According to the notes in my NIV Study Bible (International Version), the "thirty silver coins" referred to in Matthew 26:14 and subsequently were equivalent to 120 denarii, which would be four denarii per silver coin. The footnote also states that workers typically received one denarius for a day's work.
That the priests would have accepted them into the treasury, had they not been "blood money", indicates to me that the "silver coins" were probably Jewish in origin and not Roman. My Webster's Ninth Collegiate states that a shekel was the equivalent of about 252 grains Troy (sic). A grain (the same in Troy as in Avoirdupois systems of weights) is defined in the U.S. as being 64.798 91 mg exactly. That would make a shekel equal to 16.33 g. (But see the table below.) Further, Webster's indicates that a shekel was a gold or silver Hebrew coin weighing one shekel. That would make a silver shekel about the size and mass of about 2 to 3 U.S. nickels. I can imagine that being the salary for four day's work in those times. Perhaps the coins spoken of in Mathew were silver shekels. In an appendix in the back of this Bible, a table gives the following information for weights: talent 60 minas 75 pounds 34 kilograms mina 50 shekels 1-1/4 pounds 0.6 kilogram shekel 2 bekas 2/5 ounce 11.5 grams pim 2/3 shekel 1/3 ounce 7.6 grams beka 10 gerahs 1/5 ounce 5.5 grams gerah 1/50 ounce 0.6 gram Interesting how the math doesn't quite work out for the pim in terms of ounces. A disclaimer disavows any pretense at being mathematically precise, especially as these were ancient units of measurement (as cited above) and probably varied through the ages and lands anyway. kilopascal wrote: > > 2001-10-22 > > I went to a Catholic School and we were taught that it was "30 PIECES of > Silver". I'm sure they thought no one would have a clue as to what a > shekel was, so they "converted" it to pieces. I don't anyone has a clue as > to what a piece is. I used to imagine it to be a silver coin. > > John .... -- Metric Methods(SM) "Don't be late to metricate!" James R. Frysinger, CAMS http://www.metricmethods.com/ 10 Captiva Row e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Charleston, SC 29407 phone/FAX: 843.225.6789
