Convert Bekan (Biblical Hebrew) (bekan) to Denarius (Biblical Roman) (denarius) instantly.
About these units
Bekan (Biblical Hebrew) (bekan)
The bekan (or beka) is a half-shekel unit, approximately 5.6 grams. It appears in the Hebrew Bible as the required contribution for the census tax, symbolizing equality among contributors regardless of wealth. As a practical unit, the beka was useful for small-scale offerings, jewelry, and silverwork. Its precise half-shekel value made it easy to incorporate into the larger Hebrew weight structure. The bekan highlights how weights were intertwined with religious observance and communal obligations in ancient Israelite society.
Denarius (Biblical Roman) (denarius)
The denarius, about 3.9–4.5 grams, was the standard Roman silver coin of the early empire and appears frequently in the New Testament. It was considered a typical day's wage for a laborer, providing historians with a powerful economic reference point. As a mass unit, the denarius represents a consistent silver weight upon which Roman taxation and commercial pricing depended. Its stability made it a backbone of Roman monetary policy. Its appearance in religious texts shows how deeply embedded Roman economics were in the daily lives of conquered regions.