Biblical Holy Land: Twelve Ancient Judaea Coins from the Time of Jesus Boxed Coin Collection

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.—Isaiah 7:14  For centuries, Jewish prophets spoke of a Messiah—a Savior who would unite the Jews and lead them to triumph. Isaiah, Hosea, Hagai, Ezekiel, Daniel: all spoke of the coming King of the Jews, Whose title, in Greek, was Christ.   The story of the Holy Land in the time of Jesus begins almost a century and a half before His birth, when the defeat of Ptolemy VI by the Seleucids in Palestine threatened the Jews in Judea. To save Jerusalem from certain destruction, the Hasmodean king John Hyrcanus opened the sepulcher of King David, withdrew 3,000 talents, and thus bribed the Syrian ruler to leave the city be.  When John died in 104 BC, he was succeeded by Alexander Jannaeus, who ruled as King for a peaceful quarter century. The “widow’s mites” mentioned in both Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21:1-4, on Jesus’ preaching of humility and charity, are thought to be