Rare 2,000-year-old ‘Temple tax’ silver coin found near Temple Mount
A rare silver “half-shekel” coin from the time of the Great Jewish Revolt against the Romans (66-70 CE) was uncovered in Jerusalem in the Ophel excavation south of the Temple Mount, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced Tuesday.
“This is the third coin of this type found in excavations in Jerusalem, and one of the few ever found in archaeological excavations anywhere,” said Prof. Uzi Leibner, who led the excavation conducted in partnership between the Hebrew University and the Armstrong College last summer.
According to the Bible, every Jewish man was required to pay a half shekel every year as a tribute to the Holy Temple.
“This is what everyone who is entered in the records shall pay: a half-shekel by the sanctuary weight—twenty giera to the shekel —a half- shekel as an offering to Hashem,” reads the 30th chapter of the book of Shemot (Exodus). “Everyone who is entered in the records, from the age of twenty years up, shall give Hashem’s offering: the rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less than half a shekel when giving Hashem’s offering as expiation for your persons.”
According to Dr. Yoav Farhi, curator of the Kadman Numismatic Pavilion at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv, who examined the artifact, “until the revolt, it was customary to pay the half-shekel tax using good-quality silver coins minted in Tyre in Lebanon, known as Tyrean shekels or Tyrean half-shekels.”
While these coins were chosen for their silver’s purity, they were also problematic because they bore the image of Tyrean gods.
“The Romans did not allow Jews to strike coins, so when the revolt began, they took the opportunity and they started to do it,” Farhi explained. “It was a national symbol.”
At the time, minting coins was an expression of sovereignty. During the revolt, the Jews in Jerusalem minted both bronze and silver coins.
The artifact was found in the remains of what appears to be a monumental public building, surrounded by mikvaot (ritual baths). The structure was destroyed when the Romans eventually conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple in 70 CE.
The coin features a goblet similar to those used in temple service together with the words “half-shekel” in ancient Hebrew script on one side, and a branch with three pomegranates and the inscription “Holy Jerusalem” on the other side.
“The silver coins from the Great Revolt were the first and the last in ancient times to bear the title ‘shekel,’” the researchers noted. “The next time this name was used was in 1980, on Israeli Shekel coins produced by the Bank of Israel.”
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