These are the coins used during the times of Jesus.
The silver denarius was the most common coin then, and was worth one day's
wage for common laborers and soldiers.
"But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why put Me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the money for the tax." And they brought Him a coin. And Jesus said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" "They said, "Caesar's." "Then He said to them, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Matthew 22:17-21 RSV) |
| "For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard." (Matthew 20:1-2 RSV) |
It might have been Tiberius' copper coin. Had it been a gold coin, the author would probably have said so..
Solidus of Byzantine emperor (left)
When Maximian asked him to resume the reins of the Roman empire, "he rejected the temptation with a smile of pity, calmly observing that, if he could show Maximian the cabbages which he had planted with his own hands at Salona, he should no longer be urged to relinquish the enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of power." (Gibbon, The Decline and the Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter XIII, 1960).
Helena was Constantine's mother. At her suggestion, Constantine builds the Holy Sepulchure Church (Jesus' Tomb) in Jerusalem.
