Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 179:713 (Jan 2022)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: John A. Adair

BSac 179:713 (January-March 2022) p. 91

Periodical Reviews

By The Faculty And Staff Of Dallas Theological Seminary

John A. Adair

Editor

“The Anxious Search for the Lost Coin (Luke 15:8–10): Lost Coins, Women’s Dowries and the Contribution of Numismatics and Phenomenology to Gospel Research,” Lyn M. Kidson, Australian Biblical Review 68 (2020): 76–88.

In this article Kidson enhances our reading of the parable of the woman who lost one of her ten silver coins (drachmas) (Luke 15:8–10) by filling in details familiar to the original audience. By doing so, she leads us into the world of the original hearers and readers of this parable.

First, Kidson introduces the woman. The detail that she had saved ten drachmas would likely cause the hearers and readers to think of someone they knew in a similar situation. Next, Kidson notes the amount of money. Archaeologists usually find groups of coins stored in homes, temples, or hiding places (77). These groups of coins called “hoards” refer to “any group of coins which appears to have been deposited together” (77). Most people stored hoards in boxes or jars and hid them somewhere in their house (78–79). Interestingly, hoards of coins are often found with jewelry, which may suggest that women stored the family wealth (79). Kidson suggests the possibility that coins may have been part of a woman’s dowry (80, 82). However, would this come to mind for the original audiences, given the variety of sources for coins and Kidson’s suggestion that it was the woman’s responsibility to save the money? While hoards possibly contained dowry money, this was not a detail of importance. The hoard—not its source—seems to be the important detail.

Next, Kidson discusses the value of the coins (80–83). This brings up a historical problem for Luke’s Gospel. According to Kidson, the drachma coins were Egyptian and did not circulate in Israel, and Herod and his successors used silver coins from Tyre or the Roman denarius (80–81). Josephus also appears to use incorrect coin terminology, and Kidson suggests that Josephus used a word familiar to his audience or one found in his written sources (81). It is possible that Luke did the same (81). Ultimately, I wonder whether we know enough about coin names and circulation in the first-century world to question the accuracy of the sources. Also a Greek coin, the drachma, roughly equivalent to a denarius, was probably a day’s wage (81). To get an idea of general costs in lower Galilee, a day’s wage was less than a denarius, a loaf of bread one-twelfth a denarius, and a month’s rent four denarii; and in Egypt, a boy’s annual clothing cost twelve drachmas, a...