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Nehemiah 10:32 (Hebrew 10:33) and Exodus 30:13

A third of a shekel, or a half?

The covenant sets "the third part of a shekel" yearly for the temple service; Exodus 30:13 requires "half a shekel" at a census. All the library's texts of Nehemiah read a third (Giguet: "a third of a drachma"). They are different provisions, not a copying error.

Read Nehemiah 10:32 (Hebrew 10:33) and Exodus 30:13 in every edition

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

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✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Exodus 30:13 (parallel, Masoretic Text)Torah
  2. Original Ezra–NehemiahMemoir c. 430 BC; book compiled c. 400–300 BC (debated)
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah
Greek
  1. Greek 2 Esdras 11–23 (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BC or laterTranslated from a Hebrew text of Ezra–Nehemiah
Latin
    English
    1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    Every witness, in order

    1. Torah

      Exodus 30:13 (parallel, Masoretic Text)

      ✓ Contains this passage

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex, quoted here in English.

      half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary… an offering of the LORD

      At the census, as "atonement money." KJV.

    2. Memoir c. 430 BC; book compiled c. 400–300 BC (debated)

      Original Ezra–Nehemiah

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. No Qumran fragment of Nehemiah has been identified.

    3. Translated c. 2nd century BC or later

      Greek 2 Esdras 11–23 (library text: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of Ezra–Nehemiah

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      lever sur nous un tiers de drachme, par an

      Greek 2 Esdras via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.

    4. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      לָתֵת עָלֵינוּ שְׁלִשִׁית הַשֶּׁקֶל בַּשָּׁנָה לַעֲבֹדַת בֵּית אֱלֹהֵינוּ

      to lay on ourselves a third of a shekel yearly for the service of the house of our God

      Hebrew verse 10:33.

    5. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God

    What changed, and why

    Exodus' half-shekel is tied to a census; Nehemiah's third is a yearly pledge. A heavier Persian-period shekel, the community's poverty, or simply a new institution may explain it. By the 1st century AD the yearly temple tax was a half-shekel (Matthew 17:24; Mishnah Sheqalim), suggesting the later community merged the two.

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documentedNehemiah 10 sets a third of a shekel; Exodus 30 a half.
    • Independently documentedThe temple tax in Jesus' day was a half-shekel.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Covenant Commitments and the Temple Economy →Nehemiah the governor, priests, Levites and heads of the people set their seals to a written covenant, and the rest of the people join with an oath. They promise to keep the law: no marriages with the peoples of the land; no buying on the Sabbath; the seventh year left fallow and debts released; a third of a shekel yearly for the temple; wood for the altar by lot; firstfruits, firstborn and tithes brought to the storehouses.