The invention of money transformed the ancient world. Find out how the emergence of the monetary system influenced the biblical world.
As trade increased in Israel during the time of Solomon, so did the use of gold and silver to pay for goods. Around this time, merchants and a special group of moneychangers began to weigh and test gold and silver pieces to judge their value and purity. Even so, exchanging one kind of merchandise for another continued to be the main way of doing business.
The use of money (minted coins) began in Palestine when the Persians ruled the land (530-330 B.C.). Gold darics, silver shekels, and minas were used to buy and sell things (Neh 5.15). Coins circulated from many different places. Even the Persian province of Judea was given permission to make its own silver coins. After the Jewish people won their independence under the Maccabees (164 B.C.), they again made their own coins.
In Jesus’ day, Roman coins were the only form of money that could be used to pay taxes to the Roman government (see Luke 20.20-26), though coins of other countries were used in buying and selling. Although the Bible does not give a complete picture of the way local economies functioned, it does mention workers being paid for a day’s wage (Matt 20.1,2), and describes the requirement to pay annual temple taxes (Matt 17.24-27). Each of these passages probably refers to a denarius, a coin from Cappadocia. This was also probably the coin Jesus mentioned in Matthew 22.19. The thirty silver coins that Judas was paid to help the authorities arrest Jesus (Matt 26.15) probably amounted to the wage of a typical laborer for approximately four months of work.
Banking and Money in the Ancient World
Ancient economies developed from a barter system in which one kind of merchandise was exchanged for another. International trade, at first, involved only exchanges between rulers and did not affect the lives of ordinary people. Silver, gold, and precious stones were used as money. Refining techniques increased the purity of precious metals and made accurate coinages possible. Yet even as the economy in cities became ever more sophisticated and complex, many rural areas continued to function using a barter system.
Date | Historical Event | Banking Milestone |
10,000-6000 B.C. | Ancient people develop agriculture and tend livestock | Barter system: livestock and grain are used as money |
3000-2000 B.C. | Banking begins in Mesopotamia | Writing is used to keep trade accounts |
2250-2150 B.C. | Rulers of Cappodocia (Turkey) guarantee quality of silver ingots | The official guarantee of the purity and weight of silver increases its acceptance as money |
About 1750 B.C. | The Code of Hammurabi is written | Code includes laws governing banking operations |
About 640 B.C. | The first true coins are minted in Lydia (Asia Minor) | The coins are minted of electrum, a natural mixture of gold and silver |
About 600 B.C. | The first surviving record of a merchant banker (Pythius) in the ancient world is written | Pythius trades throughout Asia Minor |
After 538 B.C. | Minted coins begin to be used in Palestine | The Persians introduce coinage to Palestine after the Israelite people return from exile |
336-323 B.C. | Alexander the Great helps pay his troops with captured Persian gold | Trade is stimulated throughout the ancient world |
323-30 B.C. | Ptolemy Dynasty in Egypt creates first unified banking system | A central bank is created in Alexandria |