Bassam Barakat Antiquities

Description

PHOENICIA Tyre Shekel, Date: 126/5 BC-AD 65/6.

Obv: Laureate head of Melkart to right, lion skin tied around neck. 
Rev: TYPOY IEPAΣ KAI AΣYΛOY Eagle standing left on prow, palm frond in background; to left, L K above club; to right, monogram; between the eagle’s legs, 𐤁 (B in Punic).

DCA 919. DCA Tyre 107. HGC 10, 357.

The Shekels and half Shekels of Tyre (also Called Tetradrachm and drachms) were first issued as autonomous silver coins of the city after it was freed from Seleucid domination in 126/5 BCE.
They were patterned after the Seleucid coins with an eagle on the reverse, but the inscription no longer included the name of the king, and was replaced with the name and titles of the city:
“Of Tyre the holy and city of refuge”
Tyre’s chief god, Melqart, took the place of the king’s bust.
Melkart or Melqarth (Ba’al-tsur {Lord of Tyre}) was a Phoenician god, whose center of worship was at Tyre. Originally a marine deity, since on earlier coins he is represented astride a sea-horse, the Greeks identified him with Herakles. On Hellenistic coins he is often depicted as a young, beardless man with a lion skin at his neck and a club nearby
A date, according to Tyre’s era, beginning in 126/5 BCE appears along with various monograms of uncertain meaning.
Tyrian shekels and half shekels were prescribed as the coins of choice for payments to the Jewish temple in Jerusalem (Tosephta, KETUBBOT 13, 20), Including the Half shekel tribute that every Jewish male over the age of twenty was obliged to pay (Exodus 30: 11-16; Shekalim 2,4).

Why the Jews felt comfortable using Tyre coinage that depicted the graven image of a pagan god to make their annual payment to the temple ?
The reason for this is, as the Mishnah makes clear, that valid money is not subject to being unclear, and is only susceptible to uncleanliness when it is used for another purpose such as jewelry and weight
(KELIM 12,7) Since a viable coin cannot be defiled, the only relevance is its value and purity, not its design.
Every year, a Jewish man, 20 years old and older, paid a voluntary half shekel Temple tax to the Jerusalem Temple. This tax, instituted by Moses (Ex 30:11–16), was paid in either the Tyrian shekel (for himself and another person) or half-shekel (for only himself) during the Second Temple period (Mishnah Bekhoroth 8:7; Babylonian Talmud Kiddushin 11a).

The shekel, with the laureate head of Melqarth-Herakles (a pagan deity) on the obverse and an eagle (a graven image) on the reverse, contained at least 94 per cent silver.
After the Roman government closed the Tyre mint, these coins continued to be minted at an unknown mint, probably in or near Jerusalem, from 18/17 BC until AD 69/70.

The Jewish coin makers continued to strike coins with the image of Melqarth-Herakles and the eagle. This was contrary to the clear teachings of the Word of God (Ex 20:3, 4: Dt. 4:16–18; 5:8). Yet the rabbis declared that the Tyrian shekels were the only legal currency that was acceptable in the Temple (Hendin 2001:420–29; 2002:46, 47). The rabbis decided that the commandment to give the half-shekel Temple tax, with its proper weight and purity, was more important than the prohibition of who or what image was on the coin.

The Tyrian shekel is mentioned in the New Testament.
The first time it is mentioned is in Matthew 17:24–27
when the Temple tax collectors asked Peter if he and his Master paid the Temple tax. Peter replied in the affirmative. The Lord Jesus, seeing a teaching opportunity on Biblical greatness, demonstrated humility by paying the Temple tax for Himself and Peter with a shekel coin from a fish’s mouth (Franz 1997:81–87).

The second mention is in Matthew 26:14, 15
When Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, most likely Tyrian shekels from the Temple Treasury.
(Then one of the 12, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests,
and said unto them, what will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver) MATTHEW 23:14-15)

The Coin in the Fish’s Mouth
Jesus found money for tribute in a most unlikely place: a fish’s mouth. The coin must have been a Tetradrachm of Tyre, the exact amount needed to pay the tax for Peter and himself.
And when they had come to Capharnum, those who were collecting the didrachma come to Peter, and said, “does your master not pay the didrachma?” He said, “yes.” But when he had entered the house, Jesus spoke first, Saying, “what dust thou think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth receive tribute or customs; from their own sons, or from others?” And he said, “From others.” Jesus said to him,” The sons then are exempt.

But they we many not give offense to them, go to the see and cast a hook, and tack the first fish that’s come up. And opening its mouth thou wilt find a stater; Take that and give it to them for me and for thee.” (Matthew 17:32-26)