Luke 15:1-10, A lost sheep and a lost coin

Intimate table fellowship meant acceptance, Pharisees also worried about untithed food, and grumbling recalls Israel murmuring in the wilderness (Keener and his notes). A hundred was an ordinary flock, and shepherds often watched their animals together, so this one could leave the ninety-nine with other herders (Keener and his notes). Each coin was worth about a day's wage (Keener; the ESV and CSB Study Bibles). Keener suggests the ten were her dowry; Strauss, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary, calls that speculative, since the parable never mentions a marriage, and says her poverty alone makes the loss serious. Coins fell so often between the stones of poor homes' floors that archaeologists date houses by them (Keener and his notes). Did the first hearers despise shepherds? Keener says the Pharisees counted herding an unclean trade, and the cultural backgrounds notes say townspeople looked down on shepherds. Levine answers, "Such views are nonsense": the usual proofs are Philo, the Mishnah (Qiddushin 4.14) and a late midrash, none of them showing what is claimed, while Jewish tradition used the shepherd as a positive image.