MONEY-CHANGERS (EXCHANGERS, CHANGERS, BANKERS).—In the preceding article it has been shown how various were the standards according to which money was reckoned in the course of Jewish history. In the Ist cent. of our era, for example (MONEY, § 8), we find coins of the Roman system (denarius, as, ete.) side by side with coins of the Greek system (drachm, tetradrachm, ete.). The Jews, moreover, according to the testimony of their own Rabbis, were required to pay the sacred dues in coins of still another standard, viz. the Phenician. When to these facts is added the circumstance that Palestine and Jerusalem, in par- ticular, were visited by vast numbers of Jews ‘out of every nation under heaven’ (Ac 2°), each of whom required to be furnished with the current coins of the country, it will be admitted that there was great need for ‘the tables of the money- changers.’ The words denoting this important class of the community in NT are three in number : (1) κερματιστής (from κέρμα, a small coin, then money generally, Jn 2%), Jn2only, AV and RV ‘changers of money,’ parallel to and synonymous with (2) κολλυβιστής (trom κόλλυβος, originally a small coin, apparently one fourth of the χαλκοῦς [Hultzsch, Metrol.* p, 228), then the ‘commission’ or agio paid to the money-changer), Mt 21, Mk 11%, AV and RV ‘money - changers,’ Jn 2 ‘changers,’ According to some we should distinguish the κερματιστής Who gave small change (κέρματα) for the larger coins, copper and silver, ete., from the κολλυβιστής Who ‘changed foreign money at an agio (καταλλαγή), or provided gold to be remitted abroad’ (Smith’s Dict. of Antiq.* ‘ Argentarii’), The Jews, however, expressed both rae by the post-biblical προ shulhani (from shulhan, table), which is merely the Hebrew equivalent of (3) τραπεζίτης (from τράπεζα, the table or stand at which the changer sat and on which he ranged his money, Mt 21, Mk 11%, Jn 2%, AV and RV ‘tables,’ but Lk 19% ‘bank’*), only Mt 25%, AV ‘exchangers,’ RV ‘bankers.’ The business of the Jewish shulhant was threefold : (1) he changed the larger denomina- tions (tetradrachm, denarius, drachm) into their equivalent in the copper money in which the minor
urchases of the average household were made, or, it might be, the gold awreus into silver coin, and vice versa. (2) He exchanged all money that had not legal currency in Palestine into such as had. (3) The wealthier members of the class received money on deposit for the purpose of investment, on which interest (τόκος, Mt 2577, Lk 19% AV ‘usury,’ RV ‘interest’) at fixed rates was paid. They also negotiated drafts on correspondents abroad. This third department will be dealt with more in detail under UsuRY.
The ‘ money-changers’ are introduced in the NT, in respect of the first two departments of their business, in the incident (or incidents) of the clear ing of the temple courts (Mt 21, Mk 115, Jn 2.) The practice had grown up of allowing the shulhanim to set up their stands or ‘tables’ (συ) in the outer court or ‘court of the Gentiles’ for the convenience of the numerous worshippers, especially of those from foreign countries—a practice which evidently led to much unseemly wrangling, and even to acts of downright dishonesty (cf. Mt 218, Mk 117, Lk 19%). A special and important branch of the money-changer’s work was the pro- viding of the half-shekel or didrachm (MONEY, § 8) required annually of every adult male for the maintenance of the public servicesof the temple.
* The Latin mensa and mensarius afford a complete paralle cf. our own ‘bank’ cognate with ‘bench.’
MONSTER
From the Mishna treatise Shékalim we learn that | one month (15th Adar) before the Passover festival — accredited shulhdnim set up their tables in the provinces to receive the contributions of the provincials, removing ten days later to the capital (see, further, ΤΈΙΒΟΤΕ MoNEy). While in their ordinary transactions the changers were probably | not over-scrupulous as to the amount of com- mission they charged, in the case of the half- shekel the amount of the agio (fabip, κόλλυβον) was fixed at 4 per cent. This seems the natural inference from the data in Shékdlim i. 6, 7, which we understand to mean that the price of the Tyrian tetradrachm or stater (Mt 1757), which contained 24 maoth (niy>) or obols, was 25 obols, the extra obol (1 in 25, or 4 p.c.=c. 14d.) being the agio. This we saw (MONEY, § 8) was probably the usual method of paying the tax. For a single half- shekel or aiken of silver apparently only half an obol was charged (see Shék. i. end*). A com- mission of 4 p.c. seems to have been usual in secular transactions also. In Meéilah vi. 4 we read of an aureus (=25 denarii) being spent, although the total of the purchases amounts to only 24 denarii. Clearly the remaining denarius was retained as agio. The changers had always to be on their guard against false money, hence the saying—
ὙΨ Ἢ Ser ow ey 80 Ne γι PS
‘it is not the custom of the money-changer to give change (lit. an issar or as) until he receives [and has tested] his denarius!’ A. R.S. KENNEDY.
MONSTER.—The onl
occurrence of this word is in La 4°, where in A ΙΝ tannin (LXX δράκοντες) is tr* ‘sea monsters,’ RV ‘jackals.’ Post prefers wolves ; see DRAGON, vol. 1. p. 0215. Amer. RV prefers ‘monster’ to ‘dragon’ in Is 271, Jer 51.