,-l BEP", A ilrl

Uq,rG) W

a.

ere rn regroni gii_, con r regnanti

.

COINS MENTIONED

:i nullum sub coelo

The numismatic department of the Archaeological Museum ', attached to the Franciscan Biblical School in Jerusalem, possesses a del musaico dal collection of about 7000 difierent ancient coins. The most valuable imente il periodo part of this collecdon is the Islamic', but of course for the School :hiese latina e greca. ffi,.'' and for visiting students in general, Palestinian, Phoenician and RoI - per mi rf-rrLr.a sembra yruulw.i: piuttffi,i', . man coins are of much more interest. From experience in guiding I'vLv u^r visitors through the Museum we know that there is e partie.riorico nel Ll72 come Iarly thrilling moment in seeing those biblical coins the names of -.{!..
which all Christian people are well acquainted with from childhood on.

ente di faccia, I'uo i con tessere :olari che non si

IN THE NE\M TESTAMENT

P.

B.

Instead of having those coins in question scattered over many showcases, we thought it bener to arange a special collection of all coins related one way or another to biblical history'. It was in order to prepare such a collection that we hgan making a special snrdy of a[[ coins explicitly mentioned in the New Testament. This practical purpose jtrstified, we think, a renewed inquiry into a theme often dealt o. with before Submiming here the results of our investigation we don't
BAGATTT.,.
see B. Bacet:rr, II Museo detla FhGerusalemme, Jerusalem L939. It should be notodr. however, that since dris guidrbook was published the arangement of te Museum has been considerably modified (Cfr infra in this volume, p.732). ! This collection of Islamic coiru was aisernbled by the late Mgr. G. Tonizza and presented by him to t{re Museum. The Mamluk.coins were examined recently - inco'rporated in a new'caalogue.of and a few so far unknown pieces will be Mamluk coins, to be published by the numismatic experr P. Baroc, Cairo. 3 A sirnilar showcase is on exhibit in the British Musetm; 4, lJ.AreN ".o.], A guide to the department of coins and medals in the British Museum, London 11934, 32fr..: Coins illustrating the Bible.' a Selected bibliography: C. Cevrooxr, Biblische Numismatifr, bersetzt von A. von 'W'enLHor, F{annover 1855. TH. E. DowrrNc, A short desoipton of some bible coins found in Palestine z PEFQJ 1S96, Lrz-Lffi. G. F. Ffru, articles

For a general description of the Museurn

gellaqbne

in

Penny, Stater: Encyclop. Bibl. (Cnrrxr/Brecr), s.yy.

F.\(/.Meoorx,

Coins

80
aPPeal

A. SPIJKERMAN

LOINS MENTIONED IN THE I\E' IHSI'AMbNI

?sA

to professional experts of numismatics but ratlrer to a larger

reading public who might be anxious to clear up their ideas on oftenheard-of coins from Bible Days. Speaking on biblicaL coins " on" would naturally exspecr them to be I ewis coins. In point of fact, however, no Jewish coins are ever mentioned explicitly in the wlrole Old Testament and the same applies, with just one possible exceprion, ro the New Tesrament. This fact is easily explained: The right to mint coinage was always regarded as a Prerogative of sovereignty. As periods of independence or ar least of autonomy are rather few and short in old Jewish history after the Babylonian Exile, truly Jewish coins have not been minted but to a n. limited number For their need of currency the Jews almost conti-

KENNrov;

441-448 t cfr Verb. Dom. 6 (1926) 349-35+. J. VnNoeRvonsr, I monnaie dans Ia Bible: Collect. Mechlin. ll (l%7)r-43. - K.Prxr, Beinge zw biblischen Numisnatik: Biblica 20(l%9)408-412. A.G.Bennors, Maniel d'Archologie Bibligue, Paris, II 193r, 258-273; cr The Interpreter's Bible I, Nerr York 1912, lr7-l&4. F. ArxeN BeNrs, Coins of Bible Days, New York - are the articles in Pew-v/'Wrssowa's Real-Encyclol9rr. Extremely important pdie, to be quoted for each coin (HurrscH, KuerrscHer, RecrrNc). 5 fngots of gold or silver of specified weight so long in use in the ancienr world

Rel. 15 (192r)

of the len,s, London 190i, 289-j04: Money in the New Testarnent. A. R. S. - Scuurnen, Money: HsrNc's Dict. Bible III, 11904, +17-432. E. Geschichte des ldischer Votkes im Zeitalter lesu Christi,Leipzig,II .1907, 7l-76.F. Pnar, Le cours des monnaies en Pdestine au tetnps de lsurChrist z Rec. Jc.

nually depended on foreign domination's coinage. It might be useful to give here a summary of currency known to have circulated in Palestine until the time of Our Lord'. Although it is a well established fact that coins have been in circulation in Asia Minor and Greece for over a century prior to the Babylonian Exile, they don't seem to have reached Palestine at this time. It was Darius Hysraspis (r2L-456 B. C.), who introduced a royal coinage in Persia, consisting mainly of gold coins, the famous Ea,qetxoi oroti:lQeg, and silver coins known as oyl,or or ox?uot prl8txo '. Naturally those coins came into use also in Persian-dominated Palestine where, in the mealltime, large groups of Jews had returned following the permit granted by Cyrus. Beside this imperial Persian gold and silver coinage a limited provincial currency may have been in use. The very curious coins, known irr three specimens only so far, with the inscription lehud, the official Aramaic name of Judaea in Persian times, were certainly minted in Palestine itself and they are generally ascribed to the fourth century B. C. ". There is, moreover, a coin which according to RprsNnpRc seems to be even older, probably to be ascribed to the frfth century B.C.; this piece bears the inscription yPl ( : one half [shekel]) ".
lewish Coins, Jerusalem
Jerusalem 1956 [: Corpus Nummorum Palaestinensium I]. 7 See especially A. R. S. KrNNrov, l. c. 8 F. HultscH, Dareikos: Peurx/WISSort(/A, s.v. [IV, 2l8l-]f. G. F. Hr, Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Arabia, Mesopotantia and Persia, London 1922, cxx fJ.; A\ff, Cs. SrttueN, Greek Coins, London 193), 62f1.: The Imperial Persian Coinage. 's g. L. SuxeNtr, The oldest coins ol ludaea: /POS 14 (1934) 178-182. A. RITnNBERG, o. c., 8 f . On one of these three coins, however, the proposed reading of the left-hand inscription on the reverse as tnr is very doubtful and rather to be discarded: L.-H. VrNcrNr, Les pigraphes judo-aramennes postexiliques:

11947. L. KnounN, T,\e

Coins

of Aelia

Capitolina,

became coins when they received the impression of an official mark which served as a guarantee of its weight and fineness and hence of its value in the cuffency of the country, cfr KeNnrDY, o.c., 421. The ?pr shekel so often mentioned in the OId Testament was a weight, not a -coin. main metals used for coinage were -'The gold, silver and. coppr as well as various alloys (electrum, billon, bronze, brass, erc.).

Other materials as leather, glass, wood, etc. are very exceptional. For details see E. BABsroN, Trait des Monnaies Grecques et lomaines,, I, l, Paris 1901, )51-3782 Anatomie de la monnaie F. \(/. MeooeN, o.c., 21fr. (materials employed for '

.' money). ' As Jewish are to be considered the Hasmonean coins, dre coinage of the fint and second Jewish revolt and, to a certain extent, the Herodian money-. Not Jewish at all, although mostly incoqporated in catalogues of "Jewish Coins'i ar. the Procurator coins, coins of ludaea Capta and Colonia Aelia Capitolina. See F.'(/. - of the Greek MeoosN, Coins ol tbe lews, London 1903. G. F. Hrlr, Catalogue Coins of Palestine, London 1914, lxxxix-cxi-; 184-316. A. REreNsenc, Ancient :i

Norwithstanding the heathen character of the four above mentioned coins SureNIrc and RprrrNsRc admit the possibility that they were issued by a local Jewish ruler. For the oldest one RrtrsNnrnc, p.8, suggested Nehemiah. According to SuruNtrc, 1..., 182, the three fouah centur)t coins prove that Judaea had the status of autonomous province within the Persian
Empire.

Rey. Bibl. 56 (1949) 280sqq. 10 A. RelrpNBERG, 1..., 5-8.

ZBZ

r.

v. tJ \:t\tt,l11\

CorNs MLN'rIoNriD IN t'ur, t'.Juw 'fus't,t,urr.'r

Zs
ceuturies

Mention should be made also of the very srrange so called philisto-Arabia. coinage, probably mi'ted at G^r:,^,*hi. betrays a srrong Greek (Athenia') influerrce ". Moreover, thar Greek fiftlr .,rd .rp.l cially forrrth century coins have reached Palestine is well proved by occasionally found specime's ". Finally, we have the pre-Alexadrie coinage of ProsPerous commercial cities or-l the Pho*i.i"., coasr as sidon, Tyre, Gebal (Bybtus) and the wealthy island-city Aradus ,,. The conquesr of the whole Middle East area by A."",-,der the Great brought about a change in curre' cy every,,,rhere. Palestie also was fooded with the Alexandrine coinage, issued in enormous quantities from at least twenty principal mints. On[y one principal mint was esrablished in Palestine itself, namely Ak. (A..o), but some "t minor mints may have operated here as wel[, e.g. J"pp",' Ascalon'.. Nearest to Palesti'e were the mi'ts of Ale*r,-,dri, b;;;r.us, Sido', Aradus and Byblus. After a period of great confusion, following the untimely death of Alexander the Grear, the battle at Ipsus, 301 8.C., brought Palestine for about one century under ptole-aic rule until Arrtiochus III the Grear, in the battle at pa'ias (caesarea Philippi), succeeded in bringi'g Palestine under his domination. It would be very interesting to retrace how the varyi,.,g .h"nce of .war in the almosr continuous struggle betweeu Lagidae and Seleucidae was reflected in the outPut of the Palestinian and Phoenician minrs, but ir is not essential

for the preselrt inquiry. Suffice it to say that for over two
Palestine used respectively Ptolemaic and Seleucid currency

Moreover, several mints, besides working for the respective Ptolemaic and Seleucid Kings, produced also an autolromous coinage which became more abundant as the grip of Seleucid domination became ever weaker. The permit, granted to Simon Maccabaeus by King Antjoclrus VII in 139/8 B.C. "to coin money for his coulrtry witlr lris own starnp" (the decree is recorded L Llacc.l5,2-9), fits we[[ into these circutnstances: Antiochus would only have confirmed tlre right of minting which Simon had already assumed. Tlris, of course, in the supposition that the well known bronze coins of year 4 rcal\y are to be ascribed

"'.

to Simon

Maccabaeus "'.

Particular mention should be made of sorne issues of Phoenician coins which were \argely used in Palestine: The shekels and half Eagle stanslrekels from the Tyriau miut, type Bust of Melqartlr ding [eft, which started in 126/5 B. C. arrd was stopped (by the Romans) only in the second half of the first century A. D. '' By far more rare are the similar shekels and half shekels of Sidon, type 43/4 A.D.) ". Head of Tych Eagle standing left (107/6 B.C. Important is likewise the issue of drachms and tetradrachms of Aradus. stag standing right in front respective types Bee with straight wings of palm-tree, and Bust of Tych Nike advancing left "'. From the successor to Simon Maccabaeus, John Hyrcanus, the Jewish coinage can be raced dowr-t to the time of Our Lord, with a

ft '

G. F.
was

HrLr,

Catalogue

to this group thar-Hrll

of

1910. v. Hero, Historia Nu^oiu-, b*fo"d 2rgl, 773ti.- cH. s;;;;, o. c., r&{. o. c., 207ff. E. T. Nrwr. L, shown ,t number of ", " t"ln" coins cities (amongst them several- Palestinian ciries) ro which el"."nd.iri" werc amributed, especially by MuerrEn, has to be elminared from the list of Alexandermrnts.

B.

Re'rrBERc, r.1.,7, l. Recenrly, again a fourth century ". Macedonian coin was found sechem during excavations conducted by the Am; "t (Not y.. ican school of oriental_ Research p,ibl;rh.d. 13 See G.F.F{rn, Catalogue oi_thr.'Grrik Coins'of phoenica, London _
References

SuxeNm discovered the righr reading to be 1r. 72

the Greek Coins of Palestine, Ixxxiii f 176fr. ascribed the much discussed "Jahu-coin", l. ,., Ixxxvi.

.;

li

R. S.

in

London

1{ SrrruaN,

I(pticoug r1iv lfro).epclov 4voll., Athens 1904-8.-See SrrtnaeN, o.c.r24lrn.2, As to Seleucid coinage, the standard work is still Ii. BennoN, for corrections. - tArmnie et de Commagne, Paris 1890. Les Rois de Syrie, rrt See on this question REITnNB,ERG, o. c., 10. 77 G. F. Hltl, Phoenicia, c- xxiv ; 233-253. For whole shekels more recent - 7 (1938) 63: Year 184 : 58/9 than those incorporated in the BMC, see QDAP A.D., and ibid. ll (1945) 84: Year 190 : 64/5 A. D. r8 G. F. Hrlr, o. c., cix ; 158-161. le G. F. Htrr, o. c., xxix ; 2045.

Poot"E, Catalogue of Greek Coins. The Ptolemies, King of EgyPt, 1881. Much befter, however, is J.N.SvonoNos, T&Noropurxroit

284

A.

SpUTERMAN

CorNs MENTToNED rN trte Naw Tusrnnstt

285

rather big gap berween Arexander Jannaeus (L03-76 B.c.) a'd Andgonus Mattathias (40-37 B.c.) unless *. to J;ril; H;;; , "rribure canus rr (67 and 63-40 B. c.) coins formerly ascrib"i ,o Alexander ': Jannaeus 'o. At the same much troubled dme, 63 B. c., ,rith ,rr" .r, nolo:tu:, J"1i:i-."1: under Roman control. Th. :?1 :{ Antiochus XIII Asiaticus, of syria, ras deposed by p"d;*;; l. B. c.-Most probably, however, rhe seleucid ,,i coinage came ;-;;'; already with A'tiochus XII, c. g4 B. c. ptolemai.".,rrr.r,.y ceased to be issued at the death of cleopatra VII, "rhe dominatirg'p.rronarity throughout the years of rh. dynasty,, (Heao), 3fB. c., when _closing \ " Egypt was made a Roman provi.." -i. ' Surveyi'g the situation during the lifetime of our ,., Lord we may say that the silver (and gold) .,r.r.r,.y of palesrine co'sisted -"irrly of Roman money, .oinrg. from th. ph*nician cities and the provin_ cial mint for Syria, established in rhe meantime at Antioch. Besides that, older coins as seleucid and ptolemaic currency probably were still i' uqe. For bronze money we have the coinage of Herod rhe Great (37 - 4 B. c.), Herod Archelaos (4 B. c. - 6 . o.), and, since the deposition of the latter, the proc,r."ro, coinage ,,', ,trr.k at caesarea' Most probably the older Hasmonean coirage was still in circuladorr' Finally, meution should be made of a f.r -ints operating in Palestine at this time : Gaza, Ascalon, Dora arrd Acco. All orkr mints in Palestine of which coins are known are of later date and hence, dontt concenl us here. In the face of this data we wilr try b find out what kind of coins the difierent.denominations occurring in the New Testame't starrd for.

l;,;";;

mentioned in the New Testament we are concerned with silver and bronze conage only'., it being well understood that silver coins are always mixed with a certain quantity of copper and that bronze in numismtics stands indifferently for copper, btonze, brass, etc.

As to coins explicitly

There are four silver coins specifica[y mentioned in the New Testament : denarius, a Roman denomination, and three Greek ones' drachma, didrachmon and stater. In this group should be included

tb

tigygrov, a term indicating originally the metal silver, then widel.y used for money par excellence (as in Latirr and until now in French), but also for specifrc silver coins as will be shown afterwards. A to bronze coins three different ones are mentioned by name in the original Greek text of the Gospels i cts and quadrans, which are Roman denominatiot-ts, and the lepton. Besides we frnd in the Vulgate the Roman dupondius. r

Silver coins.

1.

Denarius"". The latin word denarius was originally an

ad-

jective, meaning, as FoncELLINI has it, decem continens. A nummus denarius was first struck at Rome n 268 B. C. 'o and from that time on it was for many centuries the most important piece in the whole Roman currency system ". The name is to be explained by the fact

24 Indirectly a golden

coin, theRoman Aureus,may be referred rc inMatth.t0,9,

:ro C/r

RTTruNBERG,

o.c.,

15ff.

pi xroeo8'e xpuov rzEi rpyupov p'48 )Ca).xdv x).. (KeNNrov, 1.r., 428) It may be added that the aurei of. the early Roman emperors are often just a replica
the aurei

of

good sunmary .". -b" found in Hnnp n,s Bibre Dictionary, New york 1952, s'v' Money, 455. 'we don't know, hor*,.u"r, what is meant by sirver coins struck by the Maccabean John Hyr."nur, ibid., a *r, ;";'."tilr" is known
":"1

the reverse a crocodii and legend AEoypro

"rr

Signi6cant are.

i ,thi, .ont"xt

and, dettarii .TA.

of Augustus having on

Hyrcanus.

in gold of the silver denarii. 2i Cfr F.Huttscu, Denarius: Peuuvf'Wrssow, Vr 202-215. E.Ben*oN, KaiserTeit, M. BanNH enr, Handbuch <ur Mn<kunde der Rmischen o. c.,142-549. H. MnrrrNGLY, Roman Coins, London L928, 12. Halle 1926, 20-23. - of the two slightly divergent statements by Livy and Pliny 2r For a discussion concerning the beginning at Rome of silver minting see Trr. MonnsN, Geschichte
des rdmischen Mnzveset, Berlin 1860, 300.

, "-see Isr. Expl.

lount.6 (19j6)

-especially-

More Dates on t\e coirs of the procurators: ItKtNotrn, j4_r7.

27 It was Caracaila who introduced, 21, A.D.,

"silver" piece, the so called Antoninianus (probably

_ 2 denarii),

beside

the denarius, a

new

which gradually

286

A.

Slr.xLRMAN

CorNs MIiN'rIoNIiD IN tut' Nl;w l Lst'tr'tu''r'

287

this period we are here concerned. The term denarius was taken over in the hellenistic world under the adapted form of t 8rvgr,ov which occurs also in tlre New Testament "'. The introduction of Roman money followed the conquest Palestine by Pompeius and it may safely be assumed that d*ing gf the lifetime of Our Lord most of the ,iiu., currency consisted of denarii (and Tyrian shekels). Indeedr 6rlvdqr,ov (unknown to LXX) is the coin most often mentioned in the New Tesramenr, in att 16 times: Matth.18,28; 20,2.9.10.13 ; 22,19 (parallel passages Marc.l2,l5; Luc.

that the silver denarius, when first struck, was equal in value to l0 arses ". Hence the mark x on the oldest denarii. since 2r7 B.c. the denarius was valued at 16 asses (this relation still existed during the lifetime of Our Lord), but only since 114 B. C. the value mark X was sometimes replaced by xvl. Julius caesar was the first Roman to strike denarii with his own image on the obverse, a pra4ice followed by all Roman Emperors after him for nearly a[ kins of currenry,n. The weight of the denarius dropped from an origi. aI 4,55gr ro 3,90 gr in 217 B. C. and further to 3,40gr under Nero, 64 A.D. Mark Antony for some time considerably debased the silver alloy of his denarii copper). However, from Augustus dll Nero both weight ancl \rr% fineness of the denarius were enforced very exactly ''n. It is mai'ly *ith

20,24); Marc.6,37;14,5 (parallel passages loh.6,7 and L2,5 respectively) ; Luc.7,4l"' ; 10,35; Apoc.6,6 (twice) ". Although the dating of the earlier republican denarii is still f.ar from being frxed, nevertheless we now know almost the whole outPut of denarii, and in such catalogues as those of the British Museurn nor many wilt have to be yet inserted. Furthermole, the identity of the denarius is established beyorrd doubt. Now the point here would be to determine out of a known series of coins those referred to in the Scripture texts. As to the above mentioned texts, however, we must ascerrain rhat in almost ail places there is simply a mention of rb 6r1r,rqrov. Hence, to determine more concretely which denarius is meanr no means are available but time-limit criteria. As terminus a quo we would take the denarii from about 6J B. C. otlwards "o. As trrn inrs ad qltem, as far as tlre Gospels are concerned, tlre year of Our Lord's death, probably 30 A. D. ". On[y in one case does the text itself. give sorne indication: Matth. 22,19 fr (and the two parallel passages Marc.12,1, and Luc.20,24) : "They brought unto him a penny. And lre saith unto them, W'hose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Caesar's". Here
some Greek rnanuscripts as well as in syriac versions Ezvprc and l'l after "50". repeted resp. is i:r On Acts 19,19 (Vulgate : detarionrnr) see below under ripyprov. 34 It is extremely difficult to say to what extent the denarii were .brought_ into the republican period. Judging from what we know circulation in Palestine during -Old City of Jeruialem, denarii are common only from in th. coin-market the about Trajan onwards ; denarii of the early emperors are extremely rare, whilst we never *"re off.ted a denarius from the first century B.C. or earlier. 3s \(/e rhink MeoorN, though giving an excellent note on the Money in the New Testament, is wrong when taking into account on several occasions coins from up to the time rhe synoptic Gosp ls were written. It is obvious that we should csr,id.. biblical only thlse coini which belong to the period of which the Gospels
speak.

3! In

prgl"b]y_

coins (under Constantine the Great) and the Antiochia-on-Orontes coins

East Courirries the name for the monetary unit. 38 Nach der einstimmigen Erklrung'der Alten erhielt das Ganzstck der ersren Silbeqprgung den Namen denarius, *-.il ihm der 'wert von t0 in K.rpf.r mnzten Assen zukam: Hurtsctt, 1.c., 204. 2e For a few exceprions on this general rule see M. BrnNnntr o.c.r 3l fr. _ Most often to be met with speci-.* are the small (Jrbs Romo or'Conrtantnopolis

denarius ; after the reign of Gordianus III, 238-244, the coining of denarii came ro an end. Cfr Merrr*l.r, o. c., lZ5 . Curious enough the name ff was used as a denomination for Arab gold coins and .l':r i5 still in some Middle

replaced the

s1 In the Mishna often named ljr.t, lll; c/r ScHurnrn, o. c., 74.

30 M. 1o BTnNHART,

be aqributed to Julian the Aposate).

o.

(most

c., 20.

although there was the really semitic rerm

above stated limits, see: H. ConrNo Desoip' 21880 tion historique des Monnaies frappes sous I'Empire Romain, I, PasfLondres H. A. GnunEnr,Coins of the Roman Rc(begins with the coins of Pompeius). H. MlTtrNclY, Coins of the British Museum, II, London 1910. in the public 'Roman Empire in the British Museum, I, Augustus to Vitellius, London 192t.

",

For the denarii falling within the

,L
indeed

A. )PIJKERMAN

CorNs MENTToNED rN THE NEw TesrenENr

289

it seems most couvenient to assume Jesus was shown a denarius of the then reigning Emperor, i... Tiberius, 14-37 A.D.'" However.
we can't exclude the possibility that a denarius of his predecessor Augustus, 6-L4 A.D., was s[rowr1, as these denarii unquestionably were still current in Palestine in the tirne of Our Lord. The situation is entirely dfrercnt, when Saint John in his Apoca-

very old tradition " the Apocalyps was writteu at tlre eird of the reigr-r of Domitian (assassinated Sept. 18,96). More than 60 years separate him from Jesus' death and in the meantime an erlormous amount of denarii had hen issued. However, Saint John does nor speak of those conremporary coins, but his visiorr carries lrirn into a distailt future ir-,to which tre projects the currellt silver coin of his tirne. The denarius is the otily Roman silver coin rnentioned in tlre New Testament. T[re quinarius llever occurs, whilst the sestertius became exstinct before tlre tirne of Our Lord, to reappear ouly as a bron(e coin.

lypt (6,6) sti[[ speaks of denarii. According to a

2. Drachma "' . According to the traditional opinion the word is to be explained by the fact that it was made equal in value to a graspfull (Eg,E, properly as much as one can hold in the hand) of iron spits used forrnerly as curren.y'". \Thereas the balance has two scales and the "drachm" or graspfull is thoughr to be that what is put on
3( DowlrNc, 1.r., lt6. AtrcN BaNrcs, o.c., 99: "aLnost without question - Tiberius a duplicate of the denarius of [shown to Our Lord]" goes a little too far: the most common denarius is indeed that with obverse: Female figure seated right
on chair (the gure represents Livia as Pax) and circular inscription PONTIF. nlxU., but dris type has been struck from different dies (Mnrrrnclv, o.c., l2r-127), whilst entirely different types are known as well (ibid., l2l,I27). 3? C/r R.Scuuerz, Die offenbarung des lohanrtes und Kaiser Dontitianz Forsch. Rel. Lit. A.N. Test. 50' (1933). 38 Cfr F.FIultscH, Drachnrc: Pnuw/I7rssowe, V, l6l1.-i3. E.BnneroN,
o.

one scale, it is clear that the drachm originally was not a unit, a totality, but a half, i.e., half of a didrachm or stater, which was the monetary unit adopted in the oldest Aeginetan coinage. On[y in one passage the drachm is mentioned in the New Testament. It is in Jesus' narration on the woman who lost one of her ten drachms and immediately began sweeping her house until she found again the lost drachm : Luc. 15,8 (nvice). 9. !7here denarii constitute a well individuated set of coins, a drachm mey pertain to quite a number of different Greek currency systems, most of which had become exstinct before the time with which we are concerned. Hence it is very difficult to say what kind of drachm may be meant here. Contemporary silver money was minted nowhere in Palestine : Gaza had no silver coinage at this time or earlier. Ascalon had some silver issues, especia[y in the first century 8.C., but amongst them no drachms. Two more mints operating in Palestine, Dora and n". Ptolemais-Ace, issued only bronze coinage So did the Procuratormint at Caesarea. Neither the Hasmonean nor the Herodian dynasty was ever allowed to strike silver currency Now, the denarius and the drachm were in the time of Our Lord of about the same weight and, in ordinary transactions, of the same value. Hence, it has been often supposed that in Luc.15,8.9 drachm is merely used as another name for the denarius o'. But then, *hy should not Saint Luke simply have written denarius as he does e[sewhere (7,41; 10,35; 20,24)? Assuming that indeed a drachm is meant, it is, however, very difficult, if not at a[[ impossible, to come to a reasoned conclusion. Leaving aside the contemporary "drachms" of the Nabataean Kings Obodas III, c. 30-9 B. C. and Aretas IV, 9 B. C. 40 A. D., which n', foflow a particular standard their as we[[ as a soliseem to of own

c., 402 ff. 3e' See especially Cn. SsrrMAN' o.c., 33 with reference to a bundle of iron ff., spits found in the old temple of Argive Hera. The proposed Babylonian derivarion of drachma from darag-ntana is thought more-probable only by E. Bunrrrn, Drao6tne

{o

London 21893,

I, 802; cfr II, 41-3. MeooeN, o. c., 296. - the Greek Coins of Arabia, 1z Ctr G. F. Htn, Catalogue of

1L R. S. PooLr, Drachma: !7. SnalrH/J. Fulrrn, A. dictionary of tbe

For details

see

BMC,

Palestine and Phoenicia.

Bible,

Mesopotamia and

D. B. (Vlcounoux),

s. v.

Persa, London 1922, xxff. t9

29A

A.

Sr,txLRMAN

CorNs MENTToNED rN tHu

Nrw TEsrari,lrNt

2gl

nn, Aradus S.l.,r.id or Ptolemaic drachm, n' or even those of Alexander the Great. As to the two for Palestine most important provincial minrs, it has to be ascertained that Antioch has silver issues at this time, i. e. retradrachms, but no drachms/denarii ; the drachms of Tiberius, issued from the mint at Caesarea Cappadociae, which began operaring in L7 A.D., are probably too late to have reached Palestine at this rime n'. A very good suggestion would be ro propose in our case the drachms or, more exactly, quarter-shekels of. Tyre, but they are extremely rare. Had they been current in Palestine as the Tyrian shekels and half-shekels, more specimens should have been found o'.

tary drachm of Mark Antony, struck at Antio.h'", we may suggest that some drachms of foregone times were sti[ in circulatiohr .g. of

", whilst the didrachms of the provincial mint at Antioch, wlriclr MooEN mentions in the
means are so rare as MeoorN stated at his time

same context, are too late to be taken into consideration ". The same applies to the didrachms of the mint of Caesarea Cappadociae ". Nevertheless,

it may have bee' customary for two persons to pay,

instead of orle didrachm per person, jointly'ore tetradrachm or one shekel or (as in the passage under consideration) one stater :

4.

,stdter'". Stater, otatrq, is derived from otrprq having

or?

the

Didrachmano. The didrachm or double drachm(t E8qo1pov sc. vpLopo) was always much rerer than the drachm and the tetradrachm. The word occurs only in one passage : Matth.L7,z4 (mice). Contemporaneous double drachms have been struck at Petra, the ca. pital of the Nabataean Kingdom nn, but it is doubtful whether they were in use in Palestine. Most probable candidates to figure here as biblical coin are the half-rh.k lr^ of the Tyrian mint'", ,ihi.h by no

3.

to weigh ; ,frSptn !(/hereas drachm suggests the idea of a half, otatrlg gives the notion of unit, totality. The word *as used especially for gold coins (Darics, gold coins of Philippus Macedo ar-td Alexander), but also for silver coins, either didrachms, as in the money system of Aegina and elsewhere, or, in Hellenistic-Roman times, tetradrachms. Hence it is clear that stater could be the same as the light shekel, but also equal in value to the heavy shekel and therefore equal ro rwo didrachms or, whar is the same, one tetradrachm "''.
meaning of to put the scales

From Matth.17,27 (the only passage where the word occurs in the New Testament; unknown to LXX) it is evident thar the srarer, to be found in the moutlr of the fislr, was meanr as paymenr for bo:h Jesus and Peter: xslvov [sc. oraqqa] ],cBv Ebg arorE rivri ro

43 Cfr V/.\7notH,

Catalogue

of the Greek Coins of

Galatia, Cappadocia and

to Hrrr, Phoe .:,,' 'rs For a discussion of the question if Ptolomic drachms were still currcnt in Egypt under Augustus, see F{ultscn, l. c., 1629. 16 KrNNeoy, 1.c., 427. PneT, 1.c., 442, n.1. ,,..}l,, 17 No specimens ar all-in BMC, Phoenicia; cfr ibid., Plate XLIV, 5 one s: cimar repored from the Paris collection _ E. BenrroN, Les Perses Aobmnillei, 'S(/e don't understand Cypres 8 Phnirie, Paris 1893, n.2031. how Pn,rr, I.cr,,ii 445 can consider these Tyrian drachms as cuffent in Palestine. 18 Cfr F.HurrscH, Didrachmon: Peur.v/WrssovA, V, 433 fr.
ceased, according

Syria, London 1899, 157. 11 The issue of the Ephesian-inspired drachms nicia., xxxi, in ll0B.C.

5r

MeooEN, o. c., 294. coits

They appear only under Nero ; c/r \7.'s(/'norn, catalogue ol the Gre,: of Galatia" Cappadocia and Syria, London 1899, l7l, fr. 53 lbid., 47 (under Vespasian).
E.

Trait, Lt JJ 'at.c, - 419 f..

{0 Cfr G.F.Hrrr,

50 For these half-shekels of Tyre in

Arabia etc.,

xxf.:

Malichus I, Obodas III. particular, see Httr, Phoenici4 2502J3.

Obodas

II,

:. .i,
,

and the half of the heavy shekel was therefore indicated by 8i8pcit ou; c/r HurrscH,
l. c., 435.

s5 The half of thef. heavy or saced shekel which was due as annual tax for the tlPPgT of the Temple Services, is in the LXX still indicated as Dpnrp. During the lifetime of Jesus, however, drachm was considered to be equal ;"';U denariui

BesroN,

o.

c.,

436

"+

L>L

A. SPIJKERMAN
known

CorNs MENTToNED rN

rsr NEw TesrnnrNt

293

xCI,i

oo. Most authors propose here as stater either the well teradrachms of Antioch or the Tyrian shekels "".

V[I,

Some authors cite here the ruling of the Talmudic Law (Bekhoroth 7) according to which a[ payments due ro rhe Temple Treasury
'

were to be reckoned in Phoenician money standard. This can be accepted as a positive disposition, but the reason indicated e.g.by AlrsN BANKs " that the tetradrachms of Antioch were excluded for being too light, is not exact. Moreover, why should not the collectors be allowed to accept those tetradrachms which are, as a rule, even slightly heavier ": they could be changed before being deposited into the Temple Treasury.

Most authors, however, would rather propose the Tyan tetran'. drachm or better, shekel The reason is that the payment was made out of the Temple Treasury which preferably accepted (and hence paid in) Tyrian money. Notwithstanding this strong probability in favor of the Tyan shekel, tetradrachms of the same (or heavier) weight can't. be positively excluded, e.g. of Sidon, Aradus, Seleucia Pieria, Laodicea ad Mare and especially the tetradrachms of Antioch under Augustus "'.
Much the same should be said, we think, as to Matth.2l,I2 where it is narrated that some of the soldiers who watched the tomb, were given a large amount of money (ci.qyqrct. [xar, Eclxav roiE orQotrdrto.r,E), while the giving persons were once more o[ g7,teqeiE, the
Highpriests.

,. Argenteus. The term ttr tiqygr,ov, piece of silver, occurs a few times in the account of dre tragic history of the Apostle Judas: Mdtth.26rll;27,3.5.6.9 and once in the Acts on rhe occasion of the burning of a large quantity of magical books at Ephesus : Acts L9rI9. As to the passage of Judas' treachery it was thought formerly that the thirty pieces of silver given as price for the crime were the thick Jewish shekels which at one time were attributed generally to Simon Maccabaeus. Since it is now a we[ established fact that those shekels belong to the first Jewish revolt (66-70 A.D.), they are to be discarded ln our present case. Others have proposed the Roman denarius'n, an opinion widely spread among christian people and which is adopted also in the Roman
Breviary
"o.

Many later legends .on different kinds of coir-rs, asserted to have been part of the Judas-price, and prdserved in many places, are collected in an interesting study by Hltt "". Irt Acts 19,19 we meet again with the tiqyQtov. It is significant that the Vulgate has here denariorum. As already stated before, the derrarius was at this time, * 55 A.D. "o equal in value to the drachm. The coin most obviously to be taken into consideration here *as formerly the denariusf drachm, be\eved to have been issued by the mint at Ephesus under Nero ; the reverse bears (what is rather exceptional) the indication of value: 1\PAXMI-I (andAIAPAXMOI{)". fir 297.

MnooeN, o.c.,

KrNNeov, 1.c., 428.

K. PrNx, l. c.,

410.

U.
Veb.

Hot-zurtstrn, Nurn Iudas Christunt pretio vulgari sevourn vendiderit: of the ancient world) Htll, Phoenicia, 233-249 ; cfr supra n.17. sr Arrs BeNrs,'o. ., 9r. 58 CnvpooN VoN Wrnrsor, o. c., 100. / 5e L. Ds Fers, Le monete del pre4o di Gida. Ricerche di numismaticaz Riv. di Studi Religiosi lI,4l2-t0;106-21; we borrow this informarion from Hrn's
work.indicated below, n.63, as these articles were not available.

i0 See for Antioch \(/norH, o.c., 166fr., for the Tyrian shekel (the "dollar"

Dont.

ded that the word otxripaE which Ms D inserts in Matth. 26115 is already an explanation rather than a lectio varits, but a good explanation. ri3 G. F. Hrrr, The' ntedallic portraits of C.6rist ; the false shekels ; the thirty
pieces

(i:]

(194)) 66.

See

for details \7notu, Galatia etc., and

Htlt,

Phoenicia.

It

may be ad-

rio Feria V in

Coena Domini, ad

Matutinun Resp. V: "[Judas)

denariorum

numero Christum Judaeis tradidit".

Also HIIL proposes Phoenician or Syrian tetraof silver, Oxford 1920. drachms, rather than Roman denarii, ;b;., 114-6. (i4 Cfr. HoLzsEn, Paulus, Freiburg im Br. 151939, 274 f.; 470. J. ri:' CvEpoNt B. V. Hnno, Catalogue of tbe / VoN 'W'sn-ror, o. c., l0l. Greek Coins of lo.nt , London t892, 74.

94

A.

SeITERMAN

CorNs MEN'rroNL:D rN Tuu Nu'ot Tus'truNr

295

however, has shown that rhese coins can'[ be attributed to the mint of Epheru, uu. Hence, we must rurn to imperial denarii or

fucuNc,

sestertius and the dupondius (or dipondius), four- and nuo as pieces resp.r were struck in orichalcum ; as and quadrans were struck in cop-

denari/ drachms of Caesarea Cappadociae.

per. The rlormal weight of

27r30 gr., L3,65

Bronze coins.

1.

As"'.

bro,ze coins may best be treated together. The term as origir-r aLIy gves the idea of a whole, a unit'o' Hence, the well known expression i. Roman law ex
dsse heres

Lz. Dupondiusf "'. 3. Quadrans"". These three Roman

of and precisely the doubt.-n, piece: ,.dupo.dius d.robus pon_ ,as, deribus, quod unum po'dus ,rripondium dicebatur" 7'." euadrans, by its very name as a qudrter, rcfers to a unit, which isthe as. The early history of the Roma' bronze coirrage, begun in the second half of the fourth century 8.c., does nor concern us here. To understand the situation at the time of our Lord, we have to look to the bronze coinage of Emperor Augustus. The Roman system of bronze .oinag. under Augustus consisted of four different denominations, struck -in rwo kids of metal , ,h;

t\e

pi":. was to consrirure the monerary u'it of th" *hoi. ,yrr.-, the unit of weight, the pound ". Drpo,rdius was one of the multiples

K, RecrrNc, Syrien, nicht Ephesus: Zeftschr. f. :: Cf, Numism. 32 (1920') t46-rt. ti7 I. KuurscsEK, As,'Aoodprou 1 peuw/WrssororA II, 1499-trl3; 17421744. E. BanrroN, o. c., 591 fJ. 68 F. Hurrsc:n, Dupondiusi prcw/\Trssow
A's.z Dnrneni7soo.ro, ,.u.,-l-i* a rerarion I .l_ l:"."or1"r, of y;,: r-, il;' c"-t.ffi Ji.il;;ro the sansj: l:, ?:' .: ill,s : | r'rfet .a* rr";;;'il;;';:,'rr4;;:;:T}; ":",:,#;
t o ta rit

sestertius, dupondius, ?sr quadrans was gr., 10,92 gr., 3,24 gr. respectvely". Now, in the Gospels we meet with as, r dooqrov (sc. vtrtota): Matth.l}r2g: "are not two sparrows sold for,an as?" ;.Luc.l2r6: "are not five sparrows sold for two asses?" (it's in this lamer text that the Vulgate renders riooaqov Eo by dipondio), and with quadrans : Matth.5,26: "...ti[[ thou hast paid the uftermost'frthing"', and Marc.12r42: "and there came a certain .poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a f arthing". \)7[rat here must be understood by as and dipondius? It is more than probable that we should take into consideration, rather than the imperial as and dupondius, the bronze coinage issued from the Syrian provincial mint at Antioch'0. The bronze currency, struck at this time by the mint of Antioch, consisted of two series of coins, one with Greeks legends, name of the town and date (Action Era, 3I B. C.), destined for [oca[ circulation only; and one with the head of the Emperor, legend in Latin, and or1 the reverse the letters S. C. within laurel-wreath, destined for the whole province of Syria ". The question, however, of tlre different denominations is very difficult, as the weight of the same type of coins varies from a minimurn of 7 rl7 gr. ro a maximum of L9r28 gt.'u MounsEN thought it impossible to come to a conclusion; he suggested, however, the larger size coins to be sestertii, the sr raller, asses ". !7here the maximum weight recorded is 19,28 gr., sestertius seems absolutely excluded. \Wnucr

::

V K._RrcrrNc, I(oprivc E, pmw fWrssowA XI,

s.v.

lS43-6.

9g3.

73 Cfr H.MeTttNctY, Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. I, Augustus to Vitellius, London 1923, xlv. 74 So generally, e. g. MeooEN, o. c., 301 ; DowrrNG, l. c., 117 ; c/r Kr,HNrov,
l. c., 429.

7L For details on the _wgishr of this pound, see H. MaTTrNcry, Loldg- 1928, 18 fr M. BnNrrARr, o. c., tZ. 72 VeRno, De lingua - latina

^!::llr ":,^!::ac| Y: Antifte, !ma"*:(r) 21933, der I*ipzg

^u

Roman

7s See 'WnotH, Galatia er.c., 158ff. and 166fr. respectively. 76 'S7. lfnucx, Die Syrische Provinaialprgung yon Augustus
77 TH. MonMSEN,

bis

Traian, Srutt-

gatt 1931, 37 fJ.

169.

Geschichte des rmischen Mn<ve.ten:s, Berlin 1860, 719.

296

A.

SnrrERM, N

CoNs MENTIoNED IN rsE NEw TssrenENt

297

specimens, in weight rv vrrL f:P::*.'r;v'o,:^r1._. 7,17.f l2,Or::..would. as ; the larger size, L2,50f ]9,Zg-gn. .t:*:." F :h. the dupondius ". This would then coincide with a difierence in the reading on the obverse: indeedr oo the larger specimens, rhe legend reads lMP. AVGVST. TR. pOT. i on the ,-"11., piieces lMP. is omitted'0. The theo ry of 'wnucx is not vgry convincing. Merrr*c,,y, though
/ -.,-v 1.

denominaion

the smaller

lestinian currenc]/ was equal to (half of) the smallest Roman cotn: Marc.12,42. Imperial quadrantes in coPPer are known under Augustus from the mits at Rome and Lugdunum ; none were struck under Tiberius ; they reappear under Caligula and Claudius, likewise in copper, from the Roman minr only ; under Nero they were coined both in copper and oricalchum

-., ..,rr"1.-. The quadrans never was struck in the series of Antioch under the early Emperors. \7here rhe rerm xoEq,vtlg appears in the Gospels, it can't indicate.bur dre imperial quadrans. s"inr Matthew, whq as a former tax collector, was well with the Roman monetary ".q.r"int"d system, replaces the smallest denomination of Palestine by the smallesr Roman denominarion : Matth. 5,25 coll. Luc. L2,rg. - Sai't Mark informs his (Roman) readers that the smallest denominarion of pa78 \7. \Wnucx, I. c. ?e see also \rnorH, Garatia

and the small ones possibly semisses. \Thereas the bronze coins of Tiberius, srruck at Andoch, are too late to be meant in the above mentiorred texts, we might draw attentio' to an other dupo'dius of Tiberiusl attribut d by -(imperiat) MerrrNGLy " to the mint of commagene. This typ. *as struck in 20/21 A. D. and is sdll very ofrcn ro i. with i,,

"tl lrom yellow oricalchu-, ."..pt rwo, which seem to have been made from a cleey difierent rr,.t"lf a reddish copper. \we venture ro think that the yellowish specimens are dupo'dii, iir. copper
specimens
asses

consider ih" ,"rr,. of coins as being of . :o three denominations: dupondius, as and semis''. ch..r.ing the coins of Augustus in the present Museum (7 specimens of th. l"-rg. moder, 4 of the small sizg), our opinion is th"t the larger ones are struck

f:"'ltgly,

pto.posed

,.i

".
TremE means peeled,

vv^

small, thin, light. The very application of this term, rb lemv (sc' xgrcr or vrtoro) to pieces of money implies very small coins, in practice mosdy small bron<e coins. The word occurs in three Passages of the New Testament: Marc' 12,42 z y!1gcr nttrlT,l l'ral'ev i.sffi 8o 6 otw xoDqriwlg; parallel passage Luc.2lr2: ,..)ret Eo without explanatory note; and Luc' ,,rhou'sftalt r-rot depart thence, olE xU.\ tir (,o7"autv ?ucntv 12,5g-: d;roD{rE: till thou hast paid the very last 'mite' "' The rerm itself as well as the obvious meaning of both Passages requires a very tinv (bronze) coin, evell' we may say, for the sake of th. sntalle:st coin being in circulation in Palestine at the "rgu-.,lt, time concer'ed. So, to frnd out what the ?ve;rtv, i' the AngloAmerica versios known as (the widow's) mite, stands for, we have to consider what sma[[ bronze coinage was in use during Our Lord's lifetime. Now, in the Mishna there is frequent mention of the ilD]']D which, moreover , rn Kiddushin I,l; Eduyyoth v ,7 is stated exPres-lDN, the (imperial) ar, what sively to be o'e eighth of the 'pbOX fit, p.rf.ctly with t[r. ."plrnatory note of Saint Mark: ].ent. Eo 6 i:otrv xo8gvnE. Heuce, we may be sure that, firstly, ;'1D'l''1D is just another name for i,emr', and, secondly, that the ?tetv was an abundatly rninted coin and, hence, that this coin certainly is to be four]d

4. Minutum"'. The adjective

husked

>

etc., 166. under Tiberius the legend is on arl - XXXilt : known specimens Tl. CAESAR. AVG. TR. pOT. year --^ 3l ' L A.. ' *v ' Flence, they cannot be considered as being referred to by the Gospelr. 80 H. MaruNGLy, o. c., xxvi. 81 lb;d., 144, n.174 fr. ; cfr cxli.

82 lbid., Ivi. 83 K. RpcrNc, .\ertE;

Paur-v/'!7ISSo\A

XII,

2077'9.

i. their favor that they are co.temporareous ; on the other had, sma[[ pieces of the Hasmo'aean (ot also Herodia.) Dynasty, which have come down ro us in enormous quantities and which,
have

all we can state with certainty. The practical application is less sure. The possibilities are, on dre one ha.d, tl-,. pro.uraror coins, of course only up ro about year 16 of Tiberius : 29/30 A. D. ", *i.h

in the numismatic material, which came down ro us. That,s

about

NUOVE ISCRIZIONI DI |ABER *'

Verso la fine del secolo scorso furono inizia.te -le esplorazioni nella terra oltre il Giordano dirette specialmente alla conoscenza della Siria e susseguentemente estese a tutta la Transgiordania. Molti studiosi si avvicendarono per quelle regioni per poterne conoscere le vicende storiche e stabilirne gli ordinamenti politici e religiosi fino allora poco conosciuti. Nonostante le diverse esplorazioni susseguitesi dal 1897 ftno ai giorni nostri 1 risulta che molti luoghi sono studiati con abbondanza di materiale, altri poco considerati o visitati soltanto occasionalmente per cui la conos cenza di questi risulta talvolta deftciente. Si aggiunga ancora il fattore del tempo e delle trasformazioni per opera dell'uomo per determinarsi a ritornare di nuovo sui luoghi gi visitati e completarne lo studio con i nuovi elementi comparsi posteriormente. Uno di questi paesi visitati occasionalmente laber. Nelle ricerche che ab* rgREvlzIoNI UsATE The Annual of the American Schools of Oricntal Research, AASOR : XXV - XXVIII, New F{aven l9rl. American lournal of Archaeology, XLI L937' AIA - P. F.-AnEr, Gographie de Ia Palestine, Paris 1938. : q PAAES : Ptlication. of American Archaeologcal Expedition to Syria in 1899 - 1900, Part IIl, London 1908. : Porblications of the Princeton (Jniversity Archaeological PPUAES Expediton to Syria in 1904 - 1905 - 1909, Leyden. CmnnoNr- GnNNeau, Recueil d'Archologie Oriental IV, RAO - Paris 1901.

,!"

as

weight-standard so far has 'ot been ascertairred. -itti,rg the very complicated matter of the "double rariff"'", as ir does n, help ; to ide.tify more strictly the coi' i' questiolr, we confie ourselves to a more gerreral couclusion : the mite is to be sought either among the Flasmon aean,/Herodian or the procurator coins.

Jewish coins, were possibly more adapted for off.rings to the Templ..'. As a rule all rhese coins were struck very car.l.Jy ,o that a fixed

Fr. Auc. SlrreRMAN o.F.M.

*** our

thanks are due

correcting the English redaction

to Rev. Father sylvester Makarewicz oFM for of this paper.

kindly

84 Clr A'KtNoleR, More dates o.n the Procurators: Isr. Explor. -the,Coins.of fourn' 6 (1956) 54-57. PrNrc, l.c;, lll, thinks ,h.'pro.urator coins are the mits; -ReGLtN, *ho smies th.to b" .rh., i ,-;;;1, *o6p,*ur"E, h*l,t;:'?'r.1"{07;.r, 8s C/r DowrrNc, l. c., 160. 86 c/r KeNNrov, I. c., 42gf . Hrrr, penny z Encycropaedia Bibrica rrr, 3&7f .

RB: SEG : ZDPV :

Revue Bibilique.

Supplementrtm Epigraphicum Graecum

VIII,

Lugduni Ba'

tavorum 1977.

Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palaestina - V erens, Leipzig 1897. 1 G. ScHuturcrgR, Das sdliche Basan, ZDPV 1897,66-228 ; PPUAES, Leyden 1907-1934; N. Grupcx, Exploratons in Eastern Palestne, IV Part I: Text, ASOR, New Haven l95l, l-56.