Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(gift). A payment made as a token of submission, or for sake of peace, or in pursuance of treaty (Gen. 49:15). The head-tax of half a shekel paid annually by Jews for the support of the temple service (Ex. 30:13).
Concise Bible Dictionary:
Various Hebrew words are thus represented, but the signification in general is that which one nation or people paid to another, either in money or kind (2 Kings 3:4), in order to be left in peaceable possession. Some of the Canaanites were not driven out of the land, but they paid tribute to the Israelites, and Solomon put others under tribute (Josh. 17:13; 2 Chron. 8:7-8). Afterward, because of their sin, Israel had to pay tribute to Assyria, Egypt, &c., and in the New Testament the Jews paid tribute to the Romans in the shape of taxes (Luke 20:22). These were farmed, which led to abuses: (compare Luke 3:12-13).
The word “tribute” is used in the AV in another signification, as when the Jews asked Peter if his teacher paid “tribute.” Here the word is διδραχμον (double drachma), and signifies the sum each Jew paid to the temple. It was about 15d. The fish Peter caught had in its mouth a stater of the value of about 2S. 6d., which paid for the Lord and for Peter (Matt. 17:24-27). The Lord refers to what the kings of the earth did in ordinary tribute, in order to show that Himself and Peter as sons of the King of the temple could have claimed exemption, though they did not (compare Matt. 21:13). The institution of this yearly payment apparently began in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. It is introduced with the words, “We made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God” (Neh. 10:32). It was so far a voluntary arrangement.
Strong’s Dictionary of Greek Words:
Transliteration:
didrachmon
Meaning:
from 1364 and 1406; a double drachma (didrachm)