“…you shall take five shekels per head; you shall take them according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel of twenty gerahs)… Numbers 3.47

From ancient times people have understood the value of currency in carrying on transactions with one another. While bartering has always existed as a means of accomplishing economic transactions, bartering is neither convenient nor practical for a great many of these. Some form of money, whether of precious metal, stone, sea shell, coins, or other commodity, has existed in virtually every society and among even the most primitive of people in all times.

The basic unit of Hebrew currency appears to have been the silver shekel, which weighed, according to the marginal note of the ESV, 2/5 oz. or 11 grams. The phrase, “shekel of the sanctuary”, which recurs at various places in the Law of God, suggests a fixed standard unit of measure. Much as the Bureau of Standards in Washington conserves “standards” for length, weight, and so forth, against which all rulers, measuring cups, and the like are manufactured, so in ancient Israel the priests and Levites were entrusted with a “shekel of the sanctuary” which was used to determine the reliability of all shekels that were offered for exchange in ancient Israel.

Shekels were comprised of silver and had to weigh 11 grams, or, as much as the shekel of the sanctuary. They were not to be “cut” with other metals or regarded as shekels unless they contained the proper amount of silver.

Shekels in ancient Israel were probably just lumps of silver that could be shaved or melted as needed. For ease of transaction, we can assume that certain “lumps” or bags of shekels were approximately the same size and could be traded without having to be weighed every time, although “just weights and balances” were available when needed. Suspect shekels, we assume, could be brought to the “bureau of standards” for comparison, and those who circulated them – early counterfeiters – presumably would fall under the requirements of justice set forth in the eighth and ninth commandments.

Only later in Israel’s history did gold begin to be used as a currency and coins struck as matters of convenience. From the beginning of Israel’s economy, silver was the standard for the currency, and the sanctuary shekel determined the true weight and value of silver used in economic transactions.

T. M. Moore

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