{They that received the half-shekel} (hoi ta didrachma
lambanontes). This temple tax amounted to an Attic drachma or
the Jewish half-shekel, about one-third of a dollar. Every Jewish
man twenty years of age and over was expected to pay it for the
maintenance of the temple. But it was not a compulsory tax like
that collected by the publicans for the government. "The tax was
like a voluntary church-rate; no one could be compelled to pay"
(Plummer). The same Greek word occurs in two Egyptian papyri of
the first century A.D. for the receipt for the tax for the temple
of Suchus (Milligan and Moulton's _Vocabulary_). This tax for the
Jerusalem temple was due in the month Adar (our March) and it was
now nearly six months overdue. But Jesus and the Twelve had been
out of Galilee most of this time. Hence the question of the
tax-collectors. The payment had to be made in the Jewish coin,
half-shekel. Hence the money-changers did a thriving business in
charging a small premium for the Jewish coin, amounting to some
forty-five thousand dollars a year, it is estimated. It is
significant that they approached Peter rather than Jesus, perhaps
not wishing to embarrass "Your Teacher," "a roundabout hint that
the tax was overdue" (Bruce). Evidently Jesus had been in the
habit of paying it (Peter's).