DIDRACHM (Mpaxi.cov), a silver coin equal to two drachm, and rendered in the English version of the N. T. by the word tribute. The Septuagint renders the Hebrew shekel of the O. T. by didrachma. Hence a great difficulty has arisen, for the extant shekels, which are of the Maccabman period, have the weight of Ptolemaic tetradrachms. How are we to account for the half of a tetra drachm being called the half of a didrachm ? The late Colonel Leake, in speaking of the shekel, says, ` This weight appears to have been the same as the Egyptian unit of weight, for we learn from Horapollo that the Movcis, or unit, which they held to be the basis of all numeration, was equal to two drachm (i. is), and SiSpaxyzy is employed synonymously with for the Hebrew word s'iekel by the Greek Septuagint, consequently the shekel and didrachmon were of the same weight.' If the didrachm were the Egyptian unit of weight, the so-called Ptolemaic tetradrachm would be in Egypt at least a didrachm, and not a tetra drachm.
He then argues that ` though some commenta tors think the translators meant a didrachmon of the Graeco-Egyptian scale, weighing about Ito grains, yet it is hardly credible that SiSpaxp,ov should have been thus employed without any dis tinguishing epithet, at a time when the Ptolemaic scale was yet of recent origin, especially as the word didrachmon had for ages been applied to a silver piece of money of about 13o grains, in the currency of all cities which follow the Attic or Corinthian standard, as well as in the silver money of Alexander the Great, and his successors.' He then goes on to say that ` in all these currencies, as well as in those of Lydia and Persia, the stater was an Attic didrachmon, or at least with no greater difference of standard than occurs among modern nations using a denomination of weight or measure common to all, and hence the word Siapaxaoy was at length employed as a measure of weight without any reference to its origin in the Attic drachma. Thus we find the drachma of gold described as equivalent to ten didrachma in apaxg.i)), and the half shekel of the Pentateuch translated by the Septuagint .7.6 '4.4LCU 700 0L0pdX,00V. There can be little doubt, there fore, that the Attic and not the Grmco-Egyptian didrachmon was intended by them.' As regards the half shekel of silver paid to the Lord by every male of the children of Israel as a ransom for his soul (Exod. xxx. 13, 15), Colonel Leake says That it had nothing in common with the tribute paid by the Jews to the Roman Emperor. The tribute was a denarius, in the English version a penny (Matt. xxii. 17 • Luke xx. 24) ; the duty
to the temple was a didrachmon, two of which made a stater. It appears then that the half shekel of ransom had in the time of our Saviour been con verted into the payment of a didrachmon to the temple, and two of their didrachma formed a stater of the Jewish currency.' He then suggests that the stater was evidently the extant Shekel Israel,' which was a tetradrachm of the Ptolemaic scale, though generally below the standard weight, like most of the extant specimens of the Ptolemies; and that the didrachmon paid to the temple was therefore of the same monetary scale. ' says he, the duty to the temple was converted from the half of an Attic to the whole of a Ptolemaic didrachmon, and the tax was nominally raised in the proportion of about 105 to 65 ; but probably the value of silver had fallen as much in the two preceding centuries. It was natural that the Jews should have revived the old name Shekel, and ap plied it to their Stater, and equally so that they should have adopted the scale of the neighbouring opulent and powerful kingdom, the money of which they must have long been in ;he habit of employ ing.' (Appendix, Numismata Hellenica, pp. 2, 3.) We have here a tolerably satisfactory account of this difficult question. We learn that the Egyptian unit was a didrachm, and the suggestion is made that the Septuagint intended the Attic, and not the Groeco-Egyptian weight. Assuming this to be true, the didrachm of the Septuagint would be a shekel, and the didrachm of the N. T. a half shekel. The word didrachm, however, was the common term employed by the Jews for the shekel, and was not necessarily a piece of money, there being few, if any, Attic didrachms current at the time of our Lord. This last observation, as Mr. Poole has suggested to the writer, is corroborated in the account of the miracle of the tribute-money, where St. Peter finds in the fish a stater, which he paid for our Lord and himself (Matt. xvii. 24-27). The stater of silver is a tetradrachm ; the tetradrachm of that period current in Palestine had the same weight as the shekels. After the destruction of the temple,. Vespasian ordered the Jews to pay tribute yearly to the capitol ; the sum consisted of two drachma (Joseph. Bell.1.(1. vii. 6. 6).—F. W. M.
DIDYMUS (.:11.311,cios, a twin), a surname of the Apostle Thomas, denoting that he was a twin ; and, if translated, he would be called Thomas the Twin' (John xi. 16). [THOMAS.]