Matth. xvii. 23. Δίδραχμα.DIDRACHMA, a Greek word, signifying a piece of money of two drachms in value. A Didrachm was worth about fourteen pence English; two Didrachms, two shillings and four pence1, which made an Hebrew shekel. The Jews were by the law obliged to pay every one half a shekel to the Exod. xxx. 13.Temple. It is said in St. Matthew, that they who received the Tribute or Capitation of two drachms, or half a shekel, came and demanded it of our Saviour, and that he, having sent St. Peter to fish in the Lake, told him, that the first fish which he should take, would have a piece of money in its mouth, of four drachms in value; that he should take it and give it to the receivers of this tribute for both of them. See CAPITATION.
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Footnotes
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Translators’ note. Dr. Arbuthnot tells us, in his Tables of the Grecian Coins, that a Drachma is 7d. ¾*, and consequently a* Tetradrachma, which is answerable to a Shekel, 2s. 7d. Dr. Prideaux*, as has been remarked, values a shekel at* three shillings. ↩