Professional Documents
Culture Documents
by Chaim Shacham
Seminar Assignment for Prof. Eyal Regev, Bar Ilan University– March 2017
These coins were made of bronze, and are assumed to have the
denomination of one prutah. Although the weights and dimensions
of these coins varied, they averaged about 2 grams and measured
about 15mm in diameter. The designs were individually hammer-
struck with dies onto strips of blank bronze planchettes cast in
limestone molds, which were then cut into individual coins5.
Of particular importance to this paper is the Hebrew inscription
found on the obverse of this group of coins. In it, the Hasmonean
ruler, using his Hebrew name, self-identified as the High Priest,
and added that he ruled together with the “Assembly of the Jews”.
The Hebrew names used by the rulers on this Priestly Prutah were
YHWḤNN ( יהוחנןJohn Hyrcanus I), YHWDH ( יהודהJudah
Aristobulus I), YHWNTN יהונתן- also spelled YNTN ינתן
(Alexander Jannaeus and probably his widow Salome Alexandra6),
and MTTYH ( מתתיהMattathias Antigonus). The full inscription
generally read:
Paleo-Hebrew:
]יהוחנן[ הכהן הגדול וחבר היהודים
Transliteration:
[YHWḤNN] HKHN HGDWL WḤBR HYHWDYM
Translation:
[YHWḤNN] the High Priest and the Assembly of the Jews
Hendin and Shachar have suggested14 that the first of the two main
bilingual Royal coin issues was the Lily/Anchor type, which bore a
contiguous Paleo-Hebrew inscription on the obverse (YHWNTN the
King) and a Greek inscription on the reverse (Alexander the King).
Although some of these coins were issued to the public, it appears
that a decision was made to cease their release into circulation, and
to convert most of them into standard Inscription/Shofar Priestly
prutahs, but this time using the abbreviated name YNTN. From this
point onward, it appears that all further Jannaeus Priestly prutahs
used the abbreviated spelling, omitting the letters HW from the Paleo-
Hebrew inscription of Jannaeus’ name.
The question is “why?” Why did the Hasmoneans make these unusual
changes in the way their names were depicted on their coins?
Our research into the source of the prohibition of the secular use of
Sacred Names has revealed that this Jewish law is based upon the
earliest known written Mishnaic source - a short legal volume
describing various days of celebration called “Megillat Taanit”. This
external volume was probably written in the time of the Second
Temple, and records events that occurred before and during the
Hasmonean period. It contains a list of holidays upon which one is
forbidden to fast.
Along with a brief entry for each holiday’s date in Aramaic, there is a
commentary (known as the Scholion) written in Hebrew further
explaining each date. Although for some of the holiday dates the
period and the source of the Scholia19 is not known and could be as
late as the Gaonic period (7th – 11th century), in our case, the
commentary is recorded in nearly identical language in the
Babylonian Talmud, meaning that the relevant Scholia was already
formulated by the 5th century CE. The following is our synthesis of the
Parma and Oxford manuscripts20 and the Talmudic rendition (Rosh
HaShana 18b) of the relevant Scholia:
IV. Conclusion
On the basis of the information presented above, we would venture to
suggest that at some point in time, apparently during the latter half of the
reign of Jannaeus, a policy promoted by the Pharisaic Sages regarding
a more cautious use of the Holy Name was adopted by the Hasmonean
rulers. It seems that this policy change was faithfully reflected in the
removal or alteration of the appearance of the Holy Name “YH” in the
Paleo-Hebrew inscriptions of Hasmonean coinage.