Being a big time nerdburger, one thing I occasionally do is collect ancient coins. The one above is one of my favourites. You can see where it’s from on the reverse (assuming you can read Greek – start at the top left):
And one other favourite is this Jewish coin. Again, you should be able to make out the name of the famous ruler, in Greek:
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From the symbols on the coin, which altar do you think Agrippa I was interested in?
Well don’t quote me on this, but it looks a lot like the altar of a church I used to go to in Wembley Downs, Perth, Western Australia… so I’m guessing the good Basileus had an interest in that altar…
There appears to be some debate as to whether the Year 6 canopy coin above which has Agrippa spelt with one pi and and a legend simply ‘king Agrippa’, is a coin of Agrippa I or II. The thing that looks like an umbrella on the obverse is a royal canopy or booth. But strangely the booth on your coin looks like an umbrella with no cover, a framework on which a cover could be placed. Other Year 6 canopy coins show a cover in place. It suggests that this was a booth of a type used by the king during the Feast of Tabernacles when people built booths out of branches and slept in them. At night they could gaze through the branches at the stars waiting for the Spirit of the Lord to come down. The framework on your coin suggests that the cover of the king’s booth could be removed so that the king could see the night sky through the frame of his booth.
The booth suggests that the king leanings were towards the prophetic, and the Spirit. He supported the prophets and the sanctuary.
I understand that the Year 6 series of small bronze canopy coins is one of the largest Jewish bronze prutot series ever minted inside ancient Palestine, except for certain coin types of the Hasmonean ruler Alexander Jannaeus, and the coinage of the so-called First Jewish Revolt (which I happen to think were coins of peace). Y Meshorer attributes the bronze prutot coins to the sixth year of the reign of Agrippa I. Meshorer also says that “Agrippa I chose to mint only bronze prutot in Jerusalem”, but in contrast, “he struck coins of larger denominations in all of his other mints.” Meshorer says again: “Agrippa I consistently inscribed on his coins struck in Caesarea between 42 and 43 CE the legend “The great king, Agrippa, the friend of the emperor.” Most of Agrippa I’s coins minted outside of Jerusalem, are portrait coins or have humans depicted, refer to important events which took place in Rome in relation to the ruling class of Judea, and refer in some way to members of the Imperial family in Rome. There is thus a very sharp contrast with the religious images on the small bronze canopy prutot minted in Jerusalem for Year 6 of Agrippa I’s rule. It is almost as though there had been a dramatic change in the religious life of Agrippa I that he celebrated with the issue of a large quantity of coins of small denomination that presumably were within the purchasing power of most individuals. I suggest he was making known his new religious experience of worship in the Spirit.
That’s interesting – but couldn’t it be that there were simply some coins that were particularly intended for imperial propaganda; and other coins that were designed more for the purpose of Jewish propaganda?
There is an article I would like to read: Agrippa I and Palestinian Judaism in the First Century by David Goodblatt
http://www.springerlink.com/content/m09g77vt34246678/ where there is a Preview. Goodblatt’s Preview acknowledges that a number of scholars have argued that Agrippa I, upon becoming king, aligned himself with, or at least followed the practices of the Pharisees. This was a surprise for me to read this.
And there is a book I would like to get. Agrippa I: The Last King of Judaea by Daniel R. Schwartz. Neither the article nor the book are easy for me to obtain. It seems that information about Agrippa I is sparse.
I had reached my conclusions, quite independently, that Agrippa I had become a supporter of prophets simply from my reading of the NT and the writings attributed to Josephus, and the apparent fact that there are no Pharisees mentioned in the DSS or Philo. But there are prophet-like ‘Essenes’ in both Philo and in the writings attributed to Josephus. And I have for a long time thought that Pharisees had been interpolated into the writings attributed to Josephus.
Then I began to see what could be supporting ideas in the Year 6 coins of Agrippa I. I found an on-line article by K Lonnqvist who suggests that the Year 6 canopy coins were issued by Agrippa II, not by Agrippa I. http://www.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/sbf/Books/LA47/47429KL.pdf This Lonnqvist accepts is contrary to what the coin expert Meshorer says. Lonnqvist gives plenty of useful background information. He recognises that the Year 6 issue is exceptional compared to Agrippa I’s other issues (which is one reason he argues they were issued by Agrippa II), and that they were issued in a large quantity. But he makes no remarks about the religious significance of the images on the coin. For me those images point to Agrippa being a follower of prophets and a supporter of the sanctuary. His favourite festival was The Feast or Booths or Succoth at harvest. The manner of Agrippa I’s death in 44 shortly after Year 6 (42/43) suggests he met his death violently at the hands of his enemies, and not by being ‘eaten by worms’.
There is an older exploration of the coins of Agrippa I that might also be worth looking into:
J. Meyshan, ‘The Coinage of Agrippa the First’ IEJ 4 (1954) 186-200.
It is interesting that Agrippa is the first Jewish ruler to allow his own portrait onto coins. Some coins apparently have his protrait obscured by a canopy/umbrella – which may be an attempt to have the best of both worlds – this suggestion is taken up by, amongst others, Paul Barnett, in his essay ‘Agrippa the Elder and Early Christianity’.
I take the reference to being eaten by worms as a theological pronouncement: He dies in the way wicked kings die (cf 2 Maccabees 9) – mind you I’m not particularly fussed – I’m sure worms joined in at some point!!