The Bible has a lot to say about money, and the vocabulary of the Greek Scriptures is extensive. I was researching a particular coin mentioned in the New Testament and trying to estimate its purchasing power in today’s money. I kept finding authorities who confidently said one thing, then were contradicted by another authority. And nobody seemed to cover everything. So in my frustration, I got down all my resources and starting going through my Greek lexicon and testament. This is what I found, and what I have made of it. Words used to specifically mean money, generally, in the sense of pieces of money (not just “wealth”) Nomisma, the origin of our word, “numismatics.” Mt. 22:19 “Show me the money for the tax.” Kerma, “coins, small change.” John 2:15 “and he poured out the coins of the money-changers” Argyrion, “money, silver.” The “love of money” (citied various places) is philargyria. I have also not cited the places where silver is being referred to simply as the metal. Lk 9:3 “no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money” Acts 3:6 “Silver and gold have I none” Acts 8:20 “Your silver perish with you” Mt. 25:18 “dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.” Mk 14:11 “and promised to give him money.” Lk 22:5 “And they were glad, and engaged to give him money” Lk 19:15 “he commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money” The Standard Unit of Exchange Dénarion, Latin denarius. A Roman coin. The common day’s wage (see below). Mt 18:28 “one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii” Mt 20:2, 9f, 13; “a denarius a day” Mt. 20:10 “each of them also received a denarius” Mt. 22:19 “And they brought him a coin [denarius].” Mk 6:37 “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread” Mk 12:15 “Bring me a coin [denarius] and let me look at it.” Mk 14:5 “this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii” Lk 7:41 “one owed five hundred denarii” Lk 10:35 “And the next day he [the Good Samaritan] took out two denarii” Lk 20:24 “Show me a coin [lit., denarius].” John 6:7 “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread” John 12:5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii” Rev. 6:6 “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius” Drachmé, Latin drachma. A Greek coin from Cappadocia. No longer minted in Jesus’s day, but still in circulation. Appropriate for an heirloom coin handed down from mother to daughter as part of a dowry. Equivalent to the Roman denarius. Lk 15:8f (the Parable of the Lost Coin} Lesser Coins Assarion, Latin as. Originally a small bronze coin (copper after the reforms of Augustus) worth 1/16 of a denarius. Often translated “penny,” although when the actual penny (originally called a sceat ) was first minted in the 7th Century, it was meant to be the equivalent of a Roman denarius, hence the abbreviation “d.” in £.s.d. Mt. 10:29 “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny [assurion]?” Lk 12:6 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies [assuria]?” Kodrantés, Latin quadrans The smallest Roman coin in regular circulation, worth ¼ of an as. Mk 12:42 “two copper coins, which make a penny [quadrans].” Lepton. A coin minted under the Hasmonaeans before the Roman takeover, but still to be found in circulation. The least valuable coin in use, worth half a quadrans. We’re used to talking about “mites,” which were a late medieval coin of small value in the Netherlands. Chaucer, a government customs official, referred to the coin. There were still mites in circulation in the Netherlands when William Tyndale was hiding out there, translating the Bible. He is responsible for the translation we’re used to. Mk 12:42 “And a poor woman came, and put in two copper coins [lepta],” Lk 12:59 “I tell you, you will never get out till you have paid the very last copper [lepton].” Lk 21:2 “and he saw a widow put in two copper coins [lepta].” Greater Coins Didrachmon. Despite the Greek name, this refers to the Tyrian half-shekel used in Temple commerce. The Romans forbade the Jewish authorities to coin silver, so in order to avoid using Roman money for sacrifices, the priesthood used the shekels and half-shekels of Tyre. Mt 17:24 “the collectors of the half-shekel [didrachmon] tax” Statér. The Tyrian shekel. Worth 4 drachmas. Mt. 17:27 “when you open its mouth you will find a shekel [stater]” Argyrion. When used to refer to specific coins, means “pieces of silver,” i.e., shekels. Mt 26:15 “And they paid him thirty pieces of silver.” Mt 27:5 “And throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed” Money of Account Mna, the mina. Not a coin itself, but a unit of weight. Worth 100 drachmai/denarii. Often translated “pounds” from the time when a British pound was a large unit of money made up of many pence. Lk 19:12-27 (the Parable of the Pounds) Talanton, “talent.” The talent varied considerably over the centuries, and frequently amounted to different weights for different materials. During the 1st Century, a silver talent was generally understood to be 60 minae, or 6,000 drachmai/denarii. Talent, in the sense of someone’s gift or ability, dates from the 13th Century as a development in thought from the sense of something valuable that should be offered to God who entrusted it to one. Mt 18:24 “one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents” Mt 25:15-28 (the Parable of the Talents) Modern Equivalents Okay, now we get down to the nitty-gritty. The problem with establishing current values for ancient coins is that the face value of a given denomination, or its silver content, is no indication of what it would buy in today’s market. Given our steady inflation, my own attempts to estimate the value of ancient coins has had to be revised several times as I have preached and taught over my career. The means of conversion has to be finding something that can stand as a constant between the 1st and 21st Centuries. That is usually the idea of “a day’s wage.” Figuring a day’s wage in 2023 America. The official Minimum Wage in America is around $8 an hour. We work fewer hours in a day than they did back then (most of us – farm laborers work now as they did then, sunup to sundown). $8 an hour for an eight-hour standard workday would then yield $64 as a “day’s wage.” Our current situation, though, is one of labor shortage. There are more jobs than people who want to fill them. The starting wage in many fields for an adult worker is thus higher than Minimum Wage. In the fast food industry, most day laborers in 2023 are probably starting at $10 an hour, with lower management at $12-$15. Note that we’re not talking about skilled labor; we’re talking about pulling guys off the street corner to go pick grapes all day. So you pays your money and you takes your choice. All these calculations have to be taken with a grain of salt, but I’ve settled on $10 an hour x 8 hours per workday, to yield a current “day’s wage” of $80. This yields the following table. Lepton $0.625 Kodrantes/Quadrans $1.25 Assurion/As $5 Drachme/Denarius $80 Didrachmon/Half-Shekel $160 Stater/Shekel $320 Mna/Mina $8,000 Talanton/Talent $480,000 This means the widow put a buck and a quarter into the Temple treasury. Sparrows were going for two for $5, or five for $10 (must have been a special deal). The Temple tax was $160 per person. Judas got 30 shekels = c. $9,600 for betraying Jesus. The master who put his servants in charge of managing his money while he was away gave even the most junior employee nearly half a million bucks to fiddle with. These values are subject to constant change, particularly in our inflationary time.