John Lightfoot on Matthew 5:26

[Farthing.] According to the Jerusalem Talmud, it is Kordiontes; according to the Babylonian, Kontrik. For thus they write:

"Two assars make a pondion.

Two semisses make an assar.

Two farthings a semissis.

Two prutahs a farthing.

A pondion is in value two assars.

An assar is two semisses.

A semissis is two farthings.

A kontric, or a farthing, is two prutahs."

That which is here said by the Jerusalem Talmud, Two prutahs make a farthing, is the very same thing that is said, Mark 12:42, Two mites, which make a farthing. A prutah was the very least piece among coins. So Maimonides, That which is not worth a prutah, is not to be reckoned among riches. Hence are those numberless passages in the Talmudic Pandects relating to the prutah: "He that steals less than a prutah is not bound to pay five-fold." "No land is bought for a price less than a prutah," that is, given as an earnest.

You have the value of these coins in the same Maimonides: "Selaa (saith he) is in value four-pence: a penny, six meahs. Now a meah, in the days of Moses our master, was called a gerah; it contains two pondions; a pondion, two assars; and a prutah is the eighth part of an assar. The weight of a meah, which is also called a gerah, is sixteen barleycorns. And the weight of an assar is four barleycorns. And the weight of a prutah is half a barleycorn."

Luke hath, the last mite, chapter 12:59; that is, the last prutah, which was the eighth part of the Italian assarius. Therefore, a farthing, was so called, not that it was the fourth part of a penny, but the fourth part of an assar; which how very small a part of a penny it was, we may observe by those things that are said by both Gemaras in the place before cited.

"Six silver meahs make a penny.

A meah is worth two pondions.

A pondion is worth two assars."

Let this be noted by the way; a meah, which, as Maimonides before testifies, was anciently called a gerah, was also commonly called zuz, in the Talmudists. For as it is said here, six meahs of silver make a penny, so in Rambam, a penny contains six zuzim.

The prutah, as it was the least piece of money among the Jews, so it seems to have been a coin merely Jewish, not Roman. For although the Jews, being subjects to the Romans, used Roman money, and thence, as our Saviour argues, confessed their subjection to the Romans; yet they were permitted to use their own money, which appears by the common use of the shekels and half-shekels among them: with good reason, therefore, one may hold the farthing was the least Roman coin, and the prutah, the least Jewish. Whilst our Saviour mentions both, he is not inconstant to his own speech, but speaks more to the capacity of all.