Their sums.
Their sums were two מנה Maneh, μνᾶ Mina, a Pound. In gold it weighed one hundred shekels. This appeareth by comparing these Texts, 1 Kin. 10. 17. Tres מנים Manim three pound of gold went to one shield. Now we read, 2 Chron. 9. 16. Three hundred shekels of gold went to one shield. The name shekels is not expressed in the Original, but necessarily understood, as appeareth in that which was spoken of Zahab. For it is a received rule, that in Scripture, Aurum being put with a numeral signifieth so many shekels of gold; and so Argentum in like manner. The weight thereof then being 100 shekels, it followeth, that the value was 75 l. In silver, their Maneh weighed 60 shekels, Ezek. 45. 12. so that it valued 7 l. 10 s. Note, that Sheindler[796] was deceived, in saying, that the price or value of the Maneh was changed in Ezekiels time, because it then valued 60 shekels: for the difference is not between the sacred & profane Maneh, as Sheindler conceives, but between the Maneh of gold, which was valued at 100 shekels always, and the Maneh of silver, which weighed 60 shekels, according to the forequoted place in Ezekiel.
[796] Sheindler in מנה
The second sum was ככר Cicar, Talentum, A Talent. This, if it were of silver, it contained in weight 3000 shekels. For, those two verses being compared together, Exod. 38. 25, 26. sheweth, that six hundred thousand men paying every man half a shekel, the whole sum amounted to an hundred talents; whence it followeth, that a talent of silver amongst the Hebrews was 375 l. But a talent of gold (the proportion of gold to silver being observed) was twelve times as much, so that it valued of ours 4500 l.
In this tract of their Coyns we are to know three things. First, that as the Romans, in the former ages, used Æs grave, Bullion money, unstampt, which in the Mass or Billot they weighed out in their payments, and afterward Æs signatum, coyned metals: so the Hebrews though at last they used, coyned money, yet at first they weighed their mony uncoyned; Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, Gen. 23. 6. Hence the shekel had its name from שקל Shakal, ponderare, librare, to weigh, or put in the ballance. Secondly, as the coyned shekel was twofold, one for the use of the Sanctuary; the other for the use of the Commonwealth; and that of the Sanctuary was double the price of the other; so the weight of the shekel to be distinguisht after the same manner; the shekel of the Sanctuary weighed half an ounce Troy weight; the common shekel weighed a quarter of an ounce. For example, Goliahs spears head weighed 600 shekels of the Sanctuary 1 Sam. 17. 7. that is, twenty five pound weight: Absalom’s hair weighed two hundred shekels after the Kings weight, 2 Sam. 14. 26. that is, four pound weight and two ounces. Yea, the sums which I have reckoned only according to the Sanctuary, in common use, according to the King’s weight, they abate half their value.
3. The lesser coyns were in general termed κέρματα or in the singular number κέρμα, Joh. 2. 15. The word signifieth properly a small quantity or little piece of metal, such as may be clipt off from coyns. Upon the first of the mon. Adar, Procla. was made throughout Israel, that the people shold provide their half shekels, wch were yearly paid toward the service of the Temple, according to the commandment of God, Ex. 30. 13.[797] On the 25. of Adar,[798] then they brought tables into the Temple (that is, into the outward Court where the people stood) on these tables lay these κέρματα, or lesser coyns, to furnish those who wanted half shekels for their offrings, or that wanted lesser pieces of mony in their payment for oxen, sheep, or doves, which likewise stood there in a readiness in the same court to be sold for sacrifices: but this supply of lesser coynes was not without an exchange for other mony or other things in lieu of mony, and that upon advantage. Hence those that sat at these tables, as chief bankers or masters of the exchange, they were termed Κερματισταὶ, in respect of the lesser coyns which they exchanged: in respect of the exchange it self, they were termed Κολλυβισταὶ, for Κόλλυβος signifieth the same in Greek as Cambium in Latine,[799] whence those Letters of exchange, which the Latines call Literas Cambii, the Greek call σύμβολα κολλυβιστικὰ, Tickets of exchange: in respect of the Tables at which they sate, they are termed by the Talmudists שולחנים, Schulcanim from שולחן Schulchan Mensa; for the same reason they are sometimes termed by the Greeks τραπεζίται, and by the Latines Mensarii. These are those changers of money which our Saviour drove out of the Temple.
[797] Moses Kotsens. de Siclis. fol. 122. col. 2.
[798] Moses Kotsens. ibid.
[799] Κόλλυβος, inquit Pollux, est ἀργυρίου ἀλλαγὴ vid. Dru. Annot. in N. T. part. alter.
FINIS.