ARCHAEOLOGY: Noah on Roman Coins

"Imperial Rome produced a series of now-rare bronze coins depicting Noah’s Ark—the first known coins depicting a Biblical scene. These coins, averaging about 3 cm in diameter, were produced during the reigns of five Roman Emperors: Septimius Severus, Macrinus, Gordian III, Philip, and Trebonianus Gallus, covering a period of 61 years (AD 192–253).

The coins were all minted in the Roman city of Apameia Kibotos (or Cibotus in its Latinized spelling) in Asia Minor. It was originally a Phrygian city established by Antiochus I (280–261 BC), and is now the modern-day town of Dinar in Turkey. The original Phrygian city was named Apameia, and sometime before the turn of the 1st millennium BC appears to have had a nickname, Kibōtos, added to it. This word, meaning chest or box, is thought to be a reference to its coffers, as it had become a very wealthy city as it rose to prominence. The word kibōtos (κιβωτός) is also the Greek word used to describe Noah’s Ark in the New Testament and the Septuagint.

While Apameia Kibōtos is in the west of Turkey, a tradition4 was formed by the Jewish population living there that a nearby mountain was the actual Mountain of Ararat on which Noah’s Ark landed.

As the coins weren’t minted until AD 192, some have considered that the primary influence responsible for their minting may have been a Christian one. One reason is that for Jews, “A strict interpretation of the numerous prohibitions against idolatry in Scripture precluded the depiction of ‘graven images’ and thus any human or animal form on coins.”

The obverse of the coin carries the image and name of the Emperor, which obviously changes depending on the time of minting, but the core features remain essentially the same. 

On the reverse side it depicts Noah and his wife inside the box-

shaped Ark with waves lapping at the bottom of it.

 Noah’s name in Greek, ΝΩΕ (Nōe), can be clearly read in the middle of the Ark. 

On top of the Ark on the right is the raven, and on the top left is the dove with an olive branch in its mouth. 

On the left side of the coin Noah and his wife are again shown, standing outside the Ark on solid ground with their hands raised upwards to God in praise.

The New Testament indicates that the Ark is a ‘type’ of Jesus (Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 

1 Peter 3:20–21); coming to Him in faith and repentance ensures salvation from God’s judgment on sin. So the story on the coin can be used by Christians to point people to Jesus, the Savior of the world." 

CMI