Litchfield enquirer., 1857-09-24

stranger than the Story ot lhe Coin received by Juuas, for the betrayal of Jesus Christ, the His tory of which has just been translated by Dr. Ra. phael, of New York.
 The Coin
 Receired by Judas Iscariot, for Me Betrayul
 of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of Me UorM !;
 being he same / aece tAe Lsraelstes pasd as c
 Ramsom for Siu.
 Translated by DR. RAPHAEL, the eminent He-
 brew Scholar and Divine, and Rabbi, of N. Y.
 There is a wonderful mystery about this ] Coin. We learn from the Bible that it was called Me .Shekel of Me Sanctuary See Exo. dus xxx l3, 24. It was considered peculiar piece by the I>raelItes, and always spoken of in thcIr Holy Books as tie SheAcl of Israel, or Holy .Shekl oj he Sanctuary. Tue LORD once used 1t to slun!bec lIe Children of Israel. i It was the ampun: aich each Israclitc, be- tween the ages Of 20 and 50, was required to pay into the public treasury, as a rllisom for their delivery, during their soonrn in the wll- derness. For some reasons at present net 1 thoroughly understood, the Numbering of the People of Israel Was not permitted but the amount of Shckels received could be counted, through wh ch indirect means the number of the people Was approximated.
 According to the British Currency, a Shek- | el Was worth two shiilings, three pence, three | farthiEgs-equa to about fifty ceuts of our money The Beknh was LaIf Shckcl the | Tnz Was half Bckah. The Gerah was the twentieth of a Shekel as is also the present Turkish Para. The ancient Paruta of the Jews was equal to about the tenth of an American Cent. There was also a Golden Shckcl, valued according to the English stan- dard, at one pound, sixteen shiIi;ngs five pence, one farthing-or about eight dollars seventy five cents American currency.
 It is we'll known that the Emperor Titus brought large number of these coins to the City of Rome, on his return from the destruc tjon of the Second Temple, which was built by Cyrus, King of Persia, seventy years after the destruction of tn: First which was built by King Solomon, the Third king of the Jews. A very large part of the Kings treasure coH- sisted of Silver Shckcis and Was seized by the Romans, and brought by them to the Eternal 1 City.
 We have been over seven years diligently searching for this remarkable Coin. Having once published ail the Coins of thc ancient Ro- mans, together with their History, we take pleasure in Introducing this remark lhle piece, so important both under the Old and the New DiSpcnsations. On our visit to Rome last yer, we procured the drawing, and have caus- cd a few to be struck off, to supply those who desire the piece as it appeared ill all its origin i ality, near 5000 years ago.
 This piece must have been coined during the time the Jews were sojournng in the Holy Land, under their own kings, and cotcmpora- neous with the First Temple, which brings it to a period of about 100 B. c. The Hebrew characters upon it are much like the style of our own American coin for while the legend upon ours reads " United States of Amcrica,' this, in the same position on the outer edge, bears the inscription, Jerusalem the Holy j" 1 showing beyond any doubt that it was the Shekel of that very City. While one side bears the resemblance to Aarou's Rod, as mentioned in Numbers Xv 8, on the other, which has the imprint of the Pot of Incense, is inscribed in the Hebrew characters the words "Shekel of Israel y proving beyond doubt that this Coin is not only Jewish Shck- 1 el, but one coined in the City of Jerusalem. Judas received thirty of these pieces for the betrayal of the Son of Man, as mentioned Matthew xvi. Is. As is plainly shown by the text, they were the largest piece of silver co.ncd and nothing less than thirty of them could have purchased field ill or near Jeru- salen As we learn from Mutthew that when Judas began to Ntlect that ne had becn tine cause of shedding innocent blood he went ] back to the High Pr.est who had given the i money, and laid it at his feet. But they wpu.d not let it go into tine treasury oi the suLctuary but purchased Potter's Field to 1 bury strangers Roman soldiers and others
 The count was the same as if a man were in France, and should hear a Frenchman say, 1 give you thirty. Thirty what? Why, Thirty Francs. In England an Englishman says, 1 give you twenty for that ? Twenty what ? Twenty pounds. In America d man says, 1 will give you lty for that horse. S:X- ty what Sixty Dollars The same with Judas We will give you thirty. Thirty what ? Thirty Shekes.
 According to Levticus V. l5, this was one of the counts of reckoning and offering, where the person had committed treSspass through ignorance.
 Of the Censer, with the incense thereof, full account is found m Leviticus, where some men presumptuous!y put strange incense m thclr censers, and went into the Tabernacle to offer Gin direct contravcntion of the orders of the Deity, through Aaron the High Priest, for which offence the ground opened and swallow ed them-being the first account we have, cl thcr in Sacred or Profanc History, of an Earthquake.
 Two important events are thus commemo- rated in the history of the IsraelitS by the devices engraved on the piece--the Destruc- tion of the Rebelling Priests and the Bloom ing of Aaron's Rod.
 How strange it is that this same coin, which was so highly prized by the Jews, as to be called the Shekel of the Sanctuary, and the amount each Jew should pay for a ransom for his sins. should be the identical Piece received