Bible Dictionary
MONEY, CURRENT
Current money refers to money accepted by an established standard of weight or value. In biblical times precious metals could be weighed as payment, and stamped pieces or ingots may also have circulated.
Definition
Current money is money accepted according to an established standard of weight or value. In the biblical period, precious metals could be used in stamped bars or ingots of approximately fixed weight, while money continued to be weighed in payment.
Biblical Usage
The account of Abraham’s purchase implies a standard shekel and the use of precious metal as payment. Israel continued weighing money down to the time of the exile.
Historical Background
The supplied material connects such pieces with the practices presupposed by the Code of Hammurabi and with stamped shekel pieces found in records from Cappadocia. The interpretation of the passage in 2 Kings is uncertain and may concern a poll tax rather than a money standard.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>kur'-ent (`obher, "passing," Ge 28:16; 2Ki 12:4 (Hebrew 5)): The text and translation in 2Ki 12:4 are uncertain and difficult. See the Revised Version margin. The reference is probably not to a money standard, but to a poll tax which was levied in addition to the free-will offering. Ge 23:16 implies the existence of a standard shekel and also probably the use of the precious metals in stamped bars or ingots of an approximately fixed weight or value, a primitive coinage. Code of Hammurabi presupposes these pieces, and records in cuneiform writing discovered in Cappadocia indicate that shekel pieces with a seal stamp were in use in Asia Minor in the time of Hammurabi (Sayce, Contemporary Review, August, 1907, XCII, 259 ff). The existence of these pieces did not do away with the custom of weighing money, a practice which obtained in Israel down to the time of the exile (Jer 32:10).</p><p>Walter R. Betteridge</p>