Scripture often speaks of gold, silver, brass, of certain sums of
money, of purchases made with money, of current money, of money of a
certain weight; but we do not observe coined or stamped money till a
late period; which makes it probable that the ancient Hebrews took gold
and silver only by weight; that they only considered the purity of the
metal, and not the stamp. The most ancient commerce was conducted by
barter, or exchanging one sort of merchandise for another. One man gave
what he could spare to another, who gave him in return part of his
superabundance. Afterward, the more precious metals were used in
traffic, as a value more generally known and fixed. Lastly, they gave
this metal, by public authority, a certain mark, a certain weight, and a
certain degree of alloy, to fix its value, and to save buyers and
sellers the trouble of weighing and examining the coins. At the siege of
Troy in Homer, no reference is made to gold or silver coined; but the
value of things is estimated by the number of oxen they were worth. For
instance: they bought wine, by exchanging oxen, slaves, skins, iron, &c,
for it. When the Greeks first used money, it was only little pieces of
iron or copper, called _oboli_ or spits, of which a handful was a
drachma, says Plutarch. Herodotus thinks that the Lydians were the first
that stamped money of gold or silver, and introduced it into commerce.
Others say it was Ishon, king of Thessaly, a son of Deucalion. Others
ascribe this honour to Erichthonius; who had been educated by the
daughters of Cecrops, king of Athens: others, again, to Phidon, king of
Argos. Among the Persians it is said Darius, son of Hystaspes, first
coined golden money. Lycurgus banished gold and silver from his
commonwealth of Lacedæmon, and only allowed a rude sort of money, made
of iron. Janus, or rather the kings of Rome, made a kind of gross money
of copper, having on one side the double face of Janus, on the other the
prow of a ship. We find nothing concerning the money of the Egyptians,
Phenicians, Arabians, or Syrians, before Alexander the Great. In China,
to this day, they stamp no money of gold or silver, but only of copper.
Gold and silver pass as merchandise. If gold or silver be offered, they
take it and pay it by weight, as other goods: so that they are obliged
to cut it into pieces with shears for that purpose, and they carry a
steel yard at their girdles to weigh it.
But to return to the Hebrews. Abraham weighed out four hundred shekels
of silver, to purchase Sarah’s tomb, Genesis xxiii, 15, 16; and
Scripture observes that he paid this in current money with the
merchant.” Joseph was sold by his brethren to the Midianites for twenty
pieces (in Hebrew twenty shekels) of silver, Gen. xxxvii, 28. The
brethren of Joseph bring back with them into Egypt the money they found
in their sacks, in the same weight as before, Gen. xliii, 21. The
bracelets that Eliezer gave Rebekah weighed ten shekels, and the ear
rings two shekels, Gen. xxiv, 22. Moses ordered that the weight of five
hundred shekels of myrrh, and two hundred and fifty shekels of cinnamon,
of the weight of the sanctuary, should be taken, to make the perfume
which was to be burnt to the Lord on the golden altar, Exod. xxx, 24. He
acquaints us that the Israelites offered for the works of the tabernacle
seventy-two thousand talents of brass, Exod. xxxviii, 29. We read, in
the books of Samuel, that the weight of Absalom’s hair was two hundred
shekels of the ordinary weight, or of the king’s weight, 2 Sam. xiv, 26.
Isaiah, xlvi, 6, describes the wicked as weighing silver in a balance,
to make an idol of it; and Jeremiah, xxxii, 10, weighs seventeen pieces
of silver in a pair of scales, to pay for a field he had bought. Isaiah
says, Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore
do ye weigh money for that which is not bread?” Amos, viii, 5,
represents the merchants as encouraging one another to make the ephah
small, wherewith to sell, and the shekel great, wherewith to buy, and to
falsify the balances by deceit.
In all these passages three things only are mentioned: 1. The metal,
that is, gold or silver, and never copper, that not being used in
traffic as money. 2. The weight, a talent, a shekel, a gerah or
_obolus_, the weight of the sanctuary, and the king’s weight. 3. The
alloy (standard) of pure or fine gold and silver, and of good quality,
as received by the merchant. The impression of the coinage is not
referred to; but it is said they weighed the silver, or other
commodities, by the shekel and by the talent. This shekel, therefore,
and this talent, were not fixed and determined pieces of money, but
weights applied to things used in commerce. Hence those deceitful
balances of the merchants, who would increase the shekel, that is, would
augment the weight by which they weighed the gold and silver they were
to receive, that they might have a greater quantity than was their due;
hence the weight of the sanctuary, the standard of which was preserved
in the temple to prevent fraud; hence those prohibitions in the law,
Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights,” in Hebrew, stones, a
great and a small,” Deut. xxv, 13; hence those scales that the Hebrews
wore at their girdles, Hosea xii, 7, and the Canaanites carried in their
hands, to weigh the gold and silver which they received in payment. It
is true that in the Hebrew we find Jacob bought a field for a hundred
_kesitahs_, Gen. xxxiii, 19; and that the friends of Job, after his
recovery, gave to that model of patience each a _kesitah_, and a golden
pendant for the ears, Job xlii, 11. We also find there _darics_, (in
Hebrew, _darcmonim_ or _adarcmonim_,) and _minæ_, _stateræ_, _oboli_;
but this last kind of money was foreign, and is put for other terms,
which in the Hebrew only signifies the weight of the metal. The
_kesitah_ is not well known to us: some take it for a sheep or a lamb;
others, for a kind of money, having the impression of a lamb or a sheep:
but it was more probably a purse of money. The _darcmonim_ or _darics_
are money of the kings of Persia; and it is agreed that Darius, son of
Hystaspes, first coined golden money. Ezekiel, xlv, 12, tells us that
the _mina_ makes fifty shekels: he reduces this foreign money to the
weight of the Hebrews. The _mina_ might probably be a Persian money
originally, and adopted by the Greeks and by the Hebrews. But under the
dominion of the Persians, the Hebrews were hardly at liberty to coin
money of their own, being in subjection to those princes, and very low
in their own country. They were still less able under the Chaldeans,
during the Babylonish captivity; or afterward under the Grecians, to
whom they were subject till the time of Simon Maccabæus, to whom
Antiochus Sidetes, king of Syria, granted the privilege of coining money
in Judea, 1 Mac. xv, 6. And this is the first Hebrew money, properly so
called, that we know of. There were shekels and demi-shekels, also the
third part of a shekel, and a quarter of a shekel, of silver.
The shekel of silver, or the silverling, Isa. vii, 23, originally
weighed three hundred and twenty barleycorns; but it was afterward
increased to three hundred and eighty-four barleycorns, its value, being
considered equal to four Roman denarii, was two shillings and seven
pence, or, according to Bishop Cumberland, two shillings and four pence
farthing. It is said to have had Aaron’s rod on the one side, and the
pot of manna on the other. The bekah was equal to half a shekel, Exod.
xxxviii, 26. The denarius was one-fourth of a shekel, seven pence three
farthings of our money. The gerah, or meah, Exod. xxx, 13, was the sixth
part of the denarius, or diner, and the twenty-fourth part of the
shekel. The assar, or assarion, Matt. x, 29, was the ninety-sixth part
of a shekel: its value was rather more than a farthing. The farthing,
Matt. v, 26, was in value the thirteenth part of a penny sterling. The
mite was the half of a farthing, or the twenty-sixth part of a penny
sterling. The mina, or maneh, Ezek. xlv, 12, was equal to sixty shekels,
which, taken at two shillings and seven pence, was seven pounds fifteen
shillings. The talent was fifty minas; and its value, therefore, three
hundred and eighty-seven pounds ten shillings. The gold coins were as
follows: a shekel of gold was about fourteen and a half times the value
of silver, that is, one pound seventeen shillings and five pence
halfpenny. A talent of gold consisted of three thousand shekels. The
drachma was equal to a Roman denarius, or seven pence three farthings of
our money. The didrachma, or tribute money, Matt. xvii, 24, was equal to
fifteen pence halfpenny. It is said to have been stamped with a harp on
one side, and a vine on the other. The stater, or piece of money which
Peter found in the fish’s mouth, Matt. xvii, 27, was two half shekels. A
daric, dram, 1 Chron. xxix, 7; Ezra viii, 27, was a gold coin struck by
Darius the Mede. According to Parkhurst its value was one pound five
shillings. A gold penny is stated by Lightfoot to have been equal to
twenty-five silver pence.
Hug derives a satisfactory argument for the veracity of the Gospels from
the different kinds of money mentioned in them:--The admixture of
foreign manners and constitutions proceeded through numberless
circumstances of life. Take, for example, the circulation of coin; at
one time it is Greek coin; at another, Roman; at another time ancient
Jewish. But how accurately is even this stated according to history, and
the arrangement of things! The ancient imposts which were introduced
before the Roman dominion were valued according to the Greek coinage;
for example, the taxes of the temple, the διδραχμον, Matt. xvii, 24. The
offerings were paid in these, Mark xii, 42; Luke xxi, 2. A payment which
proceeded from the temple treasury was made according to the ancient
national payment by weight, Matt. xxvi, 15; but in common business,
trade, wages, sale, &c, the assis and denarius and Roman coin were
usual, Matt. x, 29; xx, 3; Luke xii, 6; Mark xiv, 5; John xii, 5; vi, 7.
The more modern state taxes are likewise paid in the coin of the nation
which exercises at the time the greatest authority, Matthew xxii, 19;
Mark xii, 15; Luke xx, 24. Writers, who, in each little circumstance,
which otherwise would pass by unnoticed, so accurately describe the
period of time, must certainly have had a personal knowledge of it.
money, of purchases made with money, of current money, of money of a
certain weight; but we do not observe coined or stamped money till a
late period; which makes it probable that the ancient Hebrews took gold
and silver only by weight; that they only considered the purity of the
metal, and not the stamp. The most ancient commerce was conducted by
barter, or exchanging one sort of merchandise for another. One man gave
what he could spare to another, who gave him in return part of his
superabundance. Afterward, the more precious metals were used in
traffic, as a value more generally known and fixed. Lastly, they gave
this metal, by public authority, a certain mark, a certain weight, and a
certain degree of alloy, to fix its value, and to save buyers and
sellers the trouble of weighing and examining the coins. At the siege of
Troy in Homer, no reference is made to gold or silver coined; but the
value of things is estimated by the number of oxen they were worth. For
instance: they bought wine, by exchanging oxen, slaves, skins, iron, &c,
for it. When the Greeks first used money, it was only little pieces of
iron or copper, called _oboli_ or spits, of which a handful was a
drachma, says Plutarch. Herodotus thinks that the Lydians were the first
that stamped money of gold or silver, and introduced it into commerce.
Others say it was Ishon, king of Thessaly, a son of Deucalion. Others
ascribe this honour to Erichthonius; who had been educated by the
daughters of Cecrops, king of Athens: others, again, to Phidon, king of
Argos. Among the Persians it is said Darius, son of Hystaspes, first
coined golden money. Lycurgus banished gold and silver from his
commonwealth of Lacedæmon, and only allowed a rude sort of money, made
of iron. Janus, or rather the kings of Rome, made a kind of gross money
of copper, having on one side the double face of Janus, on the other the
prow of a ship. We find nothing concerning the money of the Egyptians,
Phenicians, Arabians, or Syrians, before Alexander the Great. In China,
to this day, they stamp no money of gold or silver, but only of copper.
Gold and silver pass as merchandise. If gold or silver be offered, they
take it and pay it by weight, as other goods: so that they are obliged
to cut it into pieces with shears for that purpose, and they carry a
steel yard at their girdles to weigh it.
But to return to the Hebrews. Abraham weighed out four hundred shekels
of silver, to purchase Sarah’s tomb, Genesis xxiii, 15, 16; and
Scripture observes that he paid this in current money with the
merchant.” Joseph was sold by his brethren to the Midianites for twenty
pieces (in Hebrew twenty shekels) of silver, Gen. xxxvii, 28. The
brethren of Joseph bring back with them into Egypt the money they found
in their sacks, in the same weight as before, Gen. xliii, 21. The
bracelets that Eliezer gave Rebekah weighed ten shekels, and the ear
rings two shekels, Gen. xxiv, 22. Moses ordered that the weight of five
hundred shekels of myrrh, and two hundred and fifty shekels of cinnamon,
of the weight of the sanctuary, should be taken, to make the perfume
which was to be burnt to the Lord on the golden altar, Exod. xxx, 24. He
acquaints us that the Israelites offered for the works of the tabernacle
seventy-two thousand talents of brass, Exod. xxxviii, 29. We read, in
the books of Samuel, that the weight of Absalom’s hair was two hundred
shekels of the ordinary weight, or of the king’s weight, 2 Sam. xiv, 26.
Isaiah, xlvi, 6, describes the wicked as weighing silver in a balance,
to make an idol of it; and Jeremiah, xxxii, 10, weighs seventeen pieces
of silver in a pair of scales, to pay for a field he had bought. Isaiah
says, Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore
do ye weigh money for that which is not bread?” Amos, viii, 5,
represents the merchants as encouraging one another to make the ephah
small, wherewith to sell, and the shekel great, wherewith to buy, and to
falsify the balances by deceit.
In all these passages three things only are mentioned: 1. The metal,
that is, gold or silver, and never copper, that not being used in
traffic as money. 2. The weight, a talent, a shekel, a gerah or
_obolus_, the weight of the sanctuary, and the king’s weight. 3. The
alloy (standard) of pure or fine gold and silver, and of good quality,
as received by the merchant. The impression of the coinage is not
referred to; but it is said they weighed the silver, or other
commodities, by the shekel and by the talent. This shekel, therefore,
and this talent, were not fixed and determined pieces of money, but
weights applied to things used in commerce. Hence those deceitful
balances of the merchants, who would increase the shekel, that is, would
augment the weight by which they weighed the gold and silver they were
to receive, that they might have a greater quantity than was their due;
hence the weight of the sanctuary, the standard of which was preserved
in the temple to prevent fraud; hence those prohibitions in the law,
Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights,” in Hebrew, stones, a
great and a small,” Deut. xxv, 13; hence those scales that the Hebrews
wore at their girdles, Hosea xii, 7, and the Canaanites carried in their
hands, to weigh the gold and silver which they received in payment. It
is true that in the Hebrew we find Jacob bought a field for a hundred
_kesitahs_, Gen. xxxiii, 19; and that the friends of Job, after his
recovery, gave to that model of patience each a _kesitah_, and a golden
pendant for the ears, Job xlii, 11. We also find there _darics_, (in
Hebrew, _darcmonim_ or _adarcmonim_,) and _minæ_, _stateræ_, _oboli_;
but this last kind of money was foreign, and is put for other terms,
which in the Hebrew only signifies the weight of the metal. The
_kesitah_ is not well known to us: some take it for a sheep or a lamb;
others, for a kind of money, having the impression of a lamb or a sheep:
but it was more probably a purse of money. The _darcmonim_ or _darics_
are money of the kings of Persia; and it is agreed that Darius, son of
Hystaspes, first coined golden money. Ezekiel, xlv, 12, tells us that
the _mina_ makes fifty shekels: he reduces this foreign money to the
weight of the Hebrews. The _mina_ might probably be a Persian money
originally, and adopted by the Greeks and by the Hebrews. But under the
dominion of the Persians, the Hebrews were hardly at liberty to coin
money of their own, being in subjection to those princes, and very low
in their own country. They were still less able under the Chaldeans,
during the Babylonish captivity; or afterward under the Grecians, to
whom they were subject till the time of Simon Maccabæus, to whom
Antiochus Sidetes, king of Syria, granted the privilege of coining money
in Judea, 1 Mac. xv, 6. And this is the first Hebrew money, properly so
called, that we know of. There were shekels and demi-shekels, also the
third part of a shekel, and a quarter of a shekel, of silver.
The shekel of silver, or the silverling, Isa. vii, 23, originally
weighed three hundred and twenty barleycorns; but it was afterward
increased to three hundred and eighty-four barleycorns, its value, being
considered equal to four Roman denarii, was two shillings and seven
pence, or, according to Bishop Cumberland, two shillings and four pence
farthing. It is said to have had Aaron’s rod on the one side, and the
pot of manna on the other. The bekah was equal to half a shekel, Exod.
xxxviii, 26. The denarius was one-fourth of a shekel, seven pence three
farthings of our money. The gerah, or meah, Exod. xxx, 13, was the sixth
part of the denarius, or diner, and the twenty-fourth part of the
shekel. The assar, or assarion, Matt. x, 29, was the ninety-sixth part
of a shekel: its value was rather more than a farthing. The farthing,
Matt. v, 26, was in value the thirteenth part of a penny sterling. The
mite was the half of a farthing, or the twenty-sixth part of a penny
sterling. The mina, or maneh, Ezek. xlv, 12, was equal to sixty shekels,
which, taken at two shillings and seven pence, was seven pounds fifteen
shillings. The talent was fifty minas; and its value, therefore, three
hundred and eighty-seven pounds ten shillings. The gold coins were as
follows: a shekel of gold was about fourteen and a half times the value
of silver, that is, one pound seventeen shillings and five pence
halfpenny. A talent of gold consisted of three thousand shekels. The
drachma was equal to a Roman denarius, or seven pence three farthings of
our money. The didrachma, or tribute money, Matt. xvii, 24, was equal to
fifteen pence halfpenny. It is said to have been stamped with a harp on
one side, and a vine on the other. The stater, or piece of money which
Peter found in the fish’s mouth, Matt. xvii, 27, was two half shekels. A
daric, dram, 1 Chron. xxix, 7; Ezra viii, 27, was a gold coin struck by
Darius the Mede. According to Parkhurst its value was one pound five
shillings. A gold penny is stated by Lightfoot to have been equal to
twenty-five silver pence.
Hug derives a satisfactory argument for the veracity of the Gospels from
the different kinds of money mentioned in them:--The admixture of
foreign manners and constitutions proceeded through numberless
circumstances of life. Take, for example, the circulation of coin; at
one time it is Greek coin; at another, Roman; at another time ancient
Jewish. But how accurately is even this stated according to history, and
the arrangement of things! The ancient imposts which were introduced
before the Roman dominion were valued according to the Greek coinage;
for example, the taxes of the temple, the διδραχμον, Matt. xvii, 24. The
offerings were paid in these, Mark xii, 42; Luke xxi, 2. A payment which
proceeded from the temple treasury was made according to the ancient
national payment by weight, Matt. xxvi, 15; but in common business,
trade, wages, sale, &c, the assis and denarius and Roman coin were
usual, Matt. x, 29; xx, 3; Luke xii, 6; Mark xiv, 5; John xii, 5; vi, 7.
The more modern state taxes are likewise paid in the coin of the nation
which exercises at the time the greatest authority, Matthew xxii, 19;
Mark xii, 15; Luke xx, 24. Writers, who, in each little circumstance,
which otherwise would pass by unnoticed, so accurately describe the
period of time, must certainly have had a personal knowledge of it.