II. MEASURES OF VALUE. Commerce, in its most primitive state, is a mere bartering, one kind of goods being exchanged for another. The next stage in commercial development is the in vention of a common means of exchange, the es tablishment of the precious metals—gold and sil ver—as standards of value, the employment of money.
1. Uncoined Money. This money, however, was not coined. It was simply the metal itself, kept in ingots, rings, etc., and used according to its weight, when, in the period before the Captiv ity, the Old Testament, as before noticed, speaks of money—pieces of gold and silver, shekels, mina, talent, etc.—a certain weight of precious metal is meant thereby, and nothing more.
2. Coined Money. Coined money does not appear among the Jews until after the Captivity, but then we meet successively with Persian, Greek, Syrian, Roman, and national Jewish coins. The first Jewish coins were struck by Simon Macca bmus, who, about B. C. 139 obtained permission to coin money from the Syrian king Antiochus VII. Shekels, half-shekels, etc., of gold, silver, and cop per were struck, showing on one side a vase, per haps representing a pot of manna, and on the other side an almond branch with three flowers, perhaps representing Aaron's staff. After this time coins were struck by the Asmontean princes, the Idumnan kings, during the first revolt under Eleazar, and during the second under Barcoche bas ; and besides these national Jewish coins, for eign coins of Persian, Greek, and Roman make circulated in great multitude in Palestine. Of these latter the following are mentioned in the Bible: (1) Bekah (Heb. beh' kah, a half), a Jewish weight of a half shekel's value (Exod. xxxviii:26). As a coin it may have been issued at any time from Alexander until the earlier period of the Maccabees. (See Shekel, below, in this article.) (2) Brass (Heb. nekh-o'sheth, copper (Ezck. xvi :36, A. V. "filthiness"). In the ex pression. "Because thy filthiness is poured out." nekh-o'sheth probably means brass or copper in the general sense of money. These bronze or cop
per coins were worth, according to weight and size, P. whole, a half, and a quarter ger,2h. In Matt.
x:9 (Gr. xa46s, khal-kos', rendered "money" in Mark vi:8; xii:41), "brass" is used apparently of a small Roman or Greek copper coin, of about the value of a portion of a farthing, one half cent.
(3) Denarius. See Pcnny, below.
(4) Didraehm. See DIDRACH MA.
(5) Dram (Heb. 17S., ad-ar-kone', I Chron. xxix:7; Ezra viii:27; PV-271, dar-kem-one', Ezra ii :69; Nelt. vii:7o-72) is usually thought to mean the dark of the Persians, and seems to be etymo logically connected with the Greek drachma. The gold dram was worth about five dollars and fifty cents.
(6) Farthing. Two names of coins in the New Testament are rendered in the A. V. by this word. (t) (Gr. Koopcivrns, kod-ran' face; Lat. quadrans, Matt. v :26; Mark xii :42), a coin current in Pal estine in the time of our Lord. It was equivalent to two lepta (A. V. "mites"). Its value was about 3.8 mills. (2) (Gr. ducrciptov, as-sar'ee-on; Matt. x:29; Luke xii:6), properly a small as, assanum, but in the time of our Lord used as the Greek equivalent of the Latin as. Its value is estimated at three-fourths of a penny English money, or one and a half cents of ours.
(7) Fourth Part of a Shekel (Heb. relic bah, fourth, I Sam. ix :8), the money which Saul's servant gave to Samuel as a present. It was the fourth of a shekel. (See Shekel, below.) (8) Gerah (Heb. riN,gay-raw', a kernel, Exod.
xxx :31 ; Lev. xxvii :25 ; Num. iii :47 ; xviii :16; Ezek. xlv :LI), the smallest weight and also the smallest piece of money among the Hebrews. It represented the twentieth part of a shekel, and was worth about three cents.
(9) Gold. Gold was circulated by weight among the Hebrews (i Chron. xxviii 34). The Roman imperial aureus, which passed for twenty-five de narii, about 22S. sterling, or $5.50, circulated in New Testament times.