Coins of various denominations or values were common in the time of the Gospels and the 1st century. Coins circulated throughout the Roman Empire, including in Judea and Galilee. These coins, usually made of bronze and silver but occasionally minted using gold, were issued by the emperor and by local rulers, and thus provide useful time point markers. They often featured iconography or an image of a ruler, sometimes with inscriptions naming those rulers. Occasionally they even displayed the year they were issued. These coins help to give precise dates to events within the Gospel narratives and confirm the existence and titles of several officials who lived at the time of Jesus.
For example, Herod the Great was declared to be king of Judea by the Roman Senate in 40 BC. He was then sent back to Judea with an army of Roman soldiers who defeated both the Parthians and their allies the Hasmoneans, establishing Herod as the undisputed ruler of the region by 37 BC. With the support of Rome, Herod established his capital at Jerusalem. Herod issued his own coins as king, including one that depicted the egg-shaped cap and a star — the sailor’s guiding star that honored Castor and Pollux. Herod used religious iconography, including imagery found in Roman religion that ironically may also have had meaning in Judaism due to its association with the star of a prophesied future ruler.
Historical Side Note
Herod was not of Jewish descent. He was violent, mercurial, scheming, and exhibited some signs of paranoia. He married Miriam, the last surviving member of the heroic house of Maccabees to solidify his claim to the throne in the eyes of the people. Then, he had her murdered, along with at least seven members of his family and numerous political rivals.
Herod was nearing the end of his reign by the time Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and was increasingly fearful of losing power to a son or a usurper. This fear was further heightened when magi from the east came to his court asking about a recently born Judean boy — a boy who was born king of the Judeans — not artificially installed there, as he was.
Biblical Side Note
It is highly ironic that Herod chose a star as a symbol on one of his coins, since the magi who came to Jerusalem were guided by the “King’s Star” that proclaimed the birth of a king. Fearing the wrath of Herod and the danger he posed, Joseph took his family to Egypt, where they lived until the death of Herod the Great.
After the death of Herod the Great, his kingdom was divided among four of his children. Herod Archelaus received the largest part of the kingdom, ruling from 4 BC-AD 6 alongside his brothers Antipas and Philip and his aunt Salome. As the main heir, Archelaus received Judea and the title ethnarch, meaning ruler over a common ethnic group.
Back to the Coinage
Archelaus issued coins during his reign, including the bronze prutah with the name “Herod” surrounding grapes on one side and the title “ethnarch” with a helmet on the other side.
Archelaus was such a brutal and pompous ruler that the Romans exiled him to Gaul in AD 6. Joseph wanted to avoid Archelaus, and so steered clear of Judea when he and his family returned from Egypt. He returned instead to Galilee, which was ruled by the much more reasonable Antipas.
Herod Antipas (also a son of Herod the Great) ruled the Galilee area from 4 BC-AD 39 when Emperor Caligula banished him to Gaul. His coins often included Greek inscriptions mentioning his name and title “Herod Tetrarch” on one side and “Tiberias” in honor of the emperor on the other. Many of his coins were pagan in iconography.
One coin that is highly significant from a Biblical perspective is the lepton. It was a tiny bronze coin, the smallest denomination of all Judean coinage. It was originally minted in the early first century BC by the Hasmonean ruler Alexander Jannaeus. It took two Judean lepta to equal the lowest denomination Roman coin, the quadrans, and it took eight lepta to buy one sparrow. “Heads” of the lepta had a picture of an anchor and a Greek inscription mentioning “King Alexander,” and “tails” depicted an eight-pointed star. Although the lepton of Alexander Jannaeus is the most known and most common, King Herod also issued his own lepton coins.
Conclusion
Although its buying power of the lepton was small, its metal was durable. Many coins originally minted in the Hasmonean period stayed in circulation through the 1st century AD and the time of the New Testament. It eventually became known as a “Widow’s Mite” after Jesus’ observed a widow donating two of these coins to the temple treasury.
And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.” (Mark 12:41-44 NASB95)
