The Fish and the Coin

Chromis Niloticus (musht, St. Peter's fish, tilapia)--published by H.B. TRISTRAM for the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1881

The tilapia also known as the musht is native to the Lake Tiberias and was observed by nineteenth century naturalist H. B. Tristram. There are several species of tilapia type fish in the "Sea of Galilee", Yam Kinnerth, Lake Tiberias.

Matthew 17

24 And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received the half-shekel came to Peter, and said, Doth not your teacher pay the half-shekel?
25 He saith, Yea. And when he came into the house, Jesus spake first to him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? the kings of the earth, from whom do they receive toll or tribute? from their sons, or from strangers?
26 And when he said, From strangers, Jesus said unto him, Therefore the sons are free.
27 But, lest we cause them to stumble, go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a shekel: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.

It is assumed that if a fish were having a behaviour of picking things up off the bottom of a lake, it might be used by God to pick up a coin and move in a certain direction. Archaeologists may be able to determine what fish were used during Jesus day in this lake if they will find specific fish bones in strata dated to the first century. There was a stone fish pond/tank found near the docks of Capernaum (Greek Orthodox) by archaeologists. It is assumed the tilapia and barbel found in the lake a hundred years ago may have been native to the lake in the first millenium according to the theories of Mendell Nun a fisherman who has published descriptions of fish and fishing methods from the times of Jesus. A species of Egyptian catfish reported by the Jewish historian Josephus of the first century yet abides in the lake.

The tilapia (St. Peter's fish) was known to carry its small young in its mouth until they were large enough to leave. The fish reportedly picked up small pebbles in its mouth. It was written that sometimes St. Peter's fish picked up bottle caps also. There was a published story of a tilapia being found with a bottle cap in its mouth. The St. Peter's fish was a popular menu item in restaurants around the lake.

In January in Tiberius, the St. Peter's fish were in shallow water where there was more plankton than in the deep waters. The people of Tiberius were using rods and reels with treble hooks at the ends of their lines to snag the tilapia. One old man had a heavy stringers of fish for his daily efforts. In 1909 a traveler reported he had seen fishing done with a string of hooks tied to a line with a weight at the end of it and pulled rapidly through the water in order to catch the fish by impaling them.

The temple taxes were collected in the month before Passover as the lake water got warmer, that was late February - mid March. The time of temple tax collection was recorded in the Talmud tractate Shekalim. About this time there might have been some tilapia zilli fish moving gravel on the bottom to build spawning pits, others might have been searching for plant material on the bottom as one species not only ate plankton material, but pieces of aquatic plants too. This species as a probable St. Peters fish was occasionally omnivorous and might have seen a shiny object and gone to investigate. Most tilapia were plankton eaters and mouth breeders. It may have been unusual behavior for such a fish to pick something off the bottom.

According to C. Serrya, Lake Kinnereth, there were six species of mouth breeders in the lake, mainly plankton eaters, but two were omnivorous, including tristramella sacra, a relatively large species. Spawning pits were excavated by these fish. A fish opened its mouth and swam along the bottom filling its mouth with sediment then spit it out at the end of its row, and swam backwards to start the process again. The fish guarded their nests during this process. The spawning usually happened according to water temperatures. Near the warm springs of Tabgha the spawning might have been early.

I was asking the fish vendors if these were St. Peter's Fish, they answered, "Yes".

In 1936 H.V. Morton reported time spent fishing and visiting fishermen on the lake. He reported he found the legendary "St. Peter's fish," a musht (tilapia) and opened its mouth. The mouth opens very wide as the fish sheltered its young inside the mouth. He took out a ten piastre coin and placed it in the fish's mouth. It fit.

In the 11/12 1993 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, a Galilean fisherman named Mendel Nun wrote that the St. Peter's fish also known as musht fed on plankton. He thought the Biblical St. Peter's fish was the barbel, similar to a carp. The carp in the lake were introduced in more recent times, yet authorities at the Ein Gev, House of Anchors Galilee Fishing History Museum determined the barbel has been in the lake since ancient times. This was also published in Mendel Nun's book. The barbel is a bottom feeding fish that might have been attracted to shiny objects as small fish were shiny. Mendell wrote that this fish searched the bottom sediments for water snails and scavenged for dead fish.

It had been observed that a bluegill fish in an Indiana lake struck at a lure during its nest building, as if it were defending its nest or territory, not because it was hungry. A fish not normally feeding on bait might consider it a threat during the time of its egg laying and strike at it. A species of tilapia of Galilee deposited the eggs and then the female was described as picking them up and carrying them in her mouth until they hatched and then sheltered the little fish in spaces in its mouth and as far as its gills.

During July 2006 I saw people fishing at the Tiberias Marina using bread as bait. Some larger fish occasionally came in to try to feed on the bread. The fish were skilled at bumping the bread off the line without getting caught. Occasionally one got caught during a feeding frenzy. Sometimes larger fish took pieces of bread thrown to them, they were shaped like a tilapiine fish, yet a positive identification of the species was not certain.

July 2006 -- Fish feeding on bread at Tiberius; the stripped fish is a different species than St. Peter's fish. Tilapia grown in fish ponds were fed grain as food.

A literal translation of the Gospel of Matthew indicated the coin from the fish's mouth was a four drachma coin. A drachma was a little heavier than a denarius. A Tyrian shekel was a Roman provincial coin worth four drachmas or one Jewish shekel. The Jewish temple half-shekel tax was collected from the different districts of Israel once a year. Jews from outside of Israel brought coins for their religious taxes dues during their pilgrimages to the temple. It was not permitted to pay this Jewish tax with coins having images of the emperor on them. The dislike of images by the people was required by the Hebrew books of Moses (Torah). There were also Greek four drachma (tetradrachma) silver coins. These were from the times of Greek occupation of Galilee and were stamped with various rulers' portraits. Money changers in the temple converted the coins of the foreign currency to the approved priestly coinage.

These coins all weighed four drachma, tetradrachma silver coins. Four drachma were equivalent to two Jewish shekels, or one Tyrian shekel.

The Shekalim tractate of the Jerusalem Talmud contained descriptions of the temple tax. It was due by the 15 of Adar, about a month before the Passover was sacrificed on the 14th of Nissan. The first day of eating the unleavened bread was on the 15th of Nissan.

ISRAEL PHOTOS III -- A COLLECTION OF PHOTOS FROM ISRAEL

WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF SCENES AND SITES PERTINENT TO THE STUDY OF CHRISTIANITY

THE FISH AND THE COIN