King James Bible Dictionary

Of uncoined money the first notice we have is in the history of Abraham (Genesis 13:2; 20:16; 24:35). Next, this word is used in connection with the purchase of the cave of Machpelah (23:16), and again in connection with Jacob's purchase of a field at Shalem (Genesis 33:18, 19) for "an hundred pieces of money"=an hundred Hebrew kesitahs (q.v.), i.e., probably pieces of money, as is supposed, bearing the figure of a lamb.

The history of Joseph affords evidence of the constant use of money, silver of a fixed weight. This appears also in all the subsequent history of the Jewish people, in all their internal as well as foreign transactions. There were in common use in trade silver pieces of a definite weight, shekels, half-shekels, and quarter-shekels. But these were not properly coins, which are pieces of metal authoritatively issued, and bearing a stamp.

Of the use of coined money we have no early notice among the Hebrews. The first mentioned is of Persian coinage, the daric (Ezra 2:69; Nehemiah 7:70) and the adarkon (Ezra 8:27). The daric (q.v.) was a gold piece current in Palestine in the time of Cyrus. As long as the Jews, after the Exile, lived under Persian rule, they used Persian coins. These gave place to Greek coins when Palestine came under the dominion of the Greeks (B.C. 331), the coins consisting of gold, silver, and copper pieces. The usual gold pieces were staters (q.v.), and the silver coins tetradrachms and drachms.

In the year B.C. 140, Antiochus VII. gave permission to Simon the Maccabee to coin Jewish money. Shekels (q.v.) were then coined bearing the figure of the almond rod and the pot of manna.

Silver used as
Genesis 17:12-13; Genesis 17:23; Genesis 17:27; Genesis 20:16; Genesis 23:9; Genesis 23:13; Genesis 31:15; Genesis 37:28; Genesis 42:25-35; Genesis 43:12-23; Genesis 44:1-8; Genesis 47:14-18; Exodus 12:44; Exodus 21:11; Exodus 21:21; Exodus 21:34-35; Exodus 22:7; Exodus 22:17; Exodus 22:25; Exodus 30:16; Leviticus 22:11; Leviticus 25:37; Leviticus 25:51; Leviticus 27:15; Leviticus 27:18; Numbers 3:48-51; Numbers 18:16; Deuteronomy 2:6; Deuteronomy 2:28; Deuteronomy 14:25-26; Deuteronomy 21:14; Deuteronomy 23:19; Judges 5:19; Judges 16:18; Judges 17:4; 1 Kings 21:2; 1 Kings 21:6; 1 Kings 21:15; 2 Kings 5:26; 2 Kings 12:4; 2 Kings 12:7-16; 2 Kings 15:20; 2 Kings 22:7; 2 Kings 22:9; 2 Kings 23:35; 2 Chronicles 24:5; 2 Chronicles 24:11; 2 Chronicles 24:14; 2 Chronicles 34:9; 2 Chronicles 34:14; 2 Chronicles 34:17; Ezra 3:7; Ezra 7:17; Nehemiah 5:4; Nehemiah 5:10-11; Esther 4:7; Job 31:39; Psalms 15:5; Proverbs 7:20; Ecclesiastes 7:12; Ecclesiastes 10:19; Isaiah 43:24; Isaiah 52:3; Isaiah 55:1-2; Jeremiah 32:9-10; Jeremiah 32:25; Jeremiah 32:44; Lamentations 5:4; Micah 3:11; Matthew 25:18; Matthew 25:27; Matthew 28:12; Matthew 28:15; Mark 14:11; Luke 9:3; Luke 19:15; Luke 19:23; Luke 22:5; Acts 7:16; Acts 8:20

Gold used as
Genesis 13:2; Genesis 24:35; Genesis 44:8; Genesis 44:1; 1 Chronicles 21:25; Ezra 8:25-27; Isaiah 13:17; Isaiah 46:6; Isaiah 60:9; Ezekiel 7:19; Ezekiel 28:4; Matthew 2:11; Matthew 10:9; Acts 3:6; Acts 20:33; 1 Peter 1:18

Copper used as
Mark 6:8; Mark 12:41

Weighed
Genesis 23:16; Genesis 43:21; Job 28:15; Jeremiah 32:9-10; Zech 11:12

Image on
Matthew 22:20-21

Conscience
Judges 17:2; Matthew 27:3; Matthew 27:5

Atonement
Exodus 30:12-16; Leviticus 5:15-16

Sin
2 Kings 12:16

Value of, varied corruptly
Amos 8:5

Love of, the root of evil
1 Timothy 6:10
Farthing; Gerah; Mite; Penny; Pound; Shekel; Silver; Talent

1. Uncointed money.

   It is well known that ancient nations that were without a coinage weighed the precious metals, a practice represented on the Egyptian monuments, on which gold and silver are shown to have been kept in the form of rings. We have no evidence of the use of coined money before the return from the Babylonian captivity; but silver was used for money, in quantities determined by weight, at least as early as the time of Abraham; and its earliest mention is in the generic sense of the price paid for a slave. (Genesis 17:13) The 1000 pieces of silver paid by Abimelech to Abraham, (Genesis 20:16) and the 20 pieces of silver for which Joseph was sold to the Ishm'lites, (Genesis 37:28) were probably rings such as we see on the Egyptian monuments in the act of being weighed. In the first recorded transaction of commerce, the cave of Machpelah is purchased by Abraham for 400 shekels of silver. The shekel weight of silver was the unit of value through the whole age of Hebrew history, down to the Babylonian captivity.

2. Coined money.

   After the captivity we have the earliest mention of coined money , in allusion, as might have been expected, to the Persian coinage, the gold daric (Authorized version dram). (Ezra 2:69; 8:27; Nehemiah 7:70,71,72) [DARIC] No native Jewish coinage appears to have existed till Antiochus VII. Sidetes granted Simon Maccab'us the license to coin money, B.C. 140; and it is now generally agreed that the oldest Jewish silver coins belong to this period. They are shekels and half-shekels, of the weight of 220 and 110 grains. With this silver there was associated a copper coinage. The abundant money of Herod the Great, which is of a thoroughly Greek character, and of copper only, seems to have been a continuation of the copper coinage of the Maccabees, with some adaptation to the Roman standard. In the money of the New Testament we see the native copper coinage side by side with the Gr'co-Roman copper, silver and gold. (The first coined money mentioned in the Bible refers to the Persian coinage, (1 Chronicles 29:7; Ezra 2:69) and translated dram . It is the Persian daric , a gold coin worth about .50. The coins mentioned by the evangelists, and first those of silver, are the following: The stater , (Matthew 17:24-27) called piece of money , was a Roman coin equal to four drachmas. It was worth 55 to 60 cents, and is of about the same value as the Jewish stater , or coined shekel. The denarius , or Roman penny, as well as the Greek drachma , then of about the same weight, are spoken of as current coins. (Matthew 22:15-21; Luke 20:19-25) They were worth about 15 cents. Of copper coins the farthing and its half, the mite , are spoken of, and these probably formed the chief native currency. (The Roman farthing (quadrans) was a brass coin worth .375 of a cent. The Greek farthing (as or assarion) was worth four Roman farthings, i.e. about one cent and a half. A mite was half a farthing, and therefore was worth about two-tenths of a cent if the half of the Roman farthing, and about 2 cents if the half of the Greek farthing. See table of Jewish weights and measures.

   ED.)

MONEY, noun plural moneys.

1. Coin; stamped metal; any piece of metal, usually gold, silver or copper, stamped by public authority, and used as the medium of commerce. We sometimes give the name of money to other coined metals, and to any other material which rude nations use a medium of trade. But among modern commercial nations, gold, silver and copper are the only metals used for this purpose. Gold and silver, containing great value in small compass, and being therefore of easy conveyance, and being also durable and little liable to diminution by use, are the most convenient metals for coin or money which is the representative of commodities of all kinds, of lands, and of every thing that is capable of being transferred in commerce.

2. Bank notes or bills of credit issued by authority, and exchangeable for coin or redeemable, are also called money; as such notes in modern times represent coin, and are used as a substitute for it. If a man pays in hand for goods in bank notes which are current, he is said to pay in ready money

3. Wealth; affluence.

MONEY can neither open new avenues to pleasure, nor block up the passages of anguish.

Matthew 21:12; Mark 11:15; John 2:15

MONEYAGE, noun Anciently, in England, a general land tax levied by the two first Norman kings, a shilling on each hearth.

MONEY-BAG, noun A bag or purse for holding money.

MONEY-BOX, noun A box or till to hold money.

MONEY-BROKER, noun A broker who deals in money.

(Matthew 21:12; Mark 11:15; John 2:15). Every Israelite from twenty years and upwards had to pay (Exodus 30:13-15) into the sacred treasury half a shekel every year as an offering to Jehovah, and that in the exact Hebrew half-shekel piece. There was a class of men, who frequented the temple courts, who exchanged at a certain premium foreign moneys for these half-shekels to the Jews who came up to Jerusalem from all parts of the world. (See PASSOVER.) When our Lord drove the traffickers out of the temple, these money-changers fared worst. Their tables were overturned and they themselves were expelled.

MONEY-CHANGER, noun A broker who deals in money or exchanges.

(Matthew 21:12; Mark 11:15; John 2:15) According to (Exodus 30:13-15) every Isr'lite who had reached or passed the age of twenty must pay into the sacred treasury, whenever the nation was numbered, a half-shekel as an offering to Jehovah. The money-changers whom Christ, for their impiety, avarice and fraudulent dealing, expelled from the temple were the dealers who supplied half-shekels, for such a premium as they might be able to exact, to the Jews from all parts of the world who assembled at Jerusalem during the great festivals, and were required to pay their tribute or ransom money in the Hebrew coin.

MONEYED, adjective Rich in money; having money; able to command money; used often in opposition to such as have their wealth in real estate.

Invite moneyed men to lend to the merchants.

1. Consisting in money; as moneyed capital.

MONEYER, noun A banker; one who deals in money.

1. A coiner of money. [Little used in either sense.]

MONEY-LENDER, noun One who lends money.

MONEYLESS, adjective Destitute of money; pennyless.

MONEY-MATTER, noun An account consisting of charges of money; an account between debtor and creditor.

MONEY-SCRIVENER, noun A person who raises money for others.

MONEY-SPINNER, noun A small spider.

MONEY'S-WORTH, noun Something that will bring money.

1. Full value; the worth of a thing in money.

MONEY-WORT, noun A plant of the genus Lysimachia.