2. The first notice in the Bible, after the flood, of un- coined money as a representative of property and me- dium of exchange, is when Abraham came up out of Egypt "verj' rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold" (Gen. xiii, 2; xxiv, 35). In the furtlier histon,- of Abraham we read that Abimelech gave the patriarch "a thou- sand [pieces] of silver," apparently to purchase veils for Sarah and her attendants; but the passage is extremely difficult (Gen. xx, 16). The Sept. understood shekels to be intended {xiXia cicpa\pa, I. r. also ver. 14). and there can be no doubt tliat they were right, though the rendering is accidentally an unfortunate one, their cfiuiv- alent being the name of a coin. We next find "money" used in commerce. In the purchase of the cave of >Iach- pelah it is said, "And Abraham weighed (^p"i"^^ to Ephron the silver which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver cur- rent with the merchant" C^HSp "3"; Sept. coKifiov tfjiiTopoig, Gen. xxiii, 16). Here a currency is clearly indicated like that which the monuments of Egypt show to have been there used in a very remote age; for the weighing proves that this currency, like the Egyptian, did not bear the stamp of authority, and was therefore weighed when employed in commerce. A similar pur- chase is recorded of Jacob, who bought a parcel of a field at Shalem for a hundred kesitahs (xxiii, 18, 19). The occurrence of a name different from shekel, and, unlike it, not distinctly applied in any other passage to a weight, favors the idea of coined money. But what is the kesi- tah (n::"'wp)? The old interpreters supposed it to mean a lamb, and it has been imagined to have been a coin bearing the figure of a lamb. There is no known etymological ground for this meaning, the lost root, if we compare the Arabic kasat, '■ lie or it divided equal- ly," being perhaps connected with the idea of division. Yet the sanction of the Sept., and the use of weights having the forms of lions, bulls, and geese, by the Egyp- tians, Assyrians, and probably Persians, must make us hesitate before we abandon a rendering so singularly confirmed by the relation of the hat'in pectinia aiid pe- dis. Throughout the histon,- of Joseph we find evi- dence of the constant use of money in preference to bar- ter. This is clearly shown in the case of tlic famine, when it is related that all the money of Egypt and Ca- naan was paid for com, and that then the Egyptians had recourse to barter (xlvii, 13-26), It would thence appear that money was not very plentiful. In the nar- rative of the visits of Joseph's brethren to Egypt, we find that they purchased corn with money, which was, as in Abraham's time, weighed silver, for it is spoken of by them as having been restored to their sacks in " its [full] weight" (xliii, 21). At the time of the exodus money seems to have been still weighed, for the ransom ordered in the law is stated to be half a shekel for each man — " half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuarj-, [of] twenty gerahs the shekel" (Exod. xxx, 13). Here the shekel is evidently a weight, and of a sjiecial system of which the standard examples were probably kejit by the priests. Tliroughout the law money is spoken of as in ordinary use; but only silver money, gold being mentioned as valuable, but not clearly as used in the same manner. This distinction appears at the time of the conquest of Canaan. When .Fericho was taken, Achan embezzled from the spoils 200 shekels of silver, and a wedge (Heb. tongue) of gold {yXuxiaav ftiav \pv- ai)v) of 50 shekels' weight (.losh. vii, 21), Throughout the period before the return from Babylon this distinc- tion seems to obtain: whenever anything of the vhiir- acler of money is mentioned the usual metal is silver, and gold generally occurs as the material of ornaments and costly works. Thus silver, as a medium of com- merce, may be met with among the nations of the Phi- listines (Gen. XX. 16; Judg. xvi, 5, 18; xvii, 2 sq.\ the Midianites (Gen. xxxvii, 28), and the Syrians (2 Kings
MONEY
483
MONEY