A prutah equaled two lepta.Īlexander Jannaeus was the first Hasmonean king to mint coins bearing his own name. These coins display double cornucopia and a pomegranate on the obverse and an inscription reading, “Yehohana the High Priest and the Council of the Jews,” on the reverse. These were followed by bronze prutot (plural of prutah) and lepton (plural of lepta) of John Hyrcanus I, the High Priest. The original Maccabean coins feature a lily on the obverse and an anchor on the reverse. In the second century BC, the Maccabees revolted against the Seleucids, and in the ensuing years, the Jewish people minted their own coins once again. During this time, coins featuring the portraits of Seleucid and Ptolemaic rulers came into use. The Seleucids and the Ptolemies fought for control of the Holy Land. These coins typically feature the head of Hercules on the obverse and a seated figure of Zeus on the reverse.Īfter the death of Alexander the Great, his kingdom was divided between four of his generals. Drachmas, the standard coin of the Greeks, equaled one quarter of a shekel. These coins feature an owl or an eagle and a lily.Īs Alexander the Great conquered the Persian empire and Greek culture spread through the known world, people in the Holy Land adopted the use of Greek coins. In the 4th century BC, the Jewish people began minting their own coins: tiny silver coins bearing the inscription, “Yehud,” the Aramaic word for Judea. “Judas Iscariot…said, ‘What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?’ And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver” (Matthew 26:14–15). The chief priests payed Judas Iscariot 30 of these silver pieces to betray Jesus. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money take that and give it to them for Me and you” (Matthew 17:27). “…go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. The Tyrian shekel may have been the coin that Peter found in the fish’s mouth to pay the temple tax for Jesus and himself. Since Tyrian coins were pre-measured in shekels and half-shekels, and the silver was of the highest quality, the Jewish leaders must have felt compelled to ignore the fact that the coins bore the image of the pagan god Melkart. “They gave for the work of the house of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold” (1 Chronicles 29:7).ĭuring the times of the Second Temple, the Tyrian silver shekel became the only coin accepted for temple taxes in Jerusalem, which required a half-shekel per taxpayer. These are the first coins mentioned in the Bible, and they funded the rebuilding of the temple. In the late 6th century BC, the Persians began minting gold coins, known as darics. In about 600 BC, Lydians began minting coins of electrum featuring the head of a lion. “The man took a golden nose ring weighting half a shekel, and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels of gold (Genesis 24:22). Abraham’s servant gave Rebekah jewelry with the weight noted. Metal ingots served as an early form of payment, and the shekel became a standardized weight of metal. Electrum, a combination of gold and silver, was highly prized, and copper was also seen as valuable. Merchants assigned standard values to goods and required payment in precious metals.
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