In Luke 15:8-10 Jesus spoke a parable about a woman and a lost coin. It is interesting that Jesus would cause the woman to represent mankind, who rejoices over the finding what was lost in man’s relationship with God. Her search is as one seeks a treasure (Proverbs 2:1-6), and this represents one’s repentance toward God (Luke 15:10). I believe Jesus chooses a woman in order to rebuke the Pharisees. His words are meant to be a kind of shock to get them to consider their behavior. Most Jewish authorities in the first century didn’t consider women on the same level as men. In fact, some of these authorities didn’t believe women should even be taught the Scriptures.
Notice:
MISHNAH: Rabbi Eliezer says: whoever teaches his daughter Torah teaches her obscenity. [Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 20a]
It was taught: R. Judah used to say, A man is bound to say the following three blessings daily: ‘[Blessed art thou…] who hast not made me a heathen’, ‘…who hast not made me a woman’; and ‘…who hast not made me a brutish man’. [Babylonian Talmud, Menachoth 43b (emphasis mine)]
Our Rabbis taught…‘To teach him Torah.’ How do we know it? — Because it is written. And ye shall teach them your sons…[1] How then do we know that others are not commanded to teach her? — Because it is written: ‘And ye shall teach them your sons’ — but not your daughters. [Babylonians Talmud, Kiddushin 29b]
I don’t mean to embarrass Jewish people or to overly judge their behavior by quoting from their literature, because the truth be told, Christian have little to brag about when it comes to how women have been treated throughout the history of the Church. These excerpts are quoted above to simply show the Jewish authorities state of mind toward women at the time of Jesus’ public ministry.
Notice that the woman lit a candle and swept the whole house while seeking her lost coin. Obviously, Jesus is showing his hearers that the lost coin was of great value for her (Luke 15:8). It probably had more significance than its face value. When she found it, she wanted her friends to rejoice with her (Luke 15:9), which was a common custom for folks in the Middle East to do when a desired goal was achieved (Nehemiah 8:10-12; Esther 9:19-22; Revelation 11:10). She may have even sent desirable portions of food to her neighbors as they discussed her joy at finding the lost coin.
I believe that the point of Jesus’ parable of the woman who had lost one coin, but still had nine left, is that ten coins were needed. That is, the nine coins were not complete or adequate without the tenth or lost coin. For example, young women often pierced the coins of their dowry and strung them together as part of their headdress. Losing one of these coins would be a great embarrassment.
On the other hand, it might be noteworthy to understand that the coin in Luke 15:8 was a drachma (G1406). According to Tobit 5:14, a drachma was a days’ wage. It was also a half shekel as we can see by comparing the Hebrew Old Testament with the Septuagint:
(Genesis 24:22 KJV) And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold;
(Genesis 24:22 Brenton) And it came to pass when all the camels ceased drinking, that the man took golden ear-rings, each of a drachma weight, and he put two bracelets on her hands, their weight was ten pieces of gold. (emphasis mine in both translations
If one drachma is 1/2 a shekel, then 10 drachma would be 5 shekels. Knowing this, we can understand the importance of the set of coins mentioned above. Their value considered together is greater than the sum of the individual coins. Taken together, they represented the redemption money needed to redeem the firstborn. If the woman was the firstborn and the 10 coins referred to were to be for her redemption, one could see why the lost coin was so valuable. It was part of the whole, and the nine were not enough without the tenth.
However, whether the lost coin was from the woman’s dowry or that part of the woman’s redemption money, the point of the parable is, not the value of the single coin, but the value of the whole, counted together. Neither the nine nor the single lost coin was sufficient, and sorrow would continue until the lost was found and the whole was complete
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[1] Cited from Deuteronomy 11:19.
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