Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="Roman Collector, post: 2829748, member: 75937"]I love the denarius of Tiberius so much I use it as my avatar. I call it a "tribute penny," too, but ... ... it's important to note that the pericope was written about 35 years after Jesus' crucifixion. It was written in Greek, in the gospel attributed to Mark, for a Greek-speaking audience, and then it was incorporated into Matthew and Luke when they wrote their gospels (using Mark as a source, often nearly word-for-word), also for Greek-speaking audiences. Where and to whom the author of Mark wrote his gospel is unknown. It's entirely possible--perhaps even quite likely--that the author of Mark used the word "denarius" because that was a silver coin known to his audience, just the way the translators of the King James version rendered the word "denarius" in their bible as "penny," which would have been understood by English readers in 1611 to be a small silver coin. It's worthy to note that in the Gospel of Thomas's version of the story, it's not a denarius, but a gold coin, that Jesus uses to teach his interlocutors. So, maybe it was a bronze provincial coin from Ascalon or other city in Judea, Syria, or Phoenicia. I don't think we'll ever know which coin Jesus held in his hand to advise his followers to "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."[/QUOTE]