Page 312.—_The thirteen chests._] Respecting the Gazophylacia, or treasure chests in the temple, see Lightfoot, i. 1095. This was the tax demanded of our Lord, Matth. xvii. 24. The law of Moses does not appear to have contemplated an annual capitation tax; this meaning was given to it after the captivity. Mich Mos. Law, § 173. Cyrene abounded with Jews, who had been settled there by Ptolemy Lagi. Jos. Ant. xii. 1. Ap. ii. 4. Prid. An. 307. Wetstein on Matth. xxvii. 31. In the reign of Trajan, they massacred above 200,000 of the inhabitants of Cyrene, and possessed themselves for a time of the country. Page 314.—_Jewish shekel._] When Antiochus, the son of Demetrius, granted to Simon the principality of Judea, (b. c. 140) he conceded to him the right of coining money, a prerogative of sovereignty most jealously guarded. 1 Macc. xv. 6. Καὶ ἐπέτρεψά σοι ποιῆσαι κόμμα ἴδιον, νόμισμα τῇ χώρᾳ σου. Simon availed himself of this permission; and many coins have come down to our time, bearing his name, with the device and inscription mentioned in the text. As the legends of all these coins are in the old Hebrew character, which, from being used in the Samaritan Pentateuch, was called Samaritan, many learned men were disposed to deny their genuineness; as Basnage, History of the Jews, vi. 24. Reland, and Wise, in his Catalogue of the Medals of the Bodleian. Within the last fifty years, a severe attack was made upon them by the celebrated Orientalist, O. G. Tychsen.[135] They were defended by Bayer, archdeacon of Valencia;[136] and the result of the controversy has completely established their genuineness. See Rasche, Lexicon Rei Numariæ, T. iv. P. 2, p. 1720; Eckhel. Doctr. Num. Vet. iii. 455. Hence the important fact is established, that the Jews continued to use the old Hebrew character, till within a century of our Saviour’s birth.[137] Footnote 135: Unächtheit der Jüdischen Münzen, Rostock, 1779. Footnote 136: De Numis Hebræo-Samaritanis, Valentiæ, 1781. Footnote 137: Possibly much later; for in the rebellion of the Jews under Trajan, they placed their own Maccabæan stamp over the imperial coin; so that the two impressions are still visible, mixed together. These inscriptions are also in the Samaritan character. Eckhel, iii. 472.