The Journey of a Coin

This is a Tyrian Shekel, one of the several currencies in circulation at the time of Jesus.  Unique in that it was the only coin accepted by the Jewish authorities to pay the Temple Tax in the first century.  God established the tax through Moses, who wrote in Exodus 30, 

Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary... -Exodus 30:13

The tax remained through both first and second temple periods (at varying times and rates), but where does the Tyrian Shekel come in?  Why was it the official standard of the sanctuary at the time of Jesus?  After all, it was minted in Tyre, a city whose relationship with Jerusalem was not the best...  In the past, Hiram, King of Tyre, had provided the Cedars of Lebanon and gold for the construction of Solomon's Temple (in exchange for 20 cities around Galilee), but as time would unfold, the Lord would be against Tyre.  Tyre's demise is prophesied by Ezekiel and we also find a very peculiar passage in Ezekiel 28, where God addresses the King of Tyre as if He were scolding Satan himself.  By 332 BC judgment on the city would be finalized by Alexander the Great... But we've yet to arrive at our coin.

The Tyrian Shekel would first be struck in the reconstructed city of Tyre in 125 BC.  It was heralded for its sincerity, boasting a silver purity of 94%.  It's purity and likeness in weight to the (out of circulation) Hebrew Shekel, made it the preferred currency of the Temple authorities.

But notice something...  The facade of the coin bears the image of the Phoenician God, Melqart.  Worshipped likewise as Ba'al Hammon.  Jewish authorities were doing official business, in the holiest of holies, in graven images marked by idols.  It would seem that the purity of the coins silver superseded the first and second commandments.

Now let's follow our coin on its journey and learn what it can teach us.

Minting ceased in Tyre in 18 BC and our coin was given a new Jewish home.  Production would continue by Jewish mints in and around Jerusalem.  The likeness of the coin was unfortunately unchanged, though the purity suffered slightly.  Nevertheless, by the time Jesus made his pilgrimages to the Temple, he would pay his tax in Tyrian Shekels.

It's time to turn our eyes upon Jesus.  Matthew is the only gospel writer to include the following account of Jesus' ministry, perhaps because, he himself was a tax-collector.  In Matthew 17 we read, 

When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?” He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?”  And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”  -Matthew 17:24–27

I've yet to mention, that one Tyrian Shekel was equivalent in worth to a Greek Tetradrachm (or four drachma), hence the half-shekel temple tax was presented here as the "two-drachma tax."  As Jesus came into Capernaum, the tax-collector asked Peter why Jesus had not paid His tax.  Peter assumes otherwise, and Jesus uses this as a teachable moment.

Almost cryptically, he asks Peter from where the kings of the earth derive their taxes; from their (the king's) sons or from their constituents?  Christ is alluding to His deity.  Prior to this, Peter had declared to Jesus that He was "The Christ! The Son of the Living God!"  Jesus was asking Peter to assume the implications...  When Peter answers, the constituents, Jesus then says, "then the sons are free."  Consider this common Hebrew prayer the Shehecheyanu;

Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, 

shehecheyanu, v'kiy'manu, v'higiyanu laz'man hazeh.

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the

Universe, who has kept us alive, 

sustained us and brought us to this season.

 

Though still prayed to this day at the beginnings of holy and feast days, it is an ancient prayer, prayed by Jesus and commited to the hearts of His Jewish kin.  When Jesus answers Peter, He declares His divine Sonship.  He is not merely some son of a king of the earth, He is the Divine Son of the King of the Universe. Obviously, He is exempt from the tax.  

Nevertheless, "as to not cause offense to any," Jesus humbled Himself and made provision (albeit in the most miraculous way), by asking Peter to catch a single fish, and from its mouth would be plucked, you guessed it... A Tyrian Shekel...  

We would all love to claim this passage as our own wouldn't we?  There's not a man alive eager to pay his taxes.  But Jesus is doing something uniquely Christ-like here.  He is humbling himself, just like Paul says in Philippians 2;

Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient...  -Philippians 2:6‭-‬8 

The humble obedience of Christ here isn't some pious virtue of some soft caricatured Jesus...  He's not just "setting a good example." He's humiliating himself.  This is an outright condescension for the Son of the King of the Universe.  He can command a single fish, to find a single coin, and bite a single hook, bending time and space to His will, all so that he could present this coin, marked by the image of a pagan deity, so that none would be offended. 

Do you know who was offended though?  Jesus...  

Does it offer a bit of a glimpse into his rationale when He enters the temple and tears apart the operations of the "money changers?" He was less enraged because He was made to pay the tax, but rather incensed because "Zeal for your House consumed me" (as the disciples would recall).  

This event is known as "The Cleansing of the Temple." Jesus drove out those selling sacrificial animals for coin, but notice something... These people were profiting.  

Did you notice in our previous passage, that Jesus paid both His and Peter's temple tax?  That's because the money changers incentivised the payment of two persons at once.  Often, brothers would present themselves to pay the tax together.  What was the incentive?  Because if you paid the half shekel tax in a currency that wasn't a full Tyrian Shekel, a 4-8% exchange rate was applied to the change you received. This racket panned out across the land at all times of the year...  

But imagine what the inflation of fees would be at the Temple during the time of Passover?  We've all been to movie theatres and sporting events...  We know we're being ripped off...

So here comes Jesus...  No more humbling himself so as to not offend anyone.  The zeal of His Father's house burns in His eyes, it energizes His fists... He pours out the shekels, stamped with the face of Ba'al Hammon. He drives out the livestock and scolds the extortionists who profited off the prayers of God's people.  Jesus was cleaning heart and house.

Vivid as this event may be, Jesus didn't cause the corruption of the temple authorities to cease.  In fact, the corruption of the temple authorities would seek to cause Jesus to cease.  And what would we expect to find in the median between the two, that's right, our Tyrian shekel. 

Enter Judas...  You're familiar with his character.  As John wrote in his gospel, "he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it." Judas loved money...  He possessed that all too familiar root of all evil.  Imagine for a moment, walking day in and day out with Jesus.  Seeing Him heal the lame, open the eyes of the blind, and even raise the dead.  Surely, he must have marveled.  He must have seen the way Jesus could see into the hearts of men.  And yet, Judas kept skimming the money box as if Jesus was none the wiser...

We live like that too don't we... We see all that Jesus has done in our lives, His miracles, His blessings, His wisdom spoken into our hearts and calling us out of darkness...  But, we often keep a portion of that darkness for ourselves to indulge in, don't we?  It's like we somehow believe Jesus doesn't see it...  Well, He does.  He knows.  Let's try our best to not be like Judas...

Surely, Judas would have turned a Tyrian shekel through his fingers at some point.  Perhaps, he was as enamored with its silver as the temple authorities.  In fact, we find him making a shadowy deal;

Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. -Matthew 26:14‭-‬15

Thirty pieces of silver...  The now iconic phrase that stands for betrayal was paid to Judas in none other than the standard temple currency, Tyrian Shekels.  Satan had entered Judas and Ba'al had come to fight against Jesus.  It was darkness versus light.  Holiness pit against corruption.  It was a moment hundreds of years in the making.  From its first minting in 125 BC, to its reproduction in Jerusalem, but its story is older than that...

About 500 years prior, the prophet Zechariah wrote, 

Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the Lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter. -Zechariah 11:12‭-‬13 

When Judas saw that Jesus was arrested, beaten, and that they sought to kill Him, he was overcome by guilt.  It had gone farther than he had wanted it to go.  Judas just wanted to skim the moneybox a bit more, but the price was higher than he imagined.  Undoubtedly, the demons wailed in his head.  Their incessant shoutings of condemnation overwhelmed his mere longing for coin.  Surely they brought to mind the rest of the prophecy;

“Woe to my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! Let his arm be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded!” -Zechariah 11:17 

Matthew continues the story,

When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.” So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. -Matthew 27:3‭-‬8

30 Tyrian Shekels was the price paid for the Son of the King of the Universe.  But have you ever wondered why 30 pieces?  It was no arbitrary number. Moses had provisioned in Exodus;

If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. -Exodus 21:32 

The price paid for Jesus' life was the price paid for the death of a slave... Again, we see the condescension of Christ and we hear again those words of Paul, 

"...taking the form of a servant (literally translated slave)... he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." -Philippians 2:6,8

In their hypocrisy, the priests would not allow the coins to be admited to the treasury. Not because they were emblazoned with a graven image and not because they signified the extortion of the people of God... But because they had come to represent the corruption present in their own hearts.  At least Judas came to the conclusion that he had betrayed innocent blood... But the temple authorities had been so corrupted that they could not even see their own corruption.  The shekel would become their scapegoat and Zechariah's ancient prophesy would come to pass...

But it wouldn't be the last prophecy this coin would see fulfilled.

Jesus foretold the destruction of the temple saying,

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” -John 2:19 

 And more definitvely, 

Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” -Matthew 24:1‭-‬2 

This was brought up against Him at His mock trial.  His opponents said,

“This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.’” -Matthew 26:61

The Tyrian Shekel would continue its role as the official temple currency until The Great Jewish Revolt (aka the First Jewish-Roman War).  Nationalism against the Romans aroused a zealotry that finally purged Ba'al from temple use.  Minting ceased in Jerusaslem around 68 AD, and a new half shekel comemorating the war was instituted.

But it seemed too little too late... Jesus words would come to pass, "those who live by the sword will die by the sword."  By 70 AD  Titus Vespasian would lead an army against Jerusalem that would raze the city.  The temple would be rendered to the state we find it today.  With it, the articles and vestitures of its corrupt system would be carried off to Rome, now memorialized by the Arch of Titus...

The Tyrian Shekel marked a certain hypocrisy among the religious practices of first century Judaism.  It's pagan deity seemed to mock the God of Israel.  Priests pandered to the prospects of profit.  They danced to the money changers tune.  They saw no wrong in selling the sacrifices of contrition.  But in the end, it would cost them everything.  It cost them their Messiah, their profession, their city, and their temple. Just like Judas realized, the price was too high and it would come to cost them their lives.

Is there a moral to this story?  I'm sure you've ascertained some along the way.  Perhaps this deep dive was merely an exercise in wonder that just a mere coin could unravel God's drama of redemption.  If just a mere coin's journey could tell such a story, what more could a redeemed life?  

What's your journey?  What's your story?