New Testament money (part 2) - updated

 You'll need to read part 1 for this to make sense.

Some examples:

Judas betrayed Jesus 

for 30 pieces of silver - that's £3,000

Parable of the talents

He gave them 5, 2 and 1 talents - £50,000, £20,000, and £10,000 respectively. Not just a few pounds!

Parable of the two debtors 

One was forgiven a debt of 500 denarii, the other a debt of 50 - that's £50,000 compared to £5,000

Parable of the unmerciful servant

The servant was forgiven a debt of 10,000 talents, yet threw his fellow servant in jail for a debt of 100 denarii. The first debt was £100 million(!), the second was £10,000.

So it's important not to imply that the smaller debt was insignificant. It was a real debt - other people do us real wrongs (for some people - horrendous wrongs. And Jesus is not saying these don't matter). We should forgive, not because it doesn't matter, but because we realise how impossibly large is the debt God has forgiven us (do we?)

Widow's mite

She put in two small copper coins - that's £1

It was not 2p, as we sometimes imply. 2p is worthless, so you might as well put it in. £1 could buy something to eat, yet she gave it.

New Testament money (part 1) - updated

Back in 2017 I wrote a couple of posts on how much Bible prices would be now. But the minimum wage has changed a lot since then - so here's an adapted version for 2025. I also used a squiggly equals sign this time ≈ because I've been illustrating a maths book that used them!

 

---

I find it really helpful, when reading (or teaching) passages that involve sums of money, to translate them into modern money. After all, what does 'silver coin' or 'talent' or 'copper coin' actually mean to the average 21st century person? Was it a lot? A little? How much? How little?

So here's how I do it. It's not foolproof, but it's helpful

Denarius

(aka silver coin/drachma - same thing, different translations )

http://www.cngcoins.com

1 Denarius = a days's wage for a worker.
So take this to be minimum wage.

In the UK the minimum wage is currently £12.21 per hour. (You can substitute the minimum wage in your country.)
Assuming an average 8 hour workday, that's £97.68 a day.

So 1 denarius ≈ £100. 

 

Talent

A talent was 100 denarii.
That's £100 x 100

So 1 talent ≈ £10,000

 

Mite

(aka copper coin)

This was the smallest coin at the time.
192 in a denarius (what a weird number!)

£100÷192=0.520833

So 1 mite ≈ 50p


Of course, different things had different value in those days - clothes were incredibly expensive; rent was cheap. Some food was dearer than for us; I think some was cheaper. Still, it's a help.

Read part 2 of this enthralling story here... 

Variations on a theme

I was amused by this noughts & crosses left by some kids in church.

For the first game they used their initials, for the next they coloured the squares blue or red, then they used the traditional X and O, and finally one wrote "10" and the other wrote "100".

The magic word?

The word please is odd.

I was just writing a WhatsApp to ask someone to check who a jacket belongs to.

"Could you check if this jacket belongs to anyone?" sounds like a friendly request. I'm asking her to do it.

"Could you check if this jacket belongs to anyone, please?" sounds like an instruction - polite enough, but I'm telling her to do it.

"Check if this jacket belongs to anyone, please" sounds like an order.

The word 'Please' doesn't necessarily make a sentence politer. It may do the opposite.

This is how chatbots should be

Here's a screenshot:

It acknowledges that it is a chatbot - it's not pretending to be human and its avatar is a cute robot.

It makes clear its disadvantages (possible inaccuracy) and advantages (speed).

It accepts that you might prefer to ask a human, and makes it clear that you can do so.

It gives a clear timescale for interacting with a human, and explains why there might be delays.

While it encourages you to use the chatbot - and gives reasons - it allows you to make up your own mind.

In my case, the chatbot gave me the info I needed to know instantly. It also cited its sources, so I could check. And it then asked if I wanted to know more, or gave me the opportunity to contact a human.

That's the way to do it.

Good Friday

"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls."

~ 1 Peter 2v24-25

The usefulness of childhood stories

Whenever I'm liquidising something like soup, I remember the story of Paddington decorating his room. He switched the electric paint stirrer on before putting it into the paint, instead of once it was in. I take care not to do this - as a direct result of hearing that story 40-odd years ago.

I didn't take this photo - it came from an Etsy listing. The book is Paddington's New Room.