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,-l BEP", A ilrlUq,rG) W -ere rn regroni gii_,a. con r regnanti COINS MENTIONEDIN THE NE\M TESTAMENT

:hiese latina e greca. ffi,.''I per mi sembra piuttffi,i', I'vLv u^r rf-rrLr.a yruulw.i:iorico nel Ll72 come -.{!..

ente di faccia, I'uo .i con tessere:olari che non sidel musaico dalimente il periodo

:i nullum sub coelothere iscoins the

The numismatic department of the Archaeological Museum ',attached to the Franciscan Biblical School in Jerusalem, possesses acollection of about 7000 difierent ancient coins. The most valuablepart of this collecdon is the Islamic', but of course for the Schooland for visiting students in general, Palestinian, Phoenician and Ro-. man coins are of much more interest. From experience in guidingvisitors through the Museum we know thatIarly thrilling moment in seeing those biblicalwhich all Christian people are well acquainted with from childhood on.Instead of having those coins in question scattered over many show-cases, we thought it bener to arange a special collection of all coins

e partie.r-names of


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80 A. SPIJKERMANaPPeal to professional experts of numismatics but ratlrer to a largerreading public who might be anxious to clear up their ideas on often-heard-of coins from Bible Days.

Speaking on biblicaL coins " on" would naturally exspecr them tobe I ewis coins. In point of fact, however, no Jewish coins are evermentioned explicitly in the wlrole Old Testament and the same ap-plies, with just one possible exceprion, ro the New Tesrament. Thisfact is easily explained: The right to mint coinage was always regardedas a Prerogative of sovereignty. As periods of independence or ar least .of autonomy are ratherBabylonian Exile, trulylimited number n. Forof the len,s, London 190i, 289-j04: Money in the New Testarnent. - A. R. S.KENNrov; Money: HsrNc's Dict. Bible III, 11904, +17-432. E. Scuurnen,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.Rel. 15 (192r) 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, Beingezw biblischen Numisnatik: Biblica 20(l%9)408-412. - A.G.Bennors, Manield'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 Yorkl9rr. - Extremely important are the articles in Pew-v/'Wrssowa's Real-Encyclo-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 worldbecame coins when they received the impression of an official mark which served asa guarantee of its weight and fineness and hence of its value in the cuffency of thecountry, cfr KeNnrDY, o.c., 421. - The ?pr shekel so often mentioned in the OIdTestament was a weight, not a coin. -'The main metals used for coinage weregold, 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 seeE. BABsroN, Trait des Monnaies Grecques et lomaines,, I, l, Paris 1901, )51-3782Anatomie de la monnaie - F. \(/. MeooeN, o.c., 21fr. (materials employed formoney). ' .' 'As Jewish are to be considered the Hasmonean coins, dre coinage of the fintand second Jewish revolt and, to a certain extent, the Herodian money-. Not Jewishat all, although mostly incoqporated in catalogues of "Jewish Coins'i ar. the Pro-curator coins, coins of ludaea Capta and Colonia Aelia Capitolina. - See F.'(/.MeoosN, Coins ol tbe lews, London 1903. - G. F. Hrlr, Catalogue of the Greek

few and short in old Jewish history after theJewish coins have not been minted but to atheir need of currency the Jews almost conti-

Coins of Palestine, London 1914, lxxxix-cxi ; 184-316. - A. REreNsenc, Ancient :i

LOINS MENTIONED IN THE I\E' IHSI'AMbNI ?sA

to give herelestine untilnually depended on foreign domination's coinage. It might be usefula summary of currency known to have circulated in Pa-the time of Our Lord'.Although it is a well established fact that coins have been in cir-culation in Asia Minor and Greece for over a century prior to theBabylonian Exile, they don't seem to have reached Palestine at thistime. It was Darius Hysraspis (r2L-456 B. C.), who introduced aroyal coinage in Persia, consisting mainly of gold coins, the famousEa,qetxoi oroti:lQeg, and silver coins known as oyl,or or ox?uotprl8txo '. Naturally those coins came into use also in Persian-do-minated Palestine where, in the mealltime, large groups of Jews hadreturned following the permit granted by Cyrus.Beside this imperial Persian gold and silver coinage a limited pro-vincial currency may have been in use. The very curious coins, knownirr three specimens only so far, with the inscription lehud, the officialAramaic name of Judaea in Persian times, were certainly minted inPalestine itself and they are generally ascribed to the fourth centuryB. C. ". There is, moreover, a coin which according to RprsNnpRcseems to be even older, probably to be ascribed to the frfth centuryB.C.; this piece bears the inscription yPl ( : one half [shekel]) ".lewish Coins, Jerusalem 11947. L. KnounN, T,\e Coins of Aelia Capitolina,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 ImperialPersian 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 proposedreading of the left-hand inscription on the reverse as tnr is very doubtful and ratherto be discarded: L.-H. VrNcrNr, Les pigraphes judo-aramennes postexiliques:Rey. Bibl. 56 (1949) 280sqq.10 A. RelrpNBERG, 1..., 5-8. - Norwithstanding the heathen character of thefour above mentioned coins SureNIrc and RprrrNsRc admit the possibility thatthey 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)tcoins prove that Judaea had the status of autonomous province within the PersianEmpire.


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r. v. tJ \:t\tt,l11\

Mention should be made also of the very srrange so called phi-listo-Arabia. coinage, probably mi'ted at G^r:,^,*hi. betrays a srrongGreek (Athenia') influerrce ". Moreover, thar Greek fiftlr .,rd .rp.lcially forrrth century coins have reached Palestine is well proved byoccasionally found specime's ". Finally, we have the pre-Alexadriecoinage of ProsPerous commercial cities or-l the Pho*i.i"., coasr assidon, Tyre, Gebal (Bybtus) and the wealthy island-city Aradus ,,.The conquesr of the whole Middle East area by A."",-,der theGreat brought about a change in curre' cy every,,,rhere. Palestie alsowas fooded with the Alexandrine coinage, issued in enormous quan-tities from at least twenty principal mints. On[y one principal mintwas esrablished in Palestine itself, namely "t Ak. (A..o), but someminor 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, followingof Alexander the Grear, the battle at Ipsus, 301lestine for about one century under ptole-aicIII the Grear, in the battle at pa'ias (caesareain bringi'g Palestine under his domination. Itresting to retrace how the varyi,.,g .h"nce of .war

G. F. HrLr, Catalogue of the Greek Coinsft was to this group thar-Hrll ascribed the muchSuxeNm discovered the righr reading to be 1r.

the untimely death8.C., brought Pa-rule until ArrtiochusPhilippi), succeededwould be very inte-in the almosr conti-

of Palestine, Ixxxiii f .; 176fr. -iscussed "Jahu-coin", l. ,., Ixxxvi.

nuous struggle betweeu Lagidae and Seleucidae was reflected in theoutPut of the Palestinian and Phoenician minrs, but ir is not essential

' 72 References in Re'rrBERc, r.1.,7, ". l. - Recenrly, again aMacedonian coin was found "t sechem during excavations conductedican school of oriental_ Research (Not y.. p,ibl;rh.d.13 See G.F.F{rn, Catalogue oi_thr.'Grrik Coins'of phoenica, London 1910. _B. v. Hero, Historia Nu^oiu-, b*fo"d 2rgl, 773ti.- cH. s;;;;, o. c., r&{.{ SrrruaN, o. c., 207ff. - E. T. Nrwr. L, shown ,t ", " t"ln" number ofcities (amongst them several Palestinian ciries) ro which el"."nd.iri" coins wercamributed, especially by MuerrEn, has to be elminared from the list of Alexander-mrnts.

fourth centuryby the Am;

CorNs MLN'rIoNriD IN t'ur, t'.Juw 'fus't,t,urr.'r Zsfor the preselrt inquiry. Suffice it to say that for over two ceuturiesPalestine used respectively Ptolemaic and Seleucid currency "'. More-over, several mints, besides working for the respective Ptolemaic andSeleucid Kings, produced also an autolromous coinage which becamemore abundant as the grip of Seleucid domination became ever weaker.The permit, granted to Simon Maccabaeus by King Antjoclrus VIIin 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 circutn-stances: Antiochus would only have confirmed tlre right of mintingwhich Simon had already assumed. Tlris, of course, in the suppositionthat the well known bronze coins of year 4 rcal\y are to be ascribedto Simon Maccabaeus "'.Particular mention should be made of sorne issues of Phoeniciancoins which were \argely used in Palestine: The shekels and halfslrekels from the Tyriau miut, type Bust of Melqartlr - Eagle stan-ding [eft, which started in 126/5 B. C. arrd was stopped (by the Ro-mans) only in the second half of the first century A. D. '' By farmore rare are the similar shekels and half shekels of Sidon, typeHead of Tych Eagle standing left (107/6 B.C. - 43/4 A.D.) ".Important is likewise the issue of drachms and tetradrachms of Aradus.respective types Bee with straight wings - stag standing right in frontof palm-tree, and Bust of Tych Nike advancing left "'.From the successor to Simon Maccabaeus, John Hyrcanus, theJewish coinage can be raced dowr-t to the time of Our Lord, with a

li R. S. Poot"E, Catalogue of Greek Coins. The Ptolemies, King of EgyPt,London 1881. Much befter, however, is J.N.SvonoNos, T&NoropurxroitI(pticoug r1iv lfro).epclov 4voll., Athens 1904-8.-See SrrtnaeN, o.c.r24lrn.2,for corrections. - As to Seleucid coinage, the standard work is still Ii. BennoN,Les Rois de Syrie, tArmnie et de Commagne, Paris 1890.rrt See on this question REITnNB,ERG, o. c., 10.77 G. F. Hltl, Phoenicia, c- xxiv ; 233-253. - For whole shekels more recentthan those incorporated in the BMC, see QDAP 7 (1938) 63: Year 184 : 58/9A.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.


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rather big gap berween Arexander Jannaeus (L03-76 B.c.) a'd And-gonus Mattathias (40-37 B.c.) unless *. "rribure to J;ril; H;;; ,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,:?1 :{ nolo:tu:, J"1i:i-."1: under Roman control. Th. l;,;";;of syria, Antiochus XIII Asiaticus, ras deposed by p"d;*;; l.B. c.-Most probably, however, rhe seleucid coinage came ;-;;'; ,,i

284 A. SpUTERMAN

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.rronaritythroughout the _closing years of rh. dynasty,, (Heao), 3fB. c., whenEgypt was made a Roman provi.." -i. ' \ "Surveyi'g the situation during the lifetime of our Lord ,., we maysay that the silver (and gold) .,r.r.r,.y of palesrine co'sisted -"irrlyof Roman money, .oinrg. from th. ph*nician cities and the provin_cial mint for Syria, established in rhe meantime at Antioch. Besidesthat, older coins as seleucid and ptolemaic currency probably werestill i' uqe. For bronze money we have the coinage of Herod rheGreat (37 - 4 B. c.), Herod Archelaos (4 B. c. - 6 . o.), and, sincethe deposition of the latter, the proc,r."ro, coinage ,,', ,trr.k at cae-sarea' Most probably the older Hasmonean coirage was still in cir-culadorr' Finally, meution should be made of a f.r -ints operatingin Palestine at this time : Gaza, Ascalon, Dora arrd Acco. All orkrmints in Palestine of which coins are known are of later date andhence, dontt concenl us here.In the face of this data we wilr try b find out what kind of coinsthe difierent.denominations occurring in the New Testame't starrd for.:ro C/r RTTruNBERG, o.c., 15ff."rr Signi6cant are. i ,thi, .ont"xt the aurei and, dettarii of Augustus having onthe reverse a crocodii and legend AEoypro c .TA.":"1 A good sunmary .". -b" found in Hnnp n,s Bibre Dictionary, New york1952, s'v' Money, 455. 'we don't know, hor*,.u"r, what is meant by sirver coinsstruck by the Maccabean John Hyr."nur, ibid., a *r, ;";'."tilr" is knownof Hyrcanus., "-see -especially- ItKtNotrn, More Dates on t\e coirs of the procurators:Isr. Expl. lount.6 (19j6) j4_r7.

CorNs MENTToNED rN trte Naw Tusrnnstt 285As to coins explicitly mentioned in the New Testament we areconcerned with silver and bronze conage only'., it being well under-stood that silver coins are always mixed with a certain quantityof copper and that bronze in numismtics stands indifferently forcopper, btonze, brass, etc.There are four silver coins specifica[y mentioned in the NewTestament : denarius, a Roman denomination, and three Greek ones'

drachma, didrachmon and stater. In this group should be includedtb tigygrov, a term indicating originally the metal silver, then widel.yused 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 inthe original Greek text of the Gospels i cts and quadrans, which areRoman denominatiot-ts, and the lepton. Besides we frnd in the Vul-gate the Roman dupondius. rSilver coins.1. Denarius"". The latin word denarius was originally an ad-jective, meaning, as FoncELLINI has it, decem continens. A nummusdenarius was first struck at Rome n 268 B. C. 'o and from that timeon it was for many centuries the most important piece in the wholeRoman 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,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 replicain gold of the silver denarii.2i Cfr F.Huttscu, Denarius: Peuuvf'Wrssow, Vr 202-215. - E.Ben*oN,o. c.,142-549. - M. BanNH enr, Handbuch


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286 A. Slr.xLRMANthat the silver denarius, when first struck, was equal in value to l0arses ". Hence the mark x on the oldest denarii. since 2r7 B.c. thedenarius was valued at 16 asses (this relation still existed during thelifetime of Our Lord), but only since 114 B. C. the value mark X wassometimes replaced by xvl. Julius caesar was the first Roman tostrike denarii with his own image on the obverse, a pra4ice followedby 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 grin 217 B. C. and further to 3,40gr under Nero, 64 A.D. Mark An-tony for some time considerably debased the silver alloy of his denarii\rr% copper). However, from Augustus dll Nero both weight anclfineness of the denarius were enforced very exactly ''n. It is mai'ly *iththis period we are here concerned.The term denarius was taken over in the hellenistic world underthe adapted form of t 8rvgr,ov which occurs also in tlre New Tes-tament "'. The introduction of Roman money followed the conquestgf Palestine by Pompeius and it may safely be assumed that d*ingthe lifetime of Our Lord most of the ,iiu., currency consisted ofdenarii (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.

replaced the denarius ; after the reign of Gordianusdenarii came ro an end. Cfr Merrr*l.r, o. c., lZ5 ff .was used as a denomination for Arab gold coins andEast Courirries the name for the monetary unit.III, 238-244, the coining of- Curious enough the name.l':r i5 still in some Middle38 Nach der einstimmigen Erklrung'der Alten erhielt das Ganzstck der ersrenSilbeqprgung den Namen denarius, *-.il ihm der 'wert von t0 in K.rpf.r -nzten 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'Conrtantnopoliscoins (under Constantine the Great) and the Antiochia-on-Orontes coins (mostprgl"b]y_ 1o be aqributed to Julian the Aposate).30 M. BTnNHART, o. c., 20.s1 In the Mishna often named ljr.t, although there was the really semitic rermlll; c/r ScHurnrn, o. c., 74.

CorNs MIiN'rIoNIiD IN tut' Nl;w l Lst'tr'tu''r' 28720,24); Marc.6,37;14,5 (parallel passages loh.6,7 and L2,5 respec-tively) ; Luc.7,4l"' ; 10,35; Apoc.6,6 (twice) ".Although the dating of the earlier republican denarii is still f.arfrom being frxed, nevertheless we now know almost the whole outPutof denarii, and in such catalogues as those of the British Museurnnor many wilt have to be yet inserted. Furthermole, the identity ofthe denarius is established beyorrd doubt. Now the point here wouldbe to determine out of a known series of coins those referred to inthe Scripture texts. As to the above mentioned texts, however, wemust ascerrain rhat in almost ail places there is simply a mention ofrb 6r1r,rqrov. Hence, to determine more concretely which denarius ismeanr no means are available but time-limit criteria. As terminus aquo we would take the denarii from about 6J B. C. otlwards "o. Astrrn inrs ad qltem, as far as tlre Gospels are concerned, tlre year ofOur 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'hoseis this image and superscription? They say unto him, Caesar's". Here

3! In some Greek rnanuscripts as well as in syriac versions Ezvprc and l'lresp. is repeted after "50".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_ intocirculation in Palestine during the republican period. Judging from what we knowabout the coin-market in th. -Old City of Jeruialem, denarii are common only fromTrajan 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 theNew Testament, is wrong when taking into account on several occasions coins fromup 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 Gospelsspeak.- For the denarii falling within the above stated limits, see: H. ConrNo Desoip'tion historique des Monnaies frappes sous I'Empire Romain, I, PasfLondres 21880(begins with the coins of Pompeius). - H. A. GnunEnr,Coins of the Roman Rc-public in the British Museum, II, London 1910. - H. MlTtrNclY, Coins of the'Roman Empire in the British Museum, I, Augustus to Vitellius, London 192t.


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, A. )PIJKERMANindeed it seems most couvenient to assume Jesus was shown a denariusof the then reigning Emperor, i... Tiberius, 14-37 A.D.'" However.we can't exclude the possibility that a denarius of his predecessor Au-gustus, 6-L4 A.D., was s[rowr1, as these denarii unquestionably werestill current in Palestine in the tirne of Our Lord.The situation is entirely dfrercnt, when Saint John in his Apoca-lypt (6,6) sti[[ speaks of denarii. According to a very old tradition "the Apocalyps was writteu at tlre eird of the reigr-r of Domitian (assas-sinated Sept. 18,96). More than 60 years separate him from Jesus'death and in the meantime an erlormous amount of denarii had henissued. However, Saint John does nor speak of those conremporarycoins, but his visiorr carries lrirn into a distailt future ir-,to which treprojects the currellt silver coin of his tirne.The denarius is the otily Roman silver coin rnentioned in tlre NewTestament. T[re quinarius llever occurs, whilst the sestertius becameexstinct before tlre tirne of Our Lord, to reappear ouly as a bron(e coin.

2. Drachma "' . According to the traditional opinion the word isto be explained by the fact that it was made equal in value to a grasp-full (Eg,E, properly as much as one can hold in the hand) of ironspits used forrnerly as curren.y'". \Thereas the balance has two scalesand the "drachm" or graspfull is thoughr to be that what is put on3( DowlrNc, 1.r., lt6. - AtrcN BaNrcs, o.c., 99: "aLnost without questiona duplicate of the denarius of Tiberius [shown to Our Lord]" goes a little too far:the most common denarius is indeed that with obverse: Female figure seated righton 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. c., 402 ff.3e' See especially Cn. SsrrMAN' o.c., 33 ff., with reference to a bundle of ironspits found in the old temple of Argive Hera. - The proposed Babylonian derivarionof drachma from darag-ntana is thought more probable only by E. Bunrrrn, Drao6-tne i D. B. (Vlcounoux), s. v.

CorNs MENTToNED rN THE NEw TesrenENr 289one scale, it is clear that the drachm originally was not a unit, a tota-lity, but a half, i.e., half of a didrachm or stater, which was the mone-tary unit adopted in the oldest Aeginetan coinage.On[y in one passage the drachm is mentioned in the New Testa-ment. It is in Jesus' narration on the woman who lost one of herten drachms and immediately began sweeping her house until shefound again the lost drachm : Luc. 15,8 (nvice). 9.

!7here denarii constitute a well individuated set of coins, a drachmmey pertain to quite a number of different Greek currency systems,most of which had become exstinct before the time with which we areconcerned. Hence it is very difficult to say what kind of drachm maybe meant here. Contemporary silver money was minted nowhere inPalestine : Gaza had no silver coinage at this time or earlier. Ascalonhad some silver issues, especia[y in the first century 8.C., but amongstthem no drachms. Two more mints operating in Palestine, Dora andPtolemais-Ace, issued only bronze coinage n". So did the Procurator-mint at Caesarea. Neither the Hasmonean nor the Herodian dynastywas ever allowed to strike silver currencyNow, the denarius and the drachm were in the time of Our Lordof about the same weight and, in ordinary transactions, of the samevalue. Hence, it has been often supposed that in Luc.15,8.9 drachmis merely used as another name for the denarius o'. But then, *hyshould not Saint Luke simply have written denarius as he does e[se-where (7,41; 10,35; 20,24)?Assuming that indeed a drachm is meant, it is, however, verydifficult, if not at a[[ impossible, to come to a reasoned conclusion.Leaving aside the contemporary "drachms" of the Nabataean KingsObodas III, c. 30-9 B. C. and Aretas IV, 9 B. C. - 40 A. D., whichseem to foflow a particular standard of their own n', as we[[ as a soli-

{o For details see BMC, Palestine and Phoenicia.1L R. S. PooLr, Drachma: !7. SnalrH/J. Fulrrn, A. dictionary of tbe Bible,London 21893, I, 802; cfr II, 41-3. - MeooeN, o. c., 296.1z Ctr G. F. Htn, Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Arabia, Mesopotamia andPersa, London 1922, xxff.t9


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29A A. Sr,txLRMANtary drachm of Mark Antony, struck at Antio.h'", we may suggestthat some drachms of foregone times were sti[ in circulatiohr .g. ofAradus nn, S.l.,r.id or Ptolemaic drachm, n' or even those of Alexanderthe Great.As to the two for Palestine most important provincial minrs, it hasto be ascertained that Antioch has silver issues at this time, i. e. retra-drachms, but no drachms/denarii ; the drachms of Tiberius, issued fromthe 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 thedrachms or, more exactly, quarter-shekels of. Tyre, but they are extre-mely rare. Had they been current in Palestine as the Tyrian shekelsand half-shekels, more specimens should have been found o'.

3. Didrachmano. The didrachm or double drachm(t E8qo1povsc. vpLopo) was always much rerer than the drachm and the tetra-drachm. 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 theywere in use in Palestine. Most probable candidates to figure here asbiblical coin are the half-rh.k lr^ of the Tyrian mint'", ,ihi.h by no

43 Cfr V/.\7notH, Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Galatia, Cappadocia andSyria, London 1899, 157.11 The issue of the Ephesian-inspired drachms ceased, according to Hrrr, Phoenicia., xxxi, in ll0B.C. .:,,''rs For a discussion of the question if Ptolomic drachms were still currcnt inEgypt 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,Cypres 8 Phnirie, Paris 1893, n.2031. - 'S(/e don't understand how Pn,rr, I.cr,,ii445 can consider these Tyrian drachms as cuffent in Palestine.18 Cfr F.HurrscH, Didrachmon: Peur.v/WrssovA, V, 433 fr.Trait, 419 f.at.c, - Lt JJ . ; :. .i,{0 Cfr G.F.Hrrr, Arabia etc., xxf.: Obodas II, Malichus I, Obodas III. ,50 For these half-shekels of Tyre in particular, see Httr, Phoenici4 2502J3. "+

CorNs MENTToNED rN tHu Nrw TEsrari,lrNt 2glmeans are so rare as MeoorN stated at his time ", whilst the didrachmsof the provincial mint at Antioch, wlriclr MooEN mentions in thesame context, are too late to be taken into consideration ". The sameapplies 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 oneshekel or (as in the passage under consideration) one stater :

4. ,stdter'". Stater, otatrq, is derived from otrprq having themeaning of to put or? the scales ) to weigh ; ,frSptn !(/hereas drachmsuggests the idea of a half, otatrlg gives the notion of unit, totality.The word *as used especially for gold coins (Darics, gold coinsof Philippus Macedo ar-td Alexander), but also for silver coins, eitherdidrachms, as in the money system of Aegina and elsewhere, or, inHellenistic-Roman times, tetradrachms. Hence it is clear that statercould be the same as the light shekel, but also equal in value to theheavy shekel and therefore equal ro rwo didrachms or, whar is thesame, one tetradrachm "''.From Matth.17,27 (the only passage where the word occurs inthe 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:hJesus and Peter: xslvov [sc. oraqqa] ],cBv Ebg arorE rivri ro

5r MeooEN, o. c., 294.They appear only under Nero ; c/r \7.'s(/'norn, catalogue ol the Gre,: coitsof Galatia" Cappadocia and Syria, London 1899, l7l, fr.53 lbid., 47 (under Vespasian).

E. BesroN, o. c., 436 f.s5 The half of the heavy or saced shekel which was due as annual tax for thetlPPgT of the Temple Services, is in the LXX still indicated as Dpnrp. Duringthe lifetime of Jesus, however, drachm was considered to be equal ;"';U denariuiand the half of the heavy shekel was therefore indicated by 8i8pcit ou; c/r HurrscH,l. c., 435.


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L>L A. SPIJKERMANxCI,i oo. Most authors propose here as stater either the well knownteradrachms of Antioch or the Tyrian shekels "".Some authors cite here the ruling of the Talmudic Law (BekhorothV[I, 7) according to which a[ payments due ro rhe Temple Treasurywere to be reckoned in Phoenician money standard. This can be ac-cepted as a positive disposition, but the reason indicated e.g.by AlrsN 'BANKs " that the tetradrachms of Antioch were excluded for beingtoo light, is not exact. Moreover, why should not the collectors beallowed to accept those tetradrachms which are, as a rule, even slightlyheavier ": they could be changed before being deposited into theTemple Treasury.

,. Argenteus. The term ttr tiqygr,ov, piece of silver, occurs afew 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 theburning of a large quantity of magical books at Ephesus : Acts L9rI9.As to the passage of Judas' treachery it was thought formerly thatthe thirty pieces of silver given as price for the crime were the thickJewish shekels which at one time were attributed generally to SimonMaccabaeus. Since it is now a we[ established fact that those shekelsbelong to the first Jewish revolt (66-70 A.D.), they are to be discardedln our present case.Others have proposed the Roman denarius'n, an opinion widelyspread among christian people and which is adopted also in the RomanBreviary "o.

i0 See for Antioch \(/norH, o.c., 166fr., for the Tyrian shekel (the "dollar"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'swork.indicated below, n.63, as these articles were not available.rio Feria V in Coena Domini, ad Matutinun Resp. V: "[Judas) denariorumnumero Christum Judaeis tradidit".

CorNs MENTToNED rN rsr NEw TesrnnrNt 293Most authors, however, would rather propose the Tyan tetra-drachm or better, shekel n'. The reason is that the payment was madeout of the Temple Treasury which preferably accepted (and hencepaid in) Tyrian money. Notwithstanding this strong probability infavor of the Tyan shekel, tetradrachms of the same (or heavier)weight can't. be positively excluded, e.g. of Sidon, Aradus, SeleuciaPieria, Laodicea ad Mare and especially the tetradrachms of Antioch

under Augustus "'.Much the same should be said, we think, as to Matth.2l,I2 whereit is narrated that some of the soldiers who watched the tomb, weregiven a large amount of money (ci.qyqrct. [xar, Eclxav roiE orQo-trdrto.r,E), while the giving persons were once more o[ g7,teqeiE, theHighpriests.Many later legends .on different kinds of coir-rs, asserted to havebeen part of the Judas-price, and prdserved in many places, are col-lected in an interesting study by Hltt "".Irt Acts 19,19 we meet again with the tiqyQtov. It is significantthat the Vulgate has here denariorum. As already stated before, thederrarius 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 for-merly the denariusf drachm, be\eved to have been issued by the mintat Ephesus under Nero ; the reverse bears (what is rather exceptional)the indication of value: 1\PAXMI-I (andAIAPAXMOI{)".

fir MnooeN, o.c., 297. KrNNeov, 1.c., 428.Hot-zurtstrn, Nurn Iudas Christunt pretio vulgariDont. B (194)) 66.(i:] See for details \7notu, Galatia etc., and Htlt, Phoenicia. - It may be ad-ded that the word otxripaE which Ms D inserts in Matth. 26115 is already anexplanation rather than a lectio varits, but a good explanation.ri3 G. F. Hrrr, The' ntedallic portraits of C.6rist ; the false shekels ; the thirtypieces of silver, Oxford 1920. - Also HIIL proposes Phoenician or Syrian tetra-drachms, rather than Roman denarii, ;b;., 114-6.(i4 Cfr. J. HoLzsEn, Paulus, Freiburg im Br. 151939, 274 f.; 470.ri:' CvEpoNt / VoN 'W'sn-ror, o. c., l0l. B. V. Hnno, Catalogue of tbeGreek Coins of lo.nt , London t892, 74.

K. PrNx, l. c., 410. U.sevourn vendiderit: Veb.


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94 A. SeITERMANfucuNc, however, has shown that rhese coinsthe mint of Epheru, uu. Hence, we must rurndenari/ drachms of Caesarea Cappadociae.Bronze coins.

1. As"'.Lz. Dupondiusf "'.3. Quadrans"". These three Roman bro,ze coins may best betreated together. The term as origir-r aLIy gves the idea of a whole, aunit'o' Hence, the well known expression i. Roman law ex dsse heres

pi":. was to consrirure the monerary u'it of th" *hoi. ,yrr.-, the unitof weight, the pound ". - Drpo,rdius was one of the multiples oft\e ,as, and precisely the doubt.-n, piece: ,.dupo.dius " d.robus pon_deribus, quod unum po'dus ,rripondium dicebatur" 7'. - euadrans,by its very name as a qudrter, rcfers to a unit, which is the as.The early history of the Roma' bronze coirrage, begun in the se-cond half of the fourth century 8.c., does nor concern us here. Tounderstand the situation at the time of our Lord, we have to lookto the bronze coinage of Emperor Augustus.The Roman system of bronze .oinag. under Augustus consistedof four different denominations, struck -in rwo kids of metal , ,h;

can'[ be attributed toto imperial denarii or

32 (1920') t46-rt.1499-trl3; 1742-

:: K, RecrrNc, Syrien, nicht Ephesus: Zeftschr. f. Numism.ti7 Cf, I. KuurscsEK, As,'Aoodprou 1 peuw/WrssororA II,1744. - E. BanrroN, o. c., 591 fJ.68 F. Hurrsc:n, Dupondiusi prcw/\Trssow V lS43-6.:: K._RrcrrNc, I(oprivc E, pmw fWrssowA XI, 9g3.I .l_ l:"."or1"r, A's.z Dnrneni7soo.ro, ,.u.,-l-i* a rerarion ro the sans-l:, ?:'^!::llr j: .: ill,s of t o t a r i ty;,: r-, il;' c"-t.ffi Ji.il;; ":",:,#;Y: ":,^!::ac| !ma"*:(r) : | ^u r'rfet .a* rr";;;'il;;';:,'rr4;;:;:T};der Antifte, I*ipzg 21933, s.v.7L For details on the _wgishr of this pound, see H. MaTTrNcry, RomanLoldg- 1928, 18 fr - M. BnNrrARr, o. c., tZ.72 VeRno, De lingua latina V 169.

CorNs MEN'rroNL:D rN Tuu Nu'ot Tus'truNr 295sestertius and the dupondius (or dipondius), four- and nuo as piecesresp.r were struck in orichalcum ; as and quadrans were struck in cop-per. The rlormal weight of sestertius, dupondius, ?sr quadrans was27r30 gr., L3,65 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 thatthe Vulgate renders riooaqov Eo by dipondio), and with quadrans :Matth.5,26: "...ti[[ thou hast paid the uftermost'frthing"', andMarc.12r42: "and there came a certain .poor widow, and she threwin two mites, which make a f arthing".\)7[rat here must be understood by as and dipondius? It is morethan probable that we should take into consideration, rather than theimperial as and dupondius, the bronze coinage issued from the Syrianprovincial mint at Antioch'0. The bronze currency, struck at this timeby the mint of Antioch, consisted of two series of coins, one withGreeks legends, name of the town and date (Action Era, 3I B. C.),destined for [oca[ circulation only; and one with the head of the Em-peror, legend in Latin, and or1 the reverse the letters S. C. withinlaurel-wreath, destined for the whole province of Syria ".The question, however, of tlre different denominations is very dif-ficult, as the weight of the same type of coins varies from a minimurnof 7 rl7 gr. ro a maximum of L9r28 gt.'u MounsEN thought it impos-sible to come to a conclusion; he suggested, however, the larger sizecoins to be sestertii, the sr raller, asses ". !7here the maximum weightrecorded is 19,28 gr., sestertius seems absolutely excluded. \Wnucr

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 ;l. c., 429.7s See 'WnotH, Galatia er.c., 158ff. and 166fr. respectively.76 'S7. lfnucx, Die Syrische Provinaialprgung yon Augustus bisgatt 1931, 37 fJ.77 TH. MonMSEN, Geschichte des rmischen Mn


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296 A. SnrrERM, Nf:P::*.'r;v'o,:^r1._. denominaion : the smaller specimens, in weightv vrrL.t:*:." 7,17.f l2,Or::..would. F :h. as ; the larger size, L2,50f ]9,Zg-gn. -.,-v 1.the dupondius ". This would then coincide with a difierence in thereading on the obverse: indeedr oo the larger specimens, rhe legendreads lMP. AVGVST. TR. pOT. i on the ,-"11., pieces lMP.is omitted'0.The theo ry of 'wnucx is not vgry convincing. Merrr*c,,y, thoughf:"'ltgly, . pto.posed :o consider ih" ,"rr,. ,.i of coins as being of vv^ vthree denominations: dupondius, as and semis''. ch..r.ing the coinsof Augustus in the present Museum (7 specimens of th. l"-rg. moder,4 of the small sizg), our opinion is th"t "tl the larger ones are strucklrom yellow oricalchu-, ."..pt rwo, which seem to have been madefrom a cleey difierent rr,.t"lf a reddish copper. \we venture ro thinkthat the yellowish specimens are dupo'dii, iir. copper specimens assesand the small ones possibly semisses.\Thereas the bronze coins of Tiberius, srruck at Andoch, are toolate to be meant in the above mentiorred texts, we might draw atten-tio' to an other -(imperiat) dupo'dius of Tiberiusl attribut d byMerrrNGLy " to the mint of commagene. This typ. *as struck in20/21 A. D. and is sdll very ofrcn ro i. -., with i,, ..,rr"1.-.The quadrans never was struck in the series of Antioch under theearly Emperors. \7here rhe rerm xoEq,vtlg appears in the Gospels,it can't indicate.bur dre imperial quadrans. s"inr Matthew, whq asa former tax collector, was well ".q.r"int"d with the Roman monetarysystem, replaces the smallest denomination of Palestine by the smallesrRoman denominarion : Matth. 5,25 coll. Luc. L2,rg. - Sai't Markinforms his (Roman) readers that the smallest denominarion of pa-78 \7. \Wnucx, I. c.?e see also \rnorH, Garatia etc., 166. - under Tiberius the legend is on arlknown specimens Tl. CAESAR. AVG. TR. pOT. XXXilt : year 3l A.. Flence, theycannot be considered as being referred to by the Gospelr. --^ ' L ' *v '80 H. MaruNGLy, o. c., xxvi.81 lb;d., 144, n.174 fr. ; cfr cxli.

CoNs MENTIoNED IN rsE NEw TssrenENt 297lestinian currenc]/ was equal to (half of) the smallest Roman cotn:Marc.12,42.Imperial quadrantes in coPPer are known under Augustus fromthe mits at Rome and Lugdunum ; none were struck under Tiberius ;they reappear under Caligula and Claudius, likewise in copper, fromthe Roman minr only ; under Nero they were coined both in copperand oricalchum ".

4. Minutum"'. The adjective TremE means peeled, husked >small, thin, light. The very application of this term, rb lemv (sc'xgrcr or vrtoro) to pieces of money implies very small coins, inpractice mosdy small bron


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in the numismatic material, which came down ro us. That,s aboutall we can state with certainty. The practical application is less sure.The possibilities are, on dre one ha.d, tl-,. pro.uraror coins, ofcourse only up ro about year 16 of Tiberius : 29/30 A. D. ", *i.hhave 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, asJewish 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 fixedweight-standard so far has 'ot been ascertairred. -itti,rg the verycomplicated matter of the "double rariff"'", as ir does n, help ;to ide.tify more strictly the coi' i' questiolr, we confie ourselves toa more gerreral couclusion : the mite is to be sought either among theFlasmon aean,/Herodian or the procurator coins.Fr. Auc. SlrreRMAN o.F.M.

*** our thanks are due to Rev. Father sylvester Makarewicz oFM for kindlycorrecting the English redaction of this paper.84 Clr A'KtNoleR, More dates o.n -the,Coins.of the Procurators: Isr. Explor.fourn' 6 (1956) 54-57. - PrNrc, l.c;, lll, thinks ,h.'pro.urator coins are the mits;h*l,t;:'?'r.1"{07;.r, ReGLtN, *ho smies th.- to b" .rh., i ,-;;;1, *o6p,*ur"E,8s C/r DowrrNc, l. c., 160.86 c/r KeNNrov, I. c., 42gf . - Hrrr, penny z Encycropaedia Bibrica rrr, 3&7f .

NUOVE ISCRIZIONI DI |ABER *'Verso la fine del secolo scorso furono inizia.te -le esplorazioni nellaterra oltre il Giordano dirette specialmente alla conoscenza della Siria

e susseguentemente estese a tutta la Transgiordania. Molti studiosi siavvicendarono per quelle regioni per poterne conoscere le vicende sto-riche e stabilirne gli ordinamenti politici e religiosi fino allora poco co-nosciuti. Nonostante le diverse esplorazioni susseguitesi dal 1897 ftnoai giorni nostri 1 risulta che molti luoghi sono studiati con abbondanzadi materiale, altri poco considerati o visitati soltanto occasionalmenteper cui la conos cenza di questi risulta talvolta deftciente. Si aggiungaancora il fattore del tempo e delle trasformazioni per opera dell'uomoper determinarsi a ritornare di nuovo sui luoghi gi visitati e comple-tarne lo studio con i nuovi elementi comparsi posteriormente. Uno diquesti paesi visitati occasionalmente laber. Nelle ricerche che ab-* rgREvlzIoNI UsATEAASOR : The Annual of the American Schools of Oricntal Research,XXV - XXVIII, New F{aven l9rl.AIA - American lournal of Archaeology, XLI L937'q : P. F.-AnEr, Gographie de Ia Palestine, Paris 1938.PAAES : Ptlication. of American Archaeologcal Expedition to Syriain 1899 - 1900, Part IIl, London 1908.PPUAES : Porblications of the Princeton (Jniversity ArchaeologicalExpediton to Syria in 1904 - 1905 - 1909, Leyden.RAO - CmnnoNr- GnNNeau, Recueil d'Archologie Oriental IV,RB:SEG :ZDPV :

Paris 1901.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, Leyden1907-1934; N. Grupcx, Exploratons in Eastern Palestne, IV Part I: Text, ASOR,New Haven l95l, l-56.

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