SHEKEL]. Now, at the time of Augustus the Attic tetradrachm had fallen so as to be equal to the Phcenician didrachm, and to four denarii of the weight of that period, and the weights of the shekel and its half are the same as those of the debased Attic tetradrachm and its half [SHEKEL], the silver currency of Palestine consisting of tetra drachms of the cities of Syria and Plicenicia. In order to pay this tax, St. l'eter was commanded by our Lord to cast a hook into the sea and taRe up the fish that first came tip, inside the mouth oi which was discovered a stater, which was to be paid for our Lord and himself. This stater must therefore have been a silver tetradrachm. 0.s no other stater was current in Palestine at the time. 'It is observable,' says Mr. Poole (art. Stater,' Dr. Smith's Dia. of the Bible), 'in confirmation of the minute accuracy of the evangelist, that at this period the silver currency in Palestine consisted of Greek imperial tetradrachms or staters, and Roman denarii of a quarter their weight, didrachms having fallen into disuse. Had two didrachms been found
by St. Peter, the receivers of tribute would scarcely have taken them ; and no doubt the ordinary coin paid was that miraculously supplied.' The tetra drachms of Syria and Phoenicia during the 1st cen tury were always of pure silver, but afterwards the coinage became greatly debased, though Antioch continued to strike tetradrachms to the 3d century, but they gradually depreciated. It was required, as Mr. Poole has observed to me (Hist. of YeZU. Coinage, p. 24.0), that the tribute should be paid in full weight, and therefore the date of the gospel must be of a time when staters of pure silver were current. In all probability the thirty pieces of silver' for which our Lord was betrayed were also staters or tetradrachms of the Greek cities of Syria or Phoenicia [PIECE OF SILVER],—F. W. M.