Alma 11:5-20. Coins

Alma 11:5-20. Coins

The mention of coins in Alma 11:5-20 is anachronistic, since the first coins were not minted until a century after Lehi supposedly left Jerusalem.

Tithe Coins MormonWhile some commentators, including modern editors of the Book of Mormon, have assumed that the passage in Alma 11 refers to coins, the text itself does not say that these monetary units were coins. Before stamped coins were invented in the late sixth century BC, pieces of precious metals of varying weight were used as a medium of exchange. It is undoubtedly in this context that we must read of the Nephite monetary system. The most common unit of weight was the shekel, deriving from the verb meaning “to weigh” and first noted in the time of Abraham (Genesis 24:22). The term later denoted a coin of the prescribed weight. Most occurrences of the term shekel are in Exodus through Numbers, with the heaviest concentration in the latter book, both describing the time of Moses. The term gerah which denoted a smaller piece of money (but probably not a coin), is found only in the Old Testament books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Ezekiel. If these were intended to be coins only, then the use of the names in books attributed to Moses would make the Bible anachronistic, too.

The terms shekel and gerah are both found in the writing on ostraca of the seventh and sixth centuries BC discovered at Tel Ein-Qudeirah (biblical Qadesh-Barnea). For a discussion, see John A. Tvedtnes and Stephen D. Ricks, “Jewish and Other Semitic Texts Written in Egyptian Characters,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 5/2 (Fall 1996). Republished as “Semitic Texts Written in Egyptian Characters” in John W. Welch and Melvin J. Thorne, eds., Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon (Provo: FARMS, 1999). A French version has been posted on the Idumea web site at http://www.idumea.org/Etudes/Ecritures/LM/Egyptien_reforme2.htm.