Tribute Money
Tribute-money
(), the Temple-tax levied upon all Jews (Mat 17:24), and likewise () the money collected by the Romans in payment of the taxes imposed upon the Jews (Mat 22:19). The piece shown to our Savior at his own request (in the latter passage) was a Roman coin, bearing the image of one of the Caesars, and must have been at that time current in Judaea, and received in payment of the tribute, in common with other descriptions of money. There is no reason to suppose that the tribute was collected exclusively in Roman coins, or that the tribute-money was a description of coin different from that which was in general circulation. SEE PENNY.
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 (Exo 30:13; Exo 30:15), 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 (Mat 22:17; Luk 20:24); 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 Savior been converted 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. Thus, 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 applied it to their stater, and equally so that they should have adopted the scale of the neighboring opulent and powerful kingdom, the money of which they must have long been in the habit of employing (Appendix, Numismata Hellenica, p. 2, 3). SEE DIDRACHM.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Tribute Money
( , to nomisma tou kensou (Mat 22:19), the coin used in payment of the imperial taxes): Lit. the lawful money of the tax, which, in the case of the poll tax, had to be paid in current coin of the realm (see Mat 17:27).
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Tribute Money
The money collected by the Romans in payment of the taxes imposed upon the Jews. The phrase may apply to money of any description, coined or uncoined. The piece shown to our Savior at his own request was a Roman coin, bearing the image of one of the Caesars, and must have been at that time current in Judea, and received in payment of the tribute in common with other descriptions of money. There is no reason to suppose that the tribute was collected exclusively in Roman coins, or that the tribute-money was a description of coin different from that which was in general circulation [MONEY].
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Tribute Money
Tribute Money. See Taxes; Tribute.