and half-shekels, of the weight of 220 and 110 grains. With this silver there was associated a
copper coinage. The abundant money of Herod the Great, which is of a thoroughly Greek character,
and of copper only, seems to have been a continuation of the copper coinage of the Maccabees,
with some adaptation to the Roman standard. In the money of the New Testament we see the
native copper coinage side by side with the Graeco-Roman copper, silver and gold. (The first
coined money mentioned in the Bible refers to the Persian coinage, (1 Chronicles 29:7; Ezra 2:69)
and translated dram. It is the Persian daric, a gold coin worth about .50. The coins mentioned by
the evangelists, and first those of silver, are the following: The stater, (Matthew 17:24-27) called
piece of money, was a Roman coin equal to four drachmas. It was worth 55 to 60 cents, and is of
about the same value as the Jewish stater, or coined shekel. The denarius, or Roman penny, as
well as the Greek drachma, then of about the same weight, are spoken of as current coins. (Matthew
22:15-21; Luke 20:19-25) They were worth about 15 cents. Of copper coins the farthing and its
half, the mite, are spoken of, and these probably formed the chief native currency. (The Roman
farthing (quadrans) was a brass coin worth .375 of a cent. The Greek farthing (as or assarion) was
worth four Roman farthings, i.e. about one cent and a half. A mite was half a farthing, and therefore
was worth about two-tenths of a cent if the half of the Roman farthing, and about 2 cents if the
half of the Greek farthing. See table of Jewish weights and measures.—ED.)
Moneychangers
(Matthew 21:12; Mark 11:15; John 2:15) According to (Exodus 30:13-15) every Israelite who
had reached or passed the age of twenty must pay into the sacred treasury, whenever the nation
was numbered, a half-shekel as an offering to Jehovah. The money-changers whom Christ, for their
impiety, avarice and fraudulent dealing, expelled from the temple were the dealers who supplied
half-shekels, for such a premium as they might be able to exact, to the Jews from all parts of the
world who assembled at Jerusalem during the great festivals, and were required to pay their tribute
or ransom money in the Hebrew coin.
Month
From the time of the institution of the Mosaic law downward the religious feasts commencing
with the passover depended not simply on the month, but on the moon; the 14th of Abib was
coincident with the full moon; and the new moons themselves were the occasions of regular festivals.
(Numbers 10:10; 28:11-14) The commencement of the month was generally decided by observation
of the new moon. The usual number of months in a year was twelve, as implied in (1 Kings 4:7; 1
Chronicles 27:1-15) but since twelve lunar months would make but 354 1/2 days, the years would
be short twelve days of the short twelve days of the true year, and therefore it follows as a matter
of course that an additional month must have been inserted about every third year, which would
bring the number up to thirteen. No notice, however, is taken of this month in the Bible. In the
modern Jewish calendar the intercalary month is introduced seven times in every nineteen years.
The usual method of designating the months was by their numerical order, e.g. “the second month,”
(Genesis 7:11) “the fourth month,” (2 Kings 25:3) and this was generally retained even when the
names were given, e.g. “in the month Zif, which is the second month.” (1 Kings 6:1) The names
of the months belong to two distinct periods. In the first place we have those peculiar to the period
of Jewish independence, of which four only, even including Abib, which we hardly regard as a
proper name are mentioned, viz.: Abib, in which the passover fell, (Exodus 13:4; 23:15; 34:18;
16:1) and which was established as the first month in commemoration of the exodus, (Exodus 12:2)
Zif, the second month, (1 Kings 6:1,37) Bul, the eighth, (1 Kings 6:38) and Ethanim, the seventh.
frankie
(Frankie)
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