Miscellany of Randomness
From the sublime to the ridiculous...
Wednesday, 9 July 2025
Friday, 13 June 2025
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 £3,000Parable 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 £5,000Parable 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 £1It 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 |
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...
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Variations on a theme
Friday, 2 May 2025
The magic word?
Monday, 21 April 2025
This is how chatbots should be
Friday, 18 April 2025
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