What Ancient Coins Can Teach Us About the Bible

11/13/23 • 45 min

When we recognize the Bible as a product of the ancient world, we can look for subtle ways that biblical authors incorporated elements of everyday life — including coins! We spoke with historian Michael Theophilos about everything we can learn from ancient coins (politics, economics, visual culture, propaganda), and then we found some fascinating examples of how language and symbols from coins made their way into the Bible.
If you want to dive deeper into coins and the New Testament, check out Michael's book, Numismatics and Greek Lexicography.
Here are some cool images of coins Michael described in the episode:

A denarius minted by Caesar Augustus with the image of the comet or bright star
An ancient coin from Yehud (Persian-ruled Judaea) featuring a disembodied ear

Also, the newly redesigned Bible Odyssey website has some great articles about coins, taxes and the Temple in the 1st Century:

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Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos

A denarius minted by Caesar Augustus with the image of the comet or bright star
An ancient coin from Yehud (Persian-ruled Judaea) featuring a disembodied ear

Also, the newly redesigned Bible Odyssey website has some great articles about coins, taxes and the Temple in the 1st Century:

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos

Previous Episode

Everything We Get Wrong About Jesus and Jewish Impurity Laws

It's easy to read the New Testament and come away with the idea that Jesus was in opposition to the Jewish ritual impurity laws. In fact, that's what most Christian theologians have taught for the past 2,000 years. Is it possible that we've (gasp!) been misreading the Bible this whole time? Our guest Matt Thiessen says, "Yep."
In today's episode, we travel back to the 1st century to understand how everyday Jewish people understood ritual impurity, and what Jesus's miracles — healing a leper, curing a woman of a hemorrhaging condition — would have meant in that historical context.
Matt's excellent book on this subject is Jesus and the Forces of Death: The Gospels' Portrayal of Ritual Impurity within First-Century Judaism. And if you're a fan of funny Twitter accounts — like, actually funny — follow Matt at @MattThiessenNT.

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Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos

Next Episode

Who Chose the Books of the New Testament?

Starting in the 1st century CE, there was an explosion of Christian literature — dozens of gospels, letters, apocalypses and more — but only a fraction of those texts made it into the New Testament canon. Who decided which books were in and which books were out?
For this episode, Helen and Dave welcome New Testament scholar Francis Watson, who introduces us to important figures like Athanasius of Alexandria and Eusebius of Caesarea, some of the earliest influential Christian writers to weigh in on which texts were authoritative and which were "spurious."
Check out Francis's excellent books on the making of the NT canon: Gospel Writing: A Canonical Perspective and The Fourfold Gospel: A Theological Reading of the New Testament Portraits of Jesus .
To learn more about how the NT canon came together, here are some great articles from Bible Odyssey:

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Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos