Upkeep of Money

Also we made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God;

33 For the shewbread, and for the continual meat offering, and for the continual burnt offering, of the sabbaths, of the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin offerings to make an atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.

Nehemiah 10:32-33

It’s now the time of the Babylonian captivity. Nehemiah was a prophet who documented the people’s return, efforts at rebuilding the city, and their temple much later. Basically, you could say, it’s what makes the culture special I guess. Well not all that special really. Consider this, after all the years of Babylonian upkeep and rule, the shekel still retained its original value. You could say it was more than common being found in the land. Everyone used it then and later probably preserved for all posterity for commonality reasons. That’s because the coin’s value was silver sufficient for weight and also some change. The only thing though changing was the people’s estimations far after. Let’s say the Pharisees paid Judas thirty pieces in exchange for a life. An offering required then would’ve only been half a shekel much later. It’s not that weights attached to it had changed very much either. Rather, the value or price put on that life was different I guess. You could’ve said that Jesus had much more potential than most of that time. Thus, that’s the driving force behind the offering thirty at first for face actual value. The only thing that changed though was the people’s attention I guess. Leastways, work during Babylonian days would’ve been few and far between even with the enemy that roamed through the land. Well, times would show much later with the “remember me my God for some good” that such always wasn’t the case. You’ll notice first off, that whatever wages these had would’ve been saved up as unto the Lord. In this case, the fund was at 1/3 or one-third of a shekel only. The other two-thirds would’ve been kept back for themselves or else used for whatever was most definitely needed. That’s to say, they would’ve ended up putting it back then to work. What’s going on with the other one-third that used much later in making the people? Sure, some had need of food and shelter as seen once before.