THE FISH AND THE COIN

                               BLUE TILAPIA (ST. PETER'S FISH)-- BY H.B. TRISTRAM (1880))

The blue tilapia is native to the lake Galilee and was observed by nineteenth century naturalist H. B. Tristram and published in a list of three fish common to the lake.  The red tilapia was a more recent addition to the area.

Matthew 17

This 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 said that sometimes St. Peter's fish picked up bottle caps also.  There is a widely 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.  The fish is a delicacy.

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.  As the water got warmer the fish started to build nests on the lake bottoms.  They picked up stones with their mouths and built small nests resembling the rims of low volcanoes or hoops on the gravel lake bottom.  St. Peter's fish dug nests to deposit their eggs and to get the eggs fertilized.  They took the eggs into their mouths and until the eggs hatched.  Some fish exhibited aggressive behavior during nesting times and have struck lures or shiny objects to defend their eggs.

The temple taxes were collected in the month before Passover as the lake water got warmer, that was late February - early March.  The time of temple tax collection was recorded in the Talmud tractate Shekalim.  When the Levite might have asked Jesus to pay the temple tax was about the time the male fish was moving gravel and objects around on the bottom, or as some have suggested the fish put foreign objects in its mouth after its eggs hatched as a nervous habit.  It was one move further for the fish to attack a hook Peter had thrown into the water while it was carrying a coin, or Peter used a hook to snag the fish as it was in shallow water.  It is not known that the Romans had treble hooks.  There was a young boy with a hand line snagging St. Peter's fish in January when many were taking them with rods and reels.  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.

Snagging tilapia with a treble hook, Tiberius, January 2006

Casting out a casting net, Tiberias, January 2006

"St. Peter's Fish" from a Tiberias fish vendor's shop April 2005

July 2006, Tiberias  


Tiberias - January 2006

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

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.  The barbel is a bottom feeding fish that might have been attracted to shiny objects as small fish were shiny.  In a following edition of BAR a man wrote that he had taken several St. Peter's fish with a fly rod near Kibbutz Ginosar. 

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.  Tilapia were also nest builders picking up gravel and moving it to build circular pebble nests resembling the rims of shallow volcanoes.  Other tilapia in Tanzania borrowed in the mud and deposited their eggs.     

During July 2006 I saw people fishing at the Tiberias Marina using bread as bait.  Some larger tilapia 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.

July 2006 -- Fish feeding on bread at Tiberius; while I am not sure if this is the native Galilee tilapia, there was a pair of larger fish feeding on bread while I did not have my camera out, much like the tilapia pointed out to me in the market.  I read online about tilapia being fed grain and plant pellets on fish farms.

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. 

Golan Museum - Qatzrin  January 2006

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.

There is a free version of the Babylonian Talmud and the first page of Shekalim online at:  http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/t02/shk05.htm#page_1

A Persian era Sidonian double shekel.

Parable of the Mustard Seed
     A Mustard Field Along Highway 87-North Shore of Galilee
     Mustard Seeds in the Palm of a Hand
     A Branching Mustard Plant Near the Jordan River/Bethsaida
     Mustard Field March 1999
     Mustard Flowers
     Chukar Partridges
Upper Most Seats of the Synagogue
The Fig Tree
     Mt of Olives Fig Tree April 12-13, 2005
     Fig and Pomegranate trees below Siloam in Jerusalem
     Israel Photos II fig tree page
     Sycomore Fig Tree
The Good Shepherd
The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats
     Goat Herder
Camels
Eye of the Needle
Ritual Cleansing
Shechem
     The Olive Harvest of Samaria
     Mt. Ebal
     Olive Tree
Pearl of Great Price
A First Century Synagogue at Gamala
     View from the Vulture Overlook
     Overview of Gamala
     Roman Artillery Replica
A First Century Boat on Display at Kibbutz Ginosaur
     Modern Galilee Fishing Boats
Kursi
     Caves and/or Tombs
     Steep Slope near the Lake
Hippos
Feeding the 5,000
     On the Mountain
     Walking on Water
     Ramot-Zelon area
     Alternate location
Mt. Hermon
The Pool(s) of Bethesda in Jerusalem
     Healing Pools
     Southern Pool
     Crusader Chapel and St. Ann Church
The Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem
     Gihon Spring
     Hezekiah's Tunnel
     Overlook of  Siloam
Tower of Siloam
A Watch Tower in a Vineyard/Olive Grove|
     Grape Vines at Beth Horan
     Towers
Mt. Precipice
     South Face
     Summit
     Over the edge
     Measuring Line
     View of Nazareth from near Megiddo
Nazareth
     The Basilica of the Annunciation
Capernaum
Healing a Paralytic in Capernaum
Bethsaida      
First Century Artifacts from Qumran and Masada
     Qumran -- 1st century pottery
     Masada -- 1st century glassware
     Masada -- 1st century pottery
     Masada -- 1st century stoneware
Waterskins and Wineskins
The Fish and the Coin
A Denarius
Casting out a demon
The Road to Jericho
     Old Roman Road
     Wilderness Above Jericho
     Old Jericho
Western Wall
Gethsemane and the Cave of  Gethsemane
Church of the Holy Sepulcher
Rolling Stone Tombs - Jerusalem
     Other Rolling Stone Tombs
Tiberias
Solar Power in Israel
Salt of the earth
Chorazin

Home Page