Denarius or Shekel? Coins in the Times of Christ
- Ntandoyenkosi
- Apr 12
- 17 min read
Updated: Apr 25
Note, this article is Published today on the Last Sabbath of this Month, The Full Moon will again start the next month and coming 4 Sabbaths. You can count Seven from Sunday, as you observe the Full Moon rising in the east AT your current location, and the Sabbath will come on 4 Sundays, in April and May on the Roman Catholic Calendar. So then, moving on to our final coin article, it is another heavy one. Lots of source collection and checking, but we made it. This is the last coin study we will publish for a while now, until we perhaps for the future dig up some more historical coins, we will cover that event rest assured. Now, this has been a truly interesting study and case, because we may from a series of elimination processes be able to see what kind of coins may have passed through Christs very own hands. Although we wills spoil it for and you as we shall see, we do not think He ever touched a single coin during His lifetime. It would be something He, had no interest in. Remember when the Pharisees brought to him the issue of taxes, Christ simply asked them... Who`s face is on the coin (Mark 12,14-17):
They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?
Should we pay or shouldn’t we?” But Christ knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.”
They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then Christ said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him.
Render unto Caesar what is Caesars... Even then, we think He had no interest in touching the coin. He even asks, as if he never saw the coin, what image is on there. No need to associate, no wish to associate. To Him it was matters of SoNiNi, not matters of men. So then, the issues of tax and materials gains are solved in a simple but effective manner. We agree that this belongs to SoNiNi, and this does not. Give the money back to Cesar or the ruler depicted on the coin, and everything will follow. You see, just as we will seem to agree on the coming digital currency, and its worth. And certainly the Mark of the Beast is looming, any man can see that Anything has a worth because we say so. We agree on it. We are the ones that give things their value and worth. Scary, but true. And we are the ones who give life to the things we believe in, even more scary and even more true. That being said, Christ certainly had knowledge about coins and knew their value set by men very well. As we shall see further below.
So therefore, when talking about didrachma tribute, the tribute was a Civil Tax (kinda), given to Romans (or Herod Antipas). We know this from Christs own words, of whom do the kings of the earth take custom, or tribute? This means it was payable to a king or emperor. We can kinda get the same feel as from Matthew 22,21 where the Pharisees (or Herodians) asked Christ, is it lawful to pay taxes or tribute to Cesar? This particular tribute started many moons before when Yohanan Hurqanosh and Juda Aristobulus I (grandsons of Simon Maccabeus the Wise, Thassi), there men were busy deciding (fighting really) over who should have position of High Priest of ancient Israel. Now as the annals describe this, the Roman General Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus also known as Pompey the Great, was appointed to mediate between these two. Pompey favoured Yohanan Hurqanosh (John Hyrcanus), however the people wanted it differently, and it was given back to Juda Aristobulus. If we read more from the likes of Josephus, we can find that The Roman General did not approve and shortly thereafter invaded Jerusalem and subjugated Jerusalem under Roman rule and annual tributes. This tribute was one didrachma coin (Temple Tax), then both to Romans and High Priests. So you see the people were being double taxed... Sound familiar guys? What is our tax money going to these days? Schools...? Roads maybe. Potholes, have never been as many. No, people should not be content now, and they where certainly not content in ancient times. And as it were rebellion ensued (likely this last rebellion was started by Christs words) and Jerusalem was again captured by Vespasian, who destroyed Jerusalem utterly. Then it was ordered to pay didrachma directly to the Roman capitol of Rome. Naturally, the ancient Hebrews did not like this at all, paying taxes to Rome, and as a People of SoNiNi, they should pay tribute to SoNiNi and not Rome. Not around this time the Words of Christ had started spreading, and the Galileans led by Juda of Galilee refused to pay Caesar his taxes. The Apostles that walked with Christ was no doubt members of this so-called sect, preaching the Heavenly Kingdom that awaits those that chose to walk the path.
Now, for our historical research, we think a coin can be used as proof for many things. So therefore we are going to look into the way Christ used the value of these coins to illustrate many things relating to human greed and how we can work around it. Remember he even said bring me the denarius... So we know it was a Roman coin for sure. Now if we go to Matthew, and read about the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18,23-35):
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
So getting into these verses, to understand money better in these times, we have the case of the unforgiving servant and talents. As the parable goes in Matthew, the debt was set to the King at 10,000 talents (which would be billions, something like 3 Billion USD by todays moneys) and his fellow servant owed 100 denarii (5k USD). So, regardless of Him not wanting to come close to hard currency, this shows that Christ knew the value of the coins in question. Here with one large fortune on one side (to exemplify the extent of sin we have before SoNiNi) up against a smaller (though not insignificant amount) still only a fraction of the larger amount. This is a good way of telling people how much we really owe to SoNiNi, a literal mountain of debt. Then compare it to the lesser amounts we have against other people. We should forgive them to, as SoNiNi has forgiven us. Do not create a new debt.
Now getting deeper into this, a Copper Lepton or Lepta (each worth 1 40th of a Denarius. Now if we read Mark 12,41-44 it tells us that Christ watched a widow contribute to the Temple Treasuries 2 of these Roman Leptas, something like 2 dollar 50 cents today. The word Lepta in Greek can mean small or even thin. Now, We know Christ praised the old lady for giving `all she had to live on` assessing her gift to be way more valuable then what the wealthy priests themselves were able to give. Even though they did give more, in terms of material goods, they did not give from their hearts but rather out of necessity. The appearance of doing good, rather then doing good. Furthermore we can read in Luke 10,25-37) to find the Good Samaritan that not only patched up the wounded man he found in the middle of the road, but put him on his donkey and vent to the local hotel and payed two denarii (about 100$) for his stay and well being. This could have stretched to at least a couple weeks maybe it covered a month of his stay there to get himself back on his feet. Remember he was mugged and injured. The Samaritan even promised to pay further for his stay, proving that he was a good man as he extended even further then what was in his pocket at the time. He went the in all the way.
Now in understanding another example, the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25,14-30, we get to know the Master who gave his servants five, two and one talent. We can see here that even the one bad servant, was given a substantial amount of money, but failed to even get interest on it. To us this parable ways heavy as we think He is talking about converts, how many people did you lead to Christ as you were given many talents... Makes one ask the question (to oneself) Did you do yours best? Did you do the best you could with your God given Talents? There is another similar Parable in Luke about the Mina (Luke 19.12-27), where they were given a certain amount (perhaps like 5k USD), and the first and second servant brought back great increase, which in turn gave them rulership of ten cities and five cities. So do a good job with what you have, and you will be given more. Do a bad job with what little you have, then even that in the end will be taken from you. The play on words for Lepta even has that meaning in Greek, its kinda like a mite, creating the term paying to the last mite. So forgive you enemies, do not withhold forgiveness or YOU will be paying down to the last mite or lepta.
The East African `Tyrian` Half Shekel
So, as we have mentioned before there was a half shekel used in these times, that consisted of very pure in silver. You see the money changers (on Holy Ground) in The Temple of Jerusalem, were charging fees for changing a Roman or Greek coin into the tyrian shekel, but also the other way around. Temple Tax. Yho! What devilry is this... Like a Forced Tithe, haibo. It should not be now, and should not be then. You should give to SoNiNi as He gives to you. Now these money changers did, at this time, starting not to care about the imagery on the coins, Temple Tax was more important then the Laws of SoNiNi, but the was just the icing on the extent of the transgression of the Pharisees. They were actively trading in and outside the Temple, likely on the Sabbath as well.
Now what the Tyrian Half Shekel looked like, we are not so sure, we do have some research that tells us it was supposed to have Melqart the Tyrian Hercules (Phoenician and Greek god) on its depiction. This image looks more like of the Romans, and we doubt very much the Phoenicians looked anything other East-African in their features. This coin, if found with its correct likeness today, would have been circulated far and wide in the ancient world of Greece, Egypt and Phoenicia. Now, a Shekel, guess what has its root in Ancient Israel in Southern Africa. The very word stems from Hebrew and means to weigh out, and it was a standard way of weighing something. a Certain weight according to the quantity and price determination of things like bread (Ezekiel 4,10), hair (1 Samuel 14,26) and a whole system for metals such as copper, brass, silver, gold but also iron. You can find references to all this in the following Scriptures:
Exodus 38,24-25
Exodus 38,29
Numbers 7,13
Numbers 31,52
1 Samuel 17,5-7
Joshua 7,21
1 Chronicles 3,9
Now, in particular the ancient Hebrews used silver to weigh the shekel as a hard currency, weighed out in forms or silver bars even, which is referenced in several verses (Genesis 23,16; Leviticus 5,15; Leviticus 27,3-7; II Samuel 24,24; Jeremia 32,9 and 10 ; and in Ezekiel 21,32). And when you start getting into this you will find that the common shekel was different from the sacred shekel, or of the sanctuary, which was heavier, or in full weight (Exodus 30,13 ; Exodus 30,24 ; Exodus 38,24 ; Leviticus 5,15 ; Leviticus 27,2-3 ; Numbers 3,47-50 ; Numbers 7,13 ; Numbers 18,16 - NOW all these references in consideration the shekel from the Kings weights. This measure of weight was different again, from II Samuel 14,26, and difficult to determine. Which means the shekel to set its weight for us in this day and age, is rather difficult. A sacred shekel contained 20 gerahs, beans, carrots, corns (Exodus 30,13 ; Leviticus 27,25 ; Numbers 3,47 ; Numbers 18,16 and Ezekiel 45,12). In more references we see that the Rabbis had the shekel to weigh som 320 grains of barley. This may be that the Maccabean shekel weighed the same as the Aeginian Drachm (Greek Silver Drachm we covered in the previous post). Now later Josephus give the value of 4 Attic Drachm (Antiquities of the Jews 3,8,2), which would have been equal to the Roman Denarius mentioned by Pliny in Natural Histories (Pliny, 21:109). Which equates to something like 7USD. So this Maccabean Shekel, the so-called Half Shekel, was later used for Temple contributions (Exodus 30,13) and fines for various breeches of the laws of men (Exodus 21 & 22 ; Deuteronomy 22,29 ; Leviticus 5,15), and for the dreaded TAXES imposed by kings and rulers (II Kings 15,20 ; Nehemiah 5,15), and off course for trade (II Samuel 24,24 ; II Kings 7,1).
Weight and Currency amounts
Here are some other passages that mentions shekel as a weight of currency and also instances in our Scriptures that talks about gold and silver:
Silver is mentioned in Exodus 21,32 ; Exodus 28,35 ; Leviticus 27,3-7 ; Numbers 3,46-51 ; Numbers 7,13,19,25,31,37,43,49,61,67,73,79,85 ; Deuteronomy 22,19
Silver = 100 talents and 1775 shekels (Exodus 38,25) - 2,5 tons.
Gold is mentioned in: Numbers 7,14,20,26,32,38,44,50,56,62,68,74,80,86
Gold = 29 talents and 730 shekels (Exodus 38,24) - 3,75 tons.
Bronze = 70 talents and 2400 shekels (Exodus 38,29) 2,5 tons
Interesting references about currency and weight:
In Joshua 7,21 we see that Achan, stole 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels
In Judges 8,26 - Midianites give Gideon a golden earring (1,700 shekels)
II Samuel 18,12 - the man who killed Absalom refuses 10 shekels of silver for ending his life : "Even if a thousand shekels were weighed out into my hands I would not".
I Kings 10,14 / II Chronicles 9,13 : Solomon received 666 talents (approximately 25 tons) per year... Almost 1 Billion USD Abraham buys the Cave at Mashapela to bury Sarah, weighed out at 400 shekels of silver, a transaction mind you that took place before COINS are said to have been invented (Genesis 23,1-20)
Joseph is sold into slavery by his own brothers for 20 shekels of silver (Genesis 37,28)
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John talks about Judas 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26,14-16)
Mary poured a years wages on Immanuel`s head (John 12,3-8)
Greek & Roman Coins
Now in Judaea, there would for sure have been Roman, Greek (Tyrian) and Hebraic coins circulating. Seen as we have found both in Southern Africa, we might as well get aquatinted with the old Hebraic coins as well. But Roman, Greek and Tyrian coins would be more i circulation on account of trade. So you guys might be going, show us the coin from the verse already ! Ok, we will. And its an anticlimax to say the least. Sorry for the build up :) the coin, or at least what we think it looked like, is in the image below. Let us explain. Because at this moment in time as far as Biblical coins go, and the monetary systems in place during Biblical times, we will see as we have hinted at, there were several. In terms of Roman and Greek coinage, the Roman government in the 1st century had a so-called 3-metal money system. And guess what, metals decay.
First, Second and Third. The Aureus was their Gold Coin (first coin), followed by the Denarius made of silver (second coin), then the lowest called the Sestertius and the Lepton made out of Copper or Bronze (third coin). During Christ times, the gold Aureus could have (may have even) had Vespasians face on them, presumably looking like this. Now we know it does not look like much, but this is pretty much it, we think. This is the Denarii Gold coin that could have been present in the Temple or outside the Temple were the conversation about taxes took place. Worn, unrecognisable and most likely with a Roman Emperor carved on its front. And something like this could have been from the collection of coins found in Pondoland in the Eastern Cape. Either it was this gold coin or the silver coin.
Now as for their worth, 1 Aureus is worth 25 Denarii, 1 Denarii was worth 4 Sestertius (Copper or Bronze coin), 1 Lepton was worth fractions of a sestertius. Not confusing at all. But go back in time and try explaining the metric system or the American inches and yards, and see who gets called out the bigger fool. The Roman system would actually come out pretty efficient and easy to understand. Anyway, at the same time as the Roman coins where about, there where also Greek coins at the market. A Greek Tetradrachm had the same value as a Gold Denarius (Aureus), and that means it was worth 4 denarii.
Now, and this is why we believe MANY of the real Hebrew Coins are not really what they are proposed to be. Because a coin that bore an image of well really anything, would be regarded as UNCLEAN by the Hebrews. Making Graven images would have been something Moses would not have condoned, and would certainly have been a reoccurring topic at your local synagogues. When the Hasmoneans moved in, THAT is when the printing of plants and objects started. So true ancient Hebrew coins would really not be that easy to recognise. Most coins are catalogued after the face and emperor often depicted on the coin, now if say Roman history is incomplete or even as we know African history is woefully incomplete, there are bound to be great errors here. For instance some coins are in the wrong century and other coins are completely missing even. So we cannot and do not have faith in the coins depicting human faces, and we know for sure the Hebrews would regard them as unclean. A violation of the commandments of making graven images. The Hasmoneans, that came in the time of the Maccabees, did mint images of plants and or objects. Which still certainly was controversial. When the Herods came, they were no different.
So we can start navigating now, we can answer more directly on these types of coins A Talent, mina, sela, shekel, dinar, pruta and lepton. These was basically what circled around at the Time of Christ. Greek (Phoenician), Hebrew and Roman coins. Thats it. A talent was 60 Mina, a Mina was 50 shekels, and the shekel was two dinar. And a Dinar, which is a given by its name, had the same value as a Denarius. The Dina(r) was worth 20 pruta, and the pruta was 2 lepta (lepton). Hang on, it gets easier. Lets do modern worth now.
And then, to pinpoint their worth as far as a value in modern terms that we can relate to is not hard. If one but only realises that a Denarii was a days wages of a common labourer. You have come far. This is even confirmed by Christ Himself in the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20,1-16). In this Vineyard the owner agrees to pay each worker a denarius, which stands to reason a Denari would translate to anywhere from 30$ to well 50$ in a day, for a normal days labour. We know in South Africa there are people paid WAY less then that, although a days wages should represent what things cost in the shops. And again it does not, not in these times. Anyways, we will set it at 500ZAR per day. For the sake of argument. From this value of a Denarii, we can deduce a Mina, is then 50,000ZAR, and a talent is then a Talent is 3.00.000,- (3 Million ZAR). Let us know if the math is not mathing, but these are the ancient measuring means we have come up with thus far.
A shekel of Tyre then, was from Tyre a SouthEast-African seaport, not far from the forests of Lebanon, an area high in silver and gold mines. Professed by veteran miners in Rhodesia areas, saying people have been mining here for hundreds of years before us. So these Phoenician coins were know to the old peoples, as a hard and trusted currency.
Now Christ would have had many objections to what was going on in the Temple, the money changers and their exorbitant fees - a den of Robbers ! Furthermore, this takes away the worship of SoNiNi and was for sure becoming a distraction. So instead of getting ready to worship SoNiNi you might have been left to worry about business and such things as exchange rates and fees. This creates haggling and bartering, creating a distraction for anyone coming to worship. Money neh. We all need it to survive, it pays our bills and keeps a roof over our heads. But it has reached heights of madness that people could not have been prepared for. Through money, and people that love money, human beings are VERY easy to influence. They sway at the sound of the dollar or yen.
Didrachma Coin in the Fish
In closing now we will look at this particular story, told by Christ, and we use it as a great example, that we like to show people that doubt Who He was. This medicine man and healer of nation from a small town in Galilee. He said, in Matthew, an event that happened somewhat to Capernaum close to the shores of Lake Galilee (even specified in the text), in question who should pay taxes (Matthew 18, 24-27):
24 After Immanuel and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”
25 “Yes, he does,” he replied.
When Peter came into the house, Immanuel was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”
26 “From others,” Peter answered.
“Then the children are exempt,” Immanuel said to him. 27 “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”
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