mentioned numerous times in Biblical text was worth sixty thousand DRACHMAS.
One can get some idea of the value of the DRACHMA or a DENARIUS from such evidence as the Matthew’s parable of the labourers in the vineyard, “and they likewise received every man a penny”. This being a normal day’s wage for a labourer, which would keep a family at subsistence level. “Pay Ceasar what is due to Ceasar, and pay God what is due God”. (Mark 12:13-17) (Luke 19:22-26).
The ‘Tribute Tax’ was paid directly into emperor’s treasury and the coinage stamped with the name and image of the emperor, so that on both accounts it symbolized subjection (a leading factor that led to the Jewish War). A significant fact that was omitted from the text is that the coin had to be fetched; either Jesus or his followers possessed no silver money or they refused to use the pagan coinage. The betrayal of Judas Iscariot portrayed, “They weighed out thirty pieces of silver… ” (Matthew 26:14-16), refers to Zechariah 11:12-14, “I took thirty pieces of silver-that noble sum at which I was valued and rejected by them!” The shepherd is paid his wages. Scornfully (the magnificence of the price) is the wage too small? – Was it a slave’s price? Unfortunately the significance of the payment is lost and unknown and its illusions are obscure. (The coins Judas received were most likely thirty Tyrian shekels.) “Presently there came a poor widow who dropped in two tiny coins.” (Mark 12:41-44). The scene is laid in the Temple, which refers to the chest ranged against the wall in the Court of Women for the offerings of the people. The poor widow could only contribute ‘two tiny copper coins’ the proverbial “Widow’s Mite”, which makes a farthing (the quarter of an AS of which sixteen