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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 3770929, member: 75937&quot;]It&#039;s important to realize several things when it comes to using the New Testament for numismatic research:</p><p><br /></p><p>1) We don&#039;t know for many coins of antiquity what ancient people called them and undoubtedly, the names of the coins varied from geographic area to area.</p><p><br /></p><p>2) The people writing the texts were not numismatists and it&#039;s unrealistic to expect precision in their terminology.</p><p><br /></p><p>3) The people writing the texts wrote them for Greek-speaking people under Roman rule and they often explain or translate Hebrew words and Jewish customs for their intended audience, going so far, for example, as noting the girl&#039;s name Tabitha means Δορκάς (gazelle) in Greek. When it comes to numismatic terminology, they typically explain coins to Greek-speaking Romans, calling the widow&#039;s offering &quot;two leptons&quot; and noting that this amount was equivalent to a quadrans (λεπτὰ δύο, ὅ ἐστιν κοδράντης; Mark 12:42). Jesus warns people not to sue each other because they&#039;ll lose their &quot;last quadrans&quot; (ἔσχατον κοδράντην; Matt 5:26). The texts refer to the coin lost by a woman who sweeps her house to find it as a drachm (Luke 15:8-8) or the coin found in the fish&#039;s mouth as a stater (17:27).</p><p><br /></p><p>Other times, terms are very vague, such as noting people would donate &quot;bronze&quot; (χαλκὸν) to the temple (Mark 12:41) or that some scrolls were worth 50,000 silver coins (ἀργυρίου μυριάδας πέντε; Acts 19:19).</p><p><br /></p><p>Does this mean that Jesus routinely spent Roman denarii and quadrantes (which didn&#039;t actually circulate in Judea) and that widows in Jerusalem didn&#039;t use prutot, but lepta instead? As Saint Paul would say, μὴ γένοιτο! (by no means!). The numismatic terms used in the New Testament were chosen by the authors in order that people unfamiliar with the culture and coinage of ancient Judea would understand the scriptural teachings, just as these terms are translated into modern English-language terms in order to be understood by modern, English-speaking people. Hence, &quot;penny&quot; is used for &quot;last quadrans&quot; by the ESV and for &quot;denarius&quot; by the KJV.</p><p><br /></p><p>In other words, when the scriptures say &quot;lepton,&quot; &quot;drachm,&quot; &quot;denarius,&quot; &quot;stater,&quot; or &quot;quadrans,&quot; you can&#039;t assume they refer to the coins that modern numismatists think of.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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