They that received tribute money] RV 'the half-shekel' (Gk. didrachama). Every male Isralite above the age of twenty was required by the Law (Exodus 30:11; Exodus 38:25) to pay half a shekel annually (i.e. about eighteen-pence) towards the maintenance of the Temple worship, as 'a ransom for his soul unto the Lord.' It was usually paid between the fifteenth and twenty-fifth of Adar (March), i.e. about Passover time, so that the money was now considerably overdue.

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