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Encyclopedia Britannica



SHEKEL (from Heb. shakal, to weigh)

This article appears in Volume V24, Page 825 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SHA-SIV
SHEKEL (from Heb. shakal, to weigh) , originally a Jewish unit of
weight
  (r of a mina, and Th-lf of a talent) and afterwards a coin of the same
weight
 . The Biblical references to shekels must refer to uncoined ingots. In the time of Josephus it seems that the light shekel weighed from 210 to 210.55 grains; the heavy shekel was twice that amount, which is practically identical with the Phoenician weight (224.4 grains). It corresponds to Is. 41d. and 2S. gd. respectively in
English
  silver. Jewish shekels were first coined by Simon the Hasmonean, probably in 139-138 B.C. These
bear
 
inscriptions
  in the archaic Hebrew and various emblems, such as the cup or
chalice
 , the lily branch with three
flowers
 , the candlestick, the citron and palm branch and so forth. They never
bear
  the portraits of rulers or figures of animals. A later
series
  of shekels, belonging to the Roman period, are tetradrachms, " which came from the mints of
Caesarea and Antioch and were used as blanks on which to impress Jewish types.' Hence in Matt. xvi. 24 the temple tax of half a shekel is called a didrachm (2 drams). In 2 Samuel xiv. 26 we read of " shekels after the King's weight." The royal norm was heavier than the common norm. The Hebrews divided the shekel into 20 parts, each of which was called a gerah. (See also
NUMISMATICS
 .)
See articles in Ency. Bibl. col. 4442, and Hastings' Diet. of the Bible, ii. 417 seq. ; F. W. Madden, Coins of the
Jews
  (1881) ; T. Reinach, Jewish Coins (1903). (I. A.)


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