[PIECE OF SILVER.] Of the extant silver and copper shekels of the time of Simon Maccabxus a list has already been given in a previous article. [1\10NEv.] It may, however, be observed that, notwithstanding the authority of the principal numismatists of Italy, Germany, Spain, and England, M. de Saulcy has re cently objected to the attribution of these silver and copper shekels and their divisions to Simon Macca bxus, preferring still to adhere to his former opinion that they were struck by Jaddua the high-priest, a.t the time of Alexander the Great (Rev. Num. Franc. 1864, p. 373). That they were struck at this period is impossible for many reasons, and principally on account of their weight, as Alex ander would never have allowed any other weight but the Attic to have been used by the Jews, whereas these shekels belong to the Phcenician or tEginetan talent. [WEIGHTs.] For further infor mation on this question, consult the remarks of the Abbe Cavedoni (Le Prim-. Quest. riguardanti la Num. Gird. definitiv. decise, Modena 1864) and F. W. Madden (Num. Chron. N. S. vol. v. p. 191).
We may now allude to the rendering of the He brew 'shekel' of the O. T. by SISpaxita in the LXX. This has caused a difficulty to many writers ; but the objections have been already ably treated by the late Colonel Leake [DIDRAcHm], who supposes that as the word SiSpaxuov is employed by the LX X. synonymously with aixXos for the Hebrew word shekel, the shekel and didrachmon were of the same weight,' and from the fact of the half shekel of the Pentateuch being translated by the LXX. Owl/ rot) StSpdxfxott, therefore the Attic and not the Grxco-Egyptian didrachm was intended by them' [DIDRAcHm ; MONEY]. Were this the case, the didrachm of the LXX. would be a shekel, and the didrachm of the N. T. a. half shekel [STA TER]. It is, however, extremely probable that the Alexandrian Jews adopted the term didrachm ' as the common name of the coin which was equal in weight to the shekel—i. e. the so-called tetradrachm of the Ptolemaic talent, but really a didrachm—as there were few, if any, current Attic didrachms at the time of our Lord ; and this is singularly corro borated, as Mr. Poole has suggested (art. Money,' Dr. Smith's Diet. of the Bible), in the account of the miracle of the tribute-money, when St. Peter finds
a stater, which was a silver tetradrachm [STATER] in the mouth of the fish, to pay for our Lord and himself. The tax of half a shekel was still paid by the Jews, when dispersed throughout the world, for the use of the Temple (Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 9. 1) ; and Josephus uses the term .518pax,uov, whereas he should have said rt) tu.Lo-o rot) Stapcixpou. But in all probability he employs it as St. Matthew does the plural, Tit SiSpaxtha (Matt. xvii. 24), to express the tax, and not the Azynzent, or he intends it to repre sent two Attic drachms, each such drachm being equivalent to a quarter of a Maccabaean shekel (F. W. Madden, Hist. of 7ewish Coinage, p. 238 ; cf. p. 234). Thus is explained another curious passage in Josephus (Antig. iii. 8. 2), in which he says, 6 Se treads, vow dua'Egpaion, ant,' ATrucitz Sbxerat Spdxlias reo-crepas, thus making the shekel equal to four current Attic drachms, and not to the older pieces of full weight [STATER]. As thirty shekels of silver' was the price of blood to be paid in the case of a servant accidentally killed (Exod. xxi. 32), it has been suggested (Smith's Diet. of Bible, s.v. Piece of Silver') to understand by the thirty pieces of silver ' for which our Lord was betrayed thirty shekels of silver,' not current shekels, but the tetra drachms of the Greek cities of Syria and Phcenicia, which have the same weight as the shekels of Simon Maccabxus.
In Neh. v. 15 mention is made of forty shekels of silver paid to the governors, and probably these shekels may have been the silver coin circu lating in Persia called crtyXos. This coin has gene rally been considered a kind of shekel ; but as, according- to Xenophon (Anab. i. 5, 6), it was equal to 71 Attic oboli, and an obolus weighed 11.25 grains (11.25 + 7.5=85.375), giving a Persian silver coin of 84 grains, it is clear that the can have no connection with the critcXos (weighing 220 grains), excepting in name. (Cf. Leake, Num. Hell. Europe, p. 21 ; F. W. Madden, Hist. .7ew. Coin. p. 2o.) [DRAcHm ; note.] But at this time there were coins also current in Persia of the same standard as the shekel (Mionnet, Descrip. de Med. vol. v. p. 645, Nos. 30-40 ; Suppe: vol. viii. p. 426, Nos. 29-33).—F. W. M.