Two-Drachma Piece

A tax coin given by every male Jew from the age of twenty onward to support the temple.

A half-shekel from Tyre
A half-shekel from Tyre (© Kwo-Wei Peng by United Bible Societies) Didrachma

About Two-Drachma Piece

It is not the amount of the half-shekel tax that is really important in this verse, but rather the nature of it, as seen in GNT, which says “the Temple tax.” Translators can say “the tax all the men [or, all Jewish men] paid for the Temple expenses” or “the tax paid to support the Temple.”

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Key References

Matthew 17:24

After they had arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, “Does your Teacher pay the two drachmas?”

Matthew 22:20

“Whose image is this,” He asked, “and whose inscription?”

Mark 12:16

So they brought it, and He asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they answered.

All Scripture References (1)

Matthew (1)
Matthew 17:24

After they had arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, “Does your Teacher pay the two drachmas?”