In Mark 12:15, the King James Bible reads, ”Bring me a penny…..” but it actually wasn’t a penny like we think of a penny. John Broadus, the American Baptist commentator and preacher from the 1800s wrote “‘Penny’ (King James and English revisers) is a very misleading translation, and we must either say “shilling” (6:37), or borrow the original word, as the Greek borrowed it from the Latin.”
Broadus, J. A. (1905). Commentary on the Gospel of Mark (p. 100). American Baptist Publication Society.
The coin was a denarius. It is misleading to think of it as a common penny. We lose pennies and hardly think anything of it. We see a penny on the ground and most people won’t bother picking it up. At the store, if the total comes to $4.02, but you only have $4, the cashier will probably tell you not to worry about the two pennies.
In Canada they stopped producing their penny in May 2012, and there has been talk of doing the same here in the USA. There comes a point you gotta wonder if it costs more to make it than what it is actually valued at.
But a denarius was no penny. In fact it was – you ready for this – A Roman silver coin, and was approximately a laborer’s daily wage!
I like that the Legacy Standard Bible translates the verse,
Mark 12:15 (LSB)
15“Shall we pay or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at.”
By their own admission, the Legacy Standard Bible translators did this so the reader can be brought back to what was originally written.
That changes the narrative of the story when you think about that. Even now, if I pull out a penny and say to my kids I have a penny it’s not gonna generate much excitement. But if I pull out a silver coin that’s going to get them excited.
This was not just a penny… And furthermore, this was not just any government they were paying this much money to in taxes. This was the Roman government…a government they largely despised.
When Jesus asks for a denarius it attracted some attention.
This is all part of a sermon I preached last Lord’s Day, entitled “Taxes To Caesar.”