2. Drachm (Spax/Jiv, Lk 15^- ** AV and RV piece of silver). — This is the name of the unit of the Greek system of silver coinage, and, as such, might be applied to a great variety of coins from different mints and of different standards. In the Gospels it occurs only in the parable of the Lost Coin, where, of course, it must be understood of some coin cur- rent in Palestine. FeAV coins of this denomination Avere issued from the Phcenician cities or from Antioch, and the city of Cjesarea in Cappadocia had only recently begun to coin drachms on the Phcenician standard (of 55 grains) for use in the provinces of Syria and Cappadocia (Mommsen, op. cit. 734, 897 ; Head, op. cit. 634). Thus, Avhile it is not impossible that the coins in question may have been drachms of the Phcenician standard, they are Avith greater probability to be identified Avith tlie ' Attic drachms ' * of the Hellenistic AATiters, that is, Avith Roman denarii. In any case, the value for ordinary purposes Avas the same — about 9^d. of our money. The ' ten pieces of silver' pos- sessed by the Avoman thus amounted to eight shillings.
3. Dldrachm {didpax/j-of, Mt 17^^ AV 'tribute money,' RV 'half-shekel').— As the name implies, tills is a coin of the value of tAvo drachms, rd SiSpaxfxa in the passage quoted refers to the tax of half a shekel (Ex 301^) levied each year in the month of Adar from all Jews above the age of tAventy for the maintenance of the Temple. The only coins then current in Palestine Avhich ansAvered exactly to the 'shekel of the sanctuary '—leaving out of
* It may not be out of place to remind the reader that the word ' Attic ' in this connexion implies only a remote associa- tion with the coinage of Athens. In his Noies on the Parables, Trench assumes that this drachm was Athenian, stamped with 'an owl, a tortoise, or a head of Minerva,' and reluctantly surrenders ' the resemblance to the human soul, originally stamped with the image and superscription of the great King/ which earlier expositors had delighted to trace. A sound method of parable exposition will indeed dispense with this fanciful suggestion, but not for Trench's reasons (see Bruce, Parabolic Teachina, 279).
account the shekels commonly but probably er- roneously assigned to Simon Maccabseus (see above) — Avere those Avhicli had for long been coined in the Phcenician cities ; and the Temple tax, along Avith other sacred dues, Avas paid in this currency.
The well-established correspondence of the didrachm to the half-shekel has been obscured for some writers by the fact that the LXX regularly translate "^i^B* by lilpocxtJt^m. From the nar- rative in Mt. it is evident that the tax was a voluntary one,- although the Mishna declares that the goods of those who had not paid it by the 25th Adar might be distrained (Edersheim, Life and Titnes, ii. 112). After the destruction of Jerusalem, Vespasian made compulsory a poll-tax of the same amount to defray the cost of rebuilding the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.
4. Stater [arar-qp, Mt 17'-' AV piece of money, RV shekel). — The Avord arar-qp is derived from the verb 'i<TTT)fj.i in the sense of to weigh. It hence means, in the first place, a standard Aveight, and then deri\ a- tively a standard coin. In Athens it Avas at first ap- jjlied to the didrachm, Avhich was looked upon as the standard coin of the monetary system, but after- Avards to the tetradrachm or piece of four drachms. It is evidently so used in the passage before us, for the stater to be found in the fish's mouth Avas to pay the Temple tax of a didrachm for tAvo persons, our Lord and Peter. The tetradrachm of the Phoenician standard coiTesponded to the HebreAv shekel, and is ho doubt the coin here indicated. Josephus refers in one passage {BJ II. xxi. 2) to ' the Tyrian coin Avhich is of the value of four Attic drachms,' and in another (Ant. III. viii. 2) he gives the value of the HebreAv shekel as four Attic drachms. The stater Avould thus be Avorth 4s. 2d. of our money.
In Mt 2615 Cod. D reads Tpixxovrtx. i!-t«.TY,pa.i ; and though this reading is rejected by critical editors, it probably embodies a correct paraphrase of the a-pyi/pia. (AV and RV ' pieces of silver ') of the TR. That is, the thirty pieces of silver paid to the traitor as the price of blood were staters of the Phoenician standard. This appears from a comparison of the passages in Mt. where they are spoken of with Zee III2. 13, in which shekels are plainly intended. It has been pointed out (O. Holtzmann, ST Zeit- gesch. 110) that just as in Zee II12 the word ^'QZ' does not occur but is suggested by the word l7|"?'-^'l> so also the word a-:a.Tv.p is latent in the verb 'iG-rr,ira.<i in Mt 2615. Reckoning the stater at 4 denarii, the sum paid to Judas amounted to £4, 16s. Thirtj' shekels of silver was the price that had to be paid (Ex 21^2) as blood-money for a male or female slave ; and this coincidence has frequently been used as a striking illustration of the truth expressed in Ph V that our Lord took upon Himself the form of a servant.