mark 12:42.
Before money was invented, a man might
trade or swap with a neighbor something he owned for something he wanted.
Because of their intrinsic value and mobility, cattle were very popular in the
barter system. Such trading took place also on a grand scale. When Hiram of
Tyre agreed to furnish building materials for the Temple, Solomon pledged large
annual payments in wheat and olive oil (1
Kings 5:11). Eventually the discovery and use of metals for ornaments,
implements, and weapons led to their dominating the primitive exchanges.
Silver, gold, and copper in various forms, such as bars, bracelets, and the
like represented wealth in addition to land, cattle, and slaves. The silver
shekel, weighing about four tenths of an ounce, became the standard measure.
When Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah, he "weighed out ... four hundred shekels of silver" (Gen. 23:16). At that time the shekel
was a weight rather than a coin.
The talent was another weight frequently
associated in the Old Testament with gold and silver. The crown that David took
from the king of the Ammonites weighed one talent (2 Sam. 12:30). After Judah's defeat at Megiddo, the victorious
pharaoh appointed a puppet king and required the Jews to pay Egypt a heavy
tribute in silver and gold (2 Kings
23:33). Although its weight varied slightly from one country to another, the
talent was approximately 75 pounds.
Determining the weight and purity of any
metal was a tedious business and sometimes subject to dishonesty. To establish
some standards, the first coins were minted about the same time around 650 B.C.
both in Greece and in Lydia of Asia Minor. Excavations in Shechem have
uncovered a Greek silver coin dating after 600 B.C., about the time the Jews
were returning from Babylon to Judah. The first mention of money in the Bible
appears in Ezra 2:69, describing
funds collected for rebuilding the Temple. The King James Version lists among
other resources 61,000 "drams of
gold," but the RSV has "darics
of gold," (NAS, NIV, "drachmas")
referring to a Persian gold coin. Years later, about 326 B.C., after Alexander
overran the Persian Empire, Greek coinage was circulated widely in Palestine,
according to archaeological research.
The Maccabean Revolt began in 167 B.C.
Twenty-four years later (123 B.C.), Judea became an independent state, and
about 110 B.C. the reigning high priest minted in bronze the first real Jewish
coins. Only dominant political entities could produce silver coins. In accord
with the Second Commandment, Jewish coins did not bear the image of any ruler,
but they used symbols such as a wreath, a cornucopia, or the seven-branched
lampstand of the Temple. Such symbols continued to be used by Herod and other
appointed Jewish rulers after Palestine submitted to Roman domination. Many
small copper coins from this early New Testament period have been discovered.
The coin most often mentioned in the Greek
New Testament is the denarii, translated "penny"
in the KJV and "denarius"
in the RSV, NAS, and NIV. It was a silver coin usually minted in Rome. It
carried on one side the image of the emperor (Matt. 22:21), and on the reverse might be some propaganda symbol.
Of course, the "penny"
translation was an attempt to equate the value of an ancient coin with a
familiar one of the King James era. Its value in New Testament times can be
more accurately assessed by knowing the labor that the ancient coin could buy.
The denarius was the daily pay for Roman soldiers and the wage of a day laborer
in Palestine (Matt. 20:21).
Another reference to silver money occurs in
Matt. 26:15 in the agreement between
the high priest and Judas for betraying Jesus. Although the original text
mentions only "silver" with
no specific coin, scholars feel that the figure "thirty" recalls the compensation required by law for
killing a slave by accident (Exod. 21:32).
So, Judas' pay could have been thirty silver shekels. By this time the shekel
had developed from only a measure of weight to a specific coin weighing a
little less than half an ounce. It is possible also that the "large money" (KJV) paid to
the soldiers guarding Jesus' tomb (Matt.
28:12) referred to large silver coins or shekels.
A third coin mentioned in the New Testament
was the one the poor widow put into the Temple treasury as Jesus watched (Mark 12:42). The KJV translates the
original words as "two mites, which
make a farthing" while the RSV reads "two copper coins, which made a penny" (NIV: "two very small copper coins, worth
only a fraction of a penny." The first noun describes the smallest
Greek copper coin, (lepta), and the second noun translates the Greek (quadrans)
for the smallest Roman copper coin. In either case, they were the smallest
coins available, but Jesus said they were greater in proportion than the other
donations.
Some readers might wonder why Jesus found "changers of money sitting" in
the Temple (John 2:14). Every male
Jew was required to pay an annual head tax of half shekel to the Temple
treasury (Exod. 30:13). At the Feast
of the Passover pilgrims would come from various countries. Whatever currency
they might bring, it had to be exchanged for coins that were acceptable by
Jewish standards that is, bearing no symbols violating the Second Commandment.
Of course a small fee was paid to the changer.
From two parables told by Jesus we get the
impression that the word "talent"
had come in New Testament times to represent a large sum of money instead of
just a measure of weight. In Matt. 18:24,
He told of a man who owed a certain king "ten
thousand talents." A few chapters later He described a wealthy man
assigning different responsibilities to three servants. At the reckoning time
he rebuked the one who had merely hidden his talent by saying that at least he
could have deposited the money to let it earn interest (Matt. 25:27). Such a talent had been estimated to have a current
value of about one thousand dollars.
