Loading…
Money
Excerpt from the Lexham Bible Dictionary, the most advanced Bible dictionary.
In ancient times, a vast array of materials, sizes, weights, and forms of bartering were used in exchange for goods and services. This context is reflected in the various methods of exchange. With the rise of world empires such the Graeco-Roman Empire, the need for a standardized system became apparent.The issue of currency between the Judaeo-Christian communities and Graeco-Roman society became increasingly dynamic because elements of economy, politics, and religion often produced a volatile mix in the ancient world.
Lexham Bible Dictionary
The most advanced Bible Dictionary
The most advanced Bible dictionary as a part of Biblia Plus, which includes everything you need to take your Bible study to the next level. For less than $1 a week, you'll get devotionals, Bible study guides, thematic studies, and much more!
Expand all
Dictionaries
The Lexham Bible Dictionary
Coinage in Biblical Times
Coinage in Biblical Times In ancient times, a vast array of materials, sizes, weights, and forms of bartering were used in exchange for goods and services. This context is reflected in the various methods of exchange. With the rise of world empires such the Graeco-Roman Empire, the need for a standardized
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised
Money
Money A “medium of exchange,” a commonly recognized item of value that usually can be stored and transported more easily than items for which it is exchanged. In ancient times there was no money in the common modern sense of objects used only for this purpose, i.e., coins and paper money (see I.C. below).
Tyndale Bible Dictionary
Money
MONEY Medium of exchange, measurement of value, means of payment.Money was developed as a convenient medium of exchange to supplement and later to replace bartering, although the two systems operated concurrently for many centuries. From the patriarchal period to the present day, wealth has been measured
The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated)
Money
Moneya commodity used as a medium of exchange or a designation of value. In ancient Israel, goods or livestock were often exchanged as a primitive form of money. Thus, when Abimelech restored Sarah to Abraham, he paid him “sheep and oxen, and male and female slaves,” which the Bible says were the equivalent
Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible
Money
MoneyThe means for exchange of goods and services. It functions as a reflex of economic intercourse, measuring relative worth, and facilitating the transaction of commodities. Coinage is the minted form of money, standardized and sanctioned by a government agency to benefit economic cooperation. A discussion
Eerdmans Bible Dictionary
Money
Money. †Until the introduction of coins the most common media of exchange in ancient societies were metals measured by weight. For this reason, Old Testament references to units of exchange are almost all to units of weight and not to coins. Coins were first minted in Asia Minor in the seventh century
The Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land
Money
MONEY In prehistoric and early historical times the economy was based on barter—commodities were exchanged for other commodities. At a later stage certain goods, such as hides, cattle and sheep or grain, served as fixed units of value and formed the basis of primitive commercial negotiations. As this
Catholic Bible Dictionary
Money
MONEY The first minted coins in the Near East appeared around the seventh century b.c. Before that time, bartering was the normal means of exchange, and the medium of exchange might include precious and semiprecious metals (weighed for each transaction), as well as perishable goods (e.g., wheat, dates,
Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Money
Money1. Uncoined 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
Piece of silver
Piece of silver. I. In the Old Testament the word “pieces” is used in the Authorized Version for a word understood in the Hebrew (if we except Ps. 68:30). The phrase is always “a thousand,” or the like, “of silver.” Gen. 20:16; 37:28; 45:22; Judges 9:4; 16:5; 2 Kings 6:25; Hos. 3:2; Zech. 11:12, 13.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Money
Money—Of uncoined money the first notice we have is in the history of Abraham (Gen. 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 (Gen. 33:18, 19) for “an hundred pieces
Pieces
Pieces—(1) of silver. In Ps. 68:30 denotes “fragments,” and not properly money. In 1 Sam. 2:36 (Heb. agorah), properly a “small sum” as wages, weighed rather than coined. Josh. 24:32 (Heb. kesitah, q.v.), supposed by some to have been a piece of money bearing the figure of a lamb, but rather simply a
Key passages
Ex 23:8

And you will not take a bribe, because the bribe makes the sighted blind and ruins the words of the righteous.

Pr 15:6

In the house of the righteous there is much treasure, but the income of the wicked brings trouble.

Mt 6:24

“No one is able to serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You are not able to serve God and money.

Mt 17:24–27

Now when they arrived in Capernaum, the ones who collected the double drachma tax came up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the double drachma tax?” He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do …

1 Ti 6:10

For the love of money is a root of all evil, by which some, because they desire it, have gone astray from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains.

See also
Ge 13:1–18; Ge 17:1–27; Ge 20:1–18; Ge 23:1–20; Ge 24:29–49; Ge 31:1–21; Ge 33:18–20; Ge 37:12–36; Ge 42:1–44:17; Ge 45:1–28; Ge 47:13–26; Ex 12:43–51; Ex 21:12–23:9; Ex 30:11–16; Le 5:14–6:7; Le 19:9–18; Le 25:35–38; Le 27:1–34; Nu 3:40–51; Nu 18:8–20; Nu 22:1–21; Dt 2:1–25; Dt 14:22–29; Dt 21:10–14; Dt 22:13–30; Dt 23:15–25; Dt 24:5–25:4; Jdg 16:1–22; Jdg 17:1–13; 1 Sa 2:22–36; 1 Sa 9:1–26; 2 Sa 24:18–25; 1 Ki 9:10–14; 1 Ki 16:21–28; 1 Ki 21:1–16; 2 Ki 5:20–27; 2 Ki 6:24–7:2; 2 Ki 12:1–16; 2 Ki 15:17–22; 2 Ki 22:3–20; 2 Ki 23:35–37; 1 Ch 19:1–19; 1 Ch 21:1–30; 1 Ch 26:20–32; 2 Ch 24:1–14; 2 Ch 34:8–28; 2 Ch 36:1–4; Ezr 3:1–7; Ezr 7:11–28; Ezr 8:24–30; Ne 5:1–13; Ne 10:28–39; Es 3:1–4:17; Job 42:1–17; Ps 15:1–5; Ps 49:1–20; Ps 119:65–72; Pr 3:13–35; Pr 7:6–8:21; Pr 10:2; Pr 10:16; Pr 11:18; Pr 11:28; Pr 14:23; Pr 15:6; Pr 15:16; Pr 16:8; Pr 16:16; Pr 17:8; Pr 17:16; Pr 20:15; Pr 22:1; Pr 22:26–27; Pr 27:23–27; Pr 28:8; Pr 31:10–31; Ec 2:1–11; Ec 5:8–6:12; Ec 9:13–10:20; So 8:5–14; Is 13:1–22; Is 43:22–28; Is 46:1–13; Is 52:1–12; Is 55:1–13; Is 60:1–18; Je 22:11–23; Je 32:1–44; La 5:1–22; Eze 7:1–27; Ho 2:2–13; Ho 3:1–5; Mic 3:1–12; Zep 1:2–18; Hag 1:1–11; Zec 8:1–23; Zec 11:4–17; Mal 3:1–7; Mt 6:19–34; Mt 10:5–15; Mt 17:24–27; Mt 20:1–16; Mt 21:12–17; Mt 22:15–22; Mt 25:14–30; Mt 26:6–16; Mt 27:3–10; Mt 28:11–15; Mk 6:7–13; Mk 6:32–44; Mk 8:34–38; Mk 10:17–27; Mk 11:15–19; Mk 12:13–17; Mk 12:38–44; Mk 14:3–11; Lk 3:1–20; Lk 7:40–50; Lk 8:4–15; Lk 8:41–48; Lk 9:23–26; Lk 10:1–16; Lk 10:29–37; Lk 12:13–21; Lk 15:11–16:13; Lk 18:18–27; Lk 19:11–27; Lk 20:19–26; Lk 21:1–4; Lk 22:1–6; Jn 2:13–25; Jn 6:1–14; Jn 12:1–11; Jn 13:21–30; Ac 2:40–3:10; Ac 4:32–5:11; Ac 7:9–16; Ac 8:14–25; Ac 16:16–24; Ac 17:5–9; Ac 19:11–41; Ac 20:17–38; Ac 22:22–29; Ac 24:22–27; Ro 13:1–7; 1 Co 16:1–4; Ga 6:6–10; 2 Th 3:6–15; 1 Ti 3:1–13; 1 Ti 5:17–25; 1 Ti 6:3–10; 2 Ti 3:1–9; Tt 1:5–9; Heb 13:1–6; Jas 4:13–5:6; 1 Pe 1:13–21; Re 6:5–6; Re 18:9–20;
See also
Topics & Themes
Current Money
Money-changer