Comparing this with labor wages in agriculture in Israel today, I would estimate the half a shekel contribution to be worth about 50-75 USD.
The Roman denarius was about 3.4 grams of silver, and so half a shekel would be worth about 2 days of labor in a vineyard. In one of his parables Jesus mentions the wages of a day’s work in a vineyard to be “one Denarius” (Matthew 20:2). What is the value of about 7 grams of stamped silver? The New Testament provides an estimated value of a similar silver coin. Half a shekel therefore would be in the value of nearly7 grams of silver, and could be equated with the Greek didrachm (equal to two drachms). In the first century a shekel was equated with the Greek tetradrachm (equal to four drachms), which was a silver coin of the weight of nearly 14 grams. By Jewish religious law, as commanded in the Bible itself (Exodus 30:13 38:25), every male Jew over the age of 20 had to give an annual contribution to the temple, of “half a shekel”. But there was another contribution every male was oblidged to provide – money. The form of worship was by a contributaion, mostly an animal sacrifice. The Jewish Temple was a focal point of pilgrimage for Jews in ancient times.
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