tions, always approximating to the modern form. But it is not till we reach the Palmyrene inscriptions, in the second or third century A.D., that we can pronounce their absolute identity. When we endeavour to fix the time of their introduction into common use in Judæa, we are embarrassed by the want of evidence. That they were familiar to our Saviour's contemporaries is usually assumed from his saying (Matt. v. 18), that till heaven and earth should pass away, one iota of the Law should not pass away without being fulfilled. Now if he spoke in a dialect of the Hebrew, we must suppose him to have said a Iod; and the Iod, as the smallest letter of the alphabet in the modern Hebrew, was likely to stand in a proverb as a type of what was insignificant, while the Iod of the coins is complex. The inference is plausible, but not quite certain. Our Lord often spoke in Aramæan, but did he never use Greek? Was the Gospel of Matthew originally written in Greek? If not, a translator may have substituted a corresponding expression, more intelligible to his Greek readers; for the Iota is the simplest letter of the Greek alphabet. Manuscript evidence is out of the question, and it is still doubtful whether any inscription in the square Hebrew character is as old as the time of Christ. On this subject an animated controversy has been carried on between two eminent French archæologists, both travellers and explorers in the Holy Land-M. de Saulcy and M. de Vogue. The present volume bears ample testimony to M. de Sauley's zeal in collecting Jewish coins; but he is apt to be misled by his fondness for making discoveries. În his first travels in the Holy Land he thought he had found the actual ruins of Sodom, where subsequent travellers have seen nothing but an accidental arrangement of natural blocks; he assigned the sculptured fronts of the tombs at Jerusalem to the days of the ancient kings, though their style clearly betrayed the imitation of Greek art. The subject of the present controversy is an inscription in the square Hebrew character over an excavation, traditionally called the Tomb of St. James, in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Both are agreed that it is a memorial of a family of the name of Beni Hezir, and it is reasonable to suppose that

* It is the first letter on the right in the reverse of the shekel, p. 246. + Rev. Archéologique, 1864, p. 200 seq.; 1865, p. 136 seq.

the Hezir, from whom the persons named claimed descent, was a man of some note in his day. The name is found, 1 Chron. xxiv. 15, among the twenty-four descendants of Eleazar and Ithamar, among whom the office of high-priest was to be hereditary, according to the order of the branches fixed by lot. There There is a partial concurrence in the names of the inscription with the names of the high-priests, and as the last in the list is Eleazar, M. de Sauley concludes that the tomb was excavated to receive the mortal remains of the high-priest Eleazar, who died B.C. 255, and in whose pontificate the Septuagint translation was made. The identification is certainly ingenious; but it must be remembered that Hezir was a common Jewish name (Nehemiah x. 20), and that the subjects of the inscription are not called priests. M. de Vogué concludes from the style of the architecture, which is a degenerate Doric, that the tomb belongs to the age immediately preceding that of Christ. The question of the time when the square character began to be used by the Jews in Palestine must be left, therefore, for its solution to the Exploration Fund.

The coining of silver money in the East had been prohibited by Pompey, who made Judæa tributary, B.C. 63, except in the case of a few cities, of which Jerusalem was not one, and all the coinage from that time to the first revolt was of copper. The silver money spoken of in the New Testament was the Roman denarius; the stater, mentioned only in Matt. xvii. 27, was a tetradrachm, equivalent to the Jewish shekel, so that the tribute claimed of our Saviour being half a shekel, one stater sufficed both for him and for Peter. A new series begins with Herod the Great.

On the obverse is a bell-shaped vessel, or a helmet, on a stand; on the left a palm-branch. On the obverse, his name and title with a tripod; on the left, Lr (L standing

for AYKABAZ, year, the Roman letter being used in dates to avoid confusion with the Greek numerals) and r, three, of Herod's royalty, B.C. 38. On the right is a monogram having a curious resemblance to the Christian monogram. Its meaning here is not evident. All the principal members of his family have also left coins-Herod the Tetrarch or Herod Antipas (Matt. xiv.), Archelaus (Matt. ii. 22), Philip the Tetrarch (Luke iii. 1), Herod Agrippa I. (Acts xii.), Agrippa II. (Acts xxv. 13).

Herod Antipas built the town of Tiberias on the Lake of Gennesareth, and one of his coins, no doubt struck there, has TIBEPIAC on the reverse. Herod Archelaus, though called in the Gospels King, was really only Ethnarch, and takes only this title on his coins.

Æ

Under Philip a further departure from Jewish ideas and usages took place, and the head of Tiberius appears on a coin struck by a Jewish ruler, while on the reverse is seen probably the temple which Herod I. had built and dedicated to Augustus.

Herod Agrippa I., who "stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the church, killed James the brother of John with the sword, and because he saw that it pleased the Jews proceeded further to take Peter also," assiduously courted the Roman Emperors, and calls himself BACIAEYC METAC IAOKAICAP on his coins. His title of Great probably refers to the large increase of his power, gained by the favour of Caligula and Claudius, making his dominions nearly equal in extent to those of his grandfather, Herod the Great. The book of Acts records his pomp and his popularity, and, in accordance with Josephus, the sudden

illness which terminated his life. Agrippa II. paid to Nero the compliment of calling Cæsarea Philippi Neronias. The city appears on one of his coins, typified by the turreted head of the goddess Cybele, after the fashion of the Greek coins of cities. He assumed the name of Marcus, which belonged to the Roman family of Agrippa, with which, however, he had no connection. The latest of his coins bears the head of Domitian, so that it appears he retained his nominal sovereignty, after the destruction of the city by Titus. He would fain have persuaded his countrymen to bear the Roman yoke in patience, and when the people were maddened by the exactions and tyranny of Gessius Florus, he appeared before the tumultuous crowd, accompanied by his sister Berenice, and delivered, according to Josephus, a long harangue, pointing out the hopelessness of a contest with the power of Rome, which had subdued the whole world even to the hitherto unknown Britons. He concluded by warning them that if they were determined on war, they must not expect him to join them. Accordingly he joined the Roman army, and retired ultimately to Rome, where he died.

From the time when Archelaus was deposed from his office of Ethnarch, with the exception of Agrippa's rule, Judæa, as distinct from Galilee, had been governed by a succession of Roman Procurators. They struck copper coins, some anonymous, others with the names of the ruling emperors, as Tiberius and his mother Julia, Claudius and Nero. In Nero's reign, the Jews, who had borne the yoke of former Procurators impatiently, and had raised partial insurrections, broke out into open revolt. A direct collision with the Roman power was avoided for a time by the romanizing policy of Agrippa, and the unwillingness of the Sanhedrim and the higher classes to engage in a war, of which the probable result was, that "the Romans would come and take away both their place and their nation." They invited Florus to occupy the Holy City with his troops. This was too much for the patience of the Jews, and though he succeeded in forcing his way to the citadel, he was really besieged there, and Cestius Gallus, who endeavoured to relieve him, suffered a severe defeat. The Zealots,

* Usque ad Gessium Florum duravit patientia Judæorum (Tac. Hist. v. 10), a remarkable expression, considering the hatred and contempt which the historian felt for the Jews.

who would listen to no compromise with the Romans, gained a complete ascendancy, and their leaders, Simon (Bargiora), Eleazar and John of Giscala, assumed a temporary sovereignty in Jerusalem after the massacre of their principal opponents. This second "Redemption of Israel" was commemorated by coins, in which the legends, symbols and character of the Maccabæan coinage were reproduced. The silver coin here represented will shew how exact was the imitation.

The obverse reads Eleazar Hakkohen, Eleazar the Highpriest, with a vase and a palm-branch. The reverse, Shenath Achath Ligullath Isr[ael], Year one of the Redemption of Israel, with a bunch of grapes. Simon Bargiora, the head of a rival faction of the Zealots, struck coins also, closely resembling those of Eleazar, except that he does not claim the title of high-priest. This revival of the coinage of the former times of Israel's independence was well calculated to encourage the hopes of the patriotic party. But in order that it should produce this effect, we must suppose that the old coinage was still in circulation and the old character still familiar to the people. This is a strong presumption against the opinion that the square Hebrew had already supplanted it; for who would endeavour to work upon the popular mind by the use of an obsolete alphabet? Of John of Giscala, the leader of another of the factions, who were doing the work of the Romans within the walls, no coins have been found.

The conquerors of Jerusalem celebrated their bloody and hard-won victory by a variety of medals. Those of Vespasian and Titus, representing Judæa bound and weeping beneath a palm-tree, a Jew with his hands tied and stripped of his armour, and similar devices, are too familiar to need special illustration. The conquered nation continued to be oppressed and persecuted; what was called the Fiscus Judaicus, the payment to the Imperial treasury of the former tribute to the Temple, was exacted with great harsh