One of the most well-known biblical coins

Jerusalem

(Jerusalem – View of the Old City and the Mount of Olives. From Wikipedia).

Jerusalem is an ancient city. Archaeological work in the area suggests that the city was inhabited as far back as 4,000 BC. Its earliest known name may be Jebusite, the translation of a Canaanite town. Together with the later arriving Philistines, they are believed to be the earliest known ancestors of the region.

In 1,000 BC King David walled and fortified the city against further invasion. Later, when King Solomon built the temple, Jerusalem became a spiritual capital, first for the Jews and later for Christians and Muslims too.

Jerusalem is around 9km (5.5 miles) from Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. The New Testament records seven visits Jesus made to Jerusalem, each time to celebrate one of the Jewish holy days. To be in Jerusalem during one of the holy day seasons meant there would be many pilgrims there to whom Jesus could preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. Josephus tells us that at the time of the Passover, just before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, there were more than two million pilgrims worshiping in the city. So, one can only imagine how important Jerusalem was for the preaching of the Gospel in the first century AD.

The temple

Jewish religious rituals, in Jesus’ time, centred around two main buildings. The Synagogue, and the temple. Literary sources from the time indicate that a variety of activities took place in synagogues, some religious and some secular. Synagogues are described as providing as meeting places for worship services, schools, and councils of elders. They also served as banks, hostels for travellers, and large banqueting halls. So perhaps the image of the synagogue in Jesus’ time was as a large, multi-purpose building whose religious function was just one of several roles it played in the community. Expanded from the role the building plays today, but still with those worship elements.

For Jews near Jerusalem (which was not all Jews at the time) worship also revolved around the Temple in Jerusalem. For a thousand years, the Temple was a hub for offering sacrifices of all sorts (peace offerings, thanksgiving offerings, atonement offerings and more) every day of the year. On the three annual pilgrimage festivals — Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot — all Israel was invited to ascend to Jerusalem to offer special sacrifices and celebrate. The Temple also served as an important administrative centre of the Jewish people.

The first Temple, built by King Solomon in approximately 1,000 BC, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. When the Persians conquered the Babylonians almost a century later, they agreed to let the Jewish leaders who had been taken into exile return to the land of Israel where they would rebuild the Temple. This Second Temple stood for hundreds more years, then was thoroughly renovated and expanded by Herod the Great in the last few decades before the time of Jesus. The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. It was never rebuilt.

Most believers never actually went into the temple itself. Jesus Himself never entered the temple building. Only selected priests were allowed into the Temple sanctuary. And only the High Priest, once a year on the Day of Atonement, could go into the Holy of Holies in the back of the Temple.

(Image of the temple complex from TheGospelCoalition.org).

When Jesus was 7 weeks old, Mary and Joseph brought him to the temple to present him to the Lord (Luke 2:22). This would have been at the Court of Women (centre right), a square courtyard 71 metres (233 ft) long with a large lampstand in each corner.

This is the same place 30 years later when Jesus would observe the religious rich making their offerings and the poor widow making hers. Within the colonnades surrounding the court there were 13 wooden boxes for collecting money. Coins would be dropped through a bronze trumpet-shaped receptacle — and you could tell the size of the coin by listening to the sound that it made when the money was deposited. The rich, Jesus observed, “contributed out of their abundance,” while the poor widow gave more—contributing just a fraction of a penny—”all she had to live on” (Luke 21:4).

The Widows Mite

The story is recounted in Luke 21:1-4, as well as Mark 12:41-44. From Mark:

41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. 43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

The word “mite” first appears in the books of Mark and Luke in the 1525 publication of Tyndale’s New Testament, where it was likely intended as a shortened version of the word “minute” and not as the name of a denomination. As the late Fr. Augustus Spijkerman has noted, the word lepton “implies very small coins…even we may say…the smallest coin being in circulation in Palestine at the time concerned.”

The amount of money the widow threw into the Temple treasury was two coins of the smallest size in existence in Jerusalem at that time. There is no doubt that the small prutah coins of the Maccabean kings and Herod the Great, fit that description. The most common, easily by a factor of more than 1000 to 1, is the small prutah. It would have most likely been struck by the Hasmonean successors of King Alexander Jannaeus (103 – 76 BC), which have been documented to range in weight from 0.20 to 1.70 grams, with an average of 0.81 grams.

Some versions of these coins may have been first struck very late in Jannaeus’ reign and likely continued to be minted periodically until as last as 50-45 BC. These coins were all decorated on one side with an anchor and on the other side a crude star.

The best current evidence suggests that during the first century, the Judaean shekel was made up of 256 prutot.

Obverse

The obverse of the coin features Paleo-Hebrew between the rays of star with eight rays within diadem. The lettering, in Hebrew, reads: יהונתן המלך which translates to: Yehonatan the King

My example is struck quite off-centre. This is not uncommon. Lepta were often carelessly and crudely struck, usually off centre and on small flans. Because they circulated for a long period, they are most often very worn and legends are usually illegible. There are many slight variations of these coins. ForumAncientCoins has a good selection of images and information.

Reverse

The reverse features an inscription around an inverted anchor. The inscription, in Greek, reads: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ, which translates to “of King Alexander”.

Alexander Jannæus (Jonathan) was King of Judaea; born about 126 B.C.; died 76 B.C. He was the third son of John Hyrcanus, by his second wife, and ascended the throne in the year 102 B.C. Although an effective military leader, he is seen in Jewish tradition as a ruthless tyrant who brutally persecuted the early Pharisees.

Just because my example is relatively poor, here is an image of a better one from ForumAncientCoins (I’m not sure exactly which one mine is, but this one looks not entirely dissimilar, and a lot better condition):

This is a coin I have long had an interest in. Although not the prettiest coin, and my example isn’t the best of its kind, it is still a special coin for a Christian numismatist. What coin’s story holds a special place for you?