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Money and measures
Denarius
Roman silver coin · about 3.9 g of silver · a day’s wage
The denarius was the standard silver coin of the Roman Empire, a small coin of about 3.9 grams of silver in the time of Augustus. In the parable of the workers in the vineyard, a denarius is the pay for a day’s work (Matthew 20:2), and that is the usual way to picture its value: a day’s wage for a laborer. A Roman legionary under Augustus earned about 225 denarii a year.
This gives a sense of the Gospel numbers. Two hundred denarii for bread for the crowd (Mark 6:37) was more than half a year’s wages, and Mary’s perfume, worth three hundred denarii (John 12:5), about a year’s. The coin shown to Jesus with “Caesar’s image and inscription” was probably a denarius of Tiberius, with the emperor’s head and the title “son of the divine Augustus”, or one of Augustus before him. The good Samaritan left two denarii with the innkeeper.
Key verses
He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.But Jesus told them, “You give them something to eat.” They asked Him, “Should we go out and spend two hundred denarii to give all of them bread to eat?”Show Me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought Him a denarius. “Whose image is this,” He asked, “and whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they answered. So Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Take care of him,’ he said, ‘and on my return I will repay you for any additional expense.’“Why wasn’t this perfume sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?”And I heard what sounded like a voice from among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine.”Sources
Adapted and shortened from the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers · CC BY-SA 4.0 — Denarius*; Coins: Roman Coins in New Testament Times
Adapted from Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary: articles chosen, shortened and retold in our own words (history, nature and daily life only) and, in languages other than English, machine-translated. The original work by Tyndale House Publishers is available for free at tyndaleopenresources.com.
