It's great reading about money in the Bible.
Mat 20:2 KJV And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
Shared using AndBible: Bible Study. (
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The word penny here in the King James Version is actually "denarion" which means denar (ten) ion (ee -on - asses) like Eeyore of Winnie the Pooh.
01220 (StrongsGreek)
δηνάριον
dhnavrion denarion {day-nar'-ee-on}
of Latin origin; a denarius (or ten asses):--pence, penny(-worth).
denarius = "containing ten" 1. A Roman silver coin in NT time. It took its name from it being equal to ten "asses", a number after 217 B.C. increased to sixteen (about 3.898 grams or .1375 oz.). It was the principal silver coin of the Roman empire. From the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, it would seem that a denarius was then the ordinary pay for a day's wages. (Matthew 20:2-13)
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Again, "denar + ee,on", sometimes you might try to say the words out loud that are translated to hear the ancient context and meaning. It's an onomatopoeia, at least the ass part is because that's the sound an ass makes!
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Now to be quite honest I'm finding it hard to prove the asses part so I'm not here to get distracted on this. I do find it fascinating in the basic words and I hope you also might find some interesting etymology finds as well.
Incidentally we get our slang of money "denaro" from denarius. It's also nice to know that they devalued the term from ten to mean 16.
#money
#Bible
#etymology
