Biblical coins are of immense value to collectors, both Jewish and Christian. Not only are they a direct link to an ancient history that still infuses all of western culture, often even bearing the names of religiously and historically significant people.
They are also a proof to many of the historicity of the Bible. That makes it an often loaded topic, rife with sometimes dubious claims. For example, in 2009 an Egyptian newspaper published the discovery of coins bearing the name of Joseph, son of Jacob, which would make the Qur'an correct over the Bible on the matter of whether Joseph was sold for coins or not, even though they also claimed Joseph's lifespan to precede the currently accepted date for the invention of coinage by 800 years. A conservative caution must be advised.
The Earliest Coins of Ancient Judea
Unless Joseph's brothers indeed received coinage for the sale of their brother, which the Bible refutes, coins were first introduced in the Biblical world at a time when the eastern Mediterranean was ruled by the Persian Empire, and as Persian subjects the Jews did not issue coinage of their own. In the 4th century BCE, Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire and assimilated the Biblical lands into his Macedonian Greek empire. Still subjects of foreign rulers, the Jews did not issue their own coins.
By the late 2nd century BCE, Jewish society was split into Hellenised Jews, who favoured Greek education and culture, and traditional Jews who abhorred Greek rule. By 167 BCE hundreds rose in rebellion, a history recorded in the deuterocanonical Books of Maccabees. The text states that the Greek king of Syria and ruler of Judea, Antiochus VII, whom the rebel army opposed, gave the Jews the right to mint their own coins. Archaeologists have found no such coins, however, and it is clear enough that Antiochus continued to issue his own coins.
Though obviously Greek, the coins of Antiochus were modified for his Jewish audience in accordance with the Jewish faith, which allowed neither human nor animal to be depicted in art. While most Hellenistic coins bore to portrait of the king, those issued for ancient Judea did not.
The First Jewish Coins Minted by the Hasmoneans
Eventually the revolts lead to a semi-independent Jewish state, the Hasmonean Kingdom, which was recognised by the Roman Senate in 139 BCE. The coins of the Hasmonean kingdom were made from bronze only, though issued in several denominations from the large chalcus to the small prutah. Unfortunately, it is uncertain which Hasmonean leader first issued coins. Coins are difficult to date and the coins found issued by a John Hyrcanus cannot with certainty be ascribed to either John Hyrcanus I or John Hyrcanus II.
If these coins belong to the elder John Hyrcanus, then the earliest Jewish coins belong to the late 2nd century BCE. If they are the coins of the younger John Hyrcanus, then the earliest Jewish coins were issued between 103 and 76 BCE by Alexander Jennaeus.
The Coins of the New Testament
Over the course of the mid to early 1st century BCE, Roman influence in Judea grew and in 37 BCE they supported Herod the Great’s claim to the Jewish throne in return for Judea becoming a client kingdom under Rome. Herod was quite Hellenised, and his most common prutah coin showed the anchor of Greek Syria as well as pagan symbols like the caduceus of Hermes and two cornucopiae.
His son Herod Antipas, best known for having John the Baptist executed, issued a number of rare bronze coins: an upright palm branch is depicted with a Greek inscription, “Herod the Tetrarch”, on one side and a wreath and the name of the minting city on the other.
Rome eventually absorbed the Jewish client kingdom into its Syrian province. Instead of client kings, like Herod, there were to be procurators like Pontius Pilate. Like the client kings and Jewish kings before them, they issued only bronze coins.
The coins of Pontius Pilate do not bear his name. Rather, they carry the name of the ruling Roman emperor at the time: Tiberius. Because they were issued in Jewish lands, however, they did not depict the emperor. Instead, Pilate chose a number of pagan symbols of the Roman state religion on his coins: the sipulum, a type of ritual ladle, and the lituus, a wooden staff used by soothsayers.
The thirty pieces of silver that Judas Iscariot reportedly turned Jesus over to the Romans for was most likely the shekel or half-shekel minted at Tyre. It was the only contemporary silver coinage known to circulate in Judea at the time. The shekel of Tyre was the only accepted currency for temple tax, because of its superior silver content, but it was a clearly pagan coin. One side featured the god Baal in Grecian Heracles disguise and the other an eagle. Traditional Jews would have avoided handling it, only exchanging their money for shekels at tax time.
Sources
Kreitzer, L., Striking New Images: Roman Imperial Coinage and the New Testament World, Sheffield 1996.
Sayles, W., Ancient Coin Collecting IV: Roman Provincial Coins, Iola 1998.
Wacks, M., The Handbook of Biblical Numismatics: From Abraham to the Crusades, 2008.
Emma Oxenby Wohlfart - E P Wohlfart decided at age 14 that she was going to move to Scotland for university. Once there, she often sat in class thinking to ...
