Farthing (Assarion & Quadrans)

The King James “farthing” renders two tiny copper coins: the assarion (worth a fraction of a day’s wage) and the smaller quadrans. These were the small change of ordinary transactions — the least amounts anyone reckoned with.

Their very smallness gave them force in Jesus’ teaching. Sparrows, almost worthless, were “sold for a farthing,” yet not one falls without the Father — God’s care reaches even what costs a farthing. And the poor widow’s two mites together made “a farthing,” the tiniest sum, which Jesus declared the greatest gift of all.

Jesus also used the smallest coin to underscore the exactness of justice: a debtor would not get out “till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.” The farthing thus runs through the Gospels as the measure of the little things — proof that nothing is too small for God’s notice, his provision, or his reckoning.