Monetary Terms in the Old Testament: A Comparative Semitic Linguistic Study

Abstract

This study aims to compare monetary terms in the Old Testament, organized according to the Hebrew alphabetical order. It also seeks to examine how a single term may carry multiple meanings and to explore cases of synonymy where different words express the same concept of "money" in the Old Testament. For this purpose, representative terms with synonymous meanings are highlighted. The study also considers phonetic variations among these terms across Semitic languages and provides relevant biblical references along with their Arabic translations. In ancient times, money appeared in various forms beginning with the barter system, where goods and services were exchanged directly, and evolving into the use of metals, particularly gold and silver, valued for their durability and intrinsic worth. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (BDB) was chosen as the primary source for this study, as it is a standard linguistic reference for Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic. It offers detailed lexical and root analyses that contribute to a deeper understanding of the semantic range of these monetary terms.