Tables of the Weights, Measures, and Money, Mentioned in the Bible.
JEWISH WEIGHTS, REDUCED TO ENGLISH TROY WEIGHT.
| lbs. | ozs. | pen. | gr. | |
| The Gerah, the twentieth part of a Shekel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| The Bekah, half a Shekel | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| The Shekel | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| The Maneh, sixty Shekels | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| The Talent, fifty Maneh, or three thousand Shekels | 125 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
According to the bishop of Peterborough’s calculations, the Gerah is nearly equal to 11 grains Troy; the Bekah, to about 4¾ pennyweights; and the Shekel, to about 9⅛ pennyweights.
TABLES OF SCRIPTURE MEASURES OF LENGTH, REDUCED TO
ENGLISH MEASURE.
SHORT MEASURES.
| English feet. | Inches. | ||||||||
| Digit | 0 | 0.912 | |||||||
| 4 | Palm | 0 | 3.684 | ||||||
| 12 | 3 | Span | 0 | 10.944 | |||||
| 24 | 6 | 3 | Cubit | 1 | 9.888 | ||||
| 96 | 24 | 6 | 2 | Fathom | 7 | 3.552 | |||
| 144 | 36 | 12 | 6 | 1.5 | Ezekiel’s reed | 10 | 11.328 | ||
| 192 | 48 | 16 | 8 | 2 | 1.3 | Arabian pole | 14 | 7.104 | |
| 1920 | 480 | 160 | 80 | 20 | 13.3 | 10 | Schœnus’s meas’ng line | 145 | 11.04 |
LONG MEASURES.
| English miles. | Paces. | Feet. | ||||||
| Cubit | 0 | 0 | 1.824 | |||||
| 400 | Stadium or Furlong | 0 | 145 | 4.6 | ||||
| 2000 | 5 | Sabbath day’s journey | 0 | 729 | 3.0 | |||
| 4000 | 10 | 2 | Eastern mile | 1 | 403 | 1.0 | ||
| 12000 | 30 | 6 | 3 | Parasang | 4 | 153 | 3.0 | |
| 96000 | 240 | 48 | 24 | 8 | A day’s journey | 33 | 172 | 4.0 |
| ⁂ 5 Feet=1 Pace; 1056=1 mile. | ||||||||
| According to the bishop of Peterborough, a Parasang is equal to 4 miles, 116 paces. | ||||||||
| FOR TABLES OF TIME SEE THE ARTICLES “MONTHS” AND “DAY.” | ||||||||
TABLES OF SCRIPTURE MEASURES OF CAPACITY.
MEASURES FOR LIQUIDS, REDUCED TO ENGLISH WINE MEASURE.
| Gallons. | Pints. | |||||||
| Caph | 0 | 0.625 | ||||||
| 1.3 | Log | 0 | 0.833 | |||||
| 5.3 | 4 | Cab | 0 | 3.333 | ||||
| 16 | 12 | 3 | Hin | 1 | 2 | |||
| 32 | 24 | 6 | 2 | Seah | 2 | 4 | ||
| 96 | 72 | 18 | 6 | 3 | Bath or Epha | 7 | 4 | |
| 960 | 720 | 180 | 60 | 20 | 10 | Chomer, Homer, Kor, or Coros | 75 | 5 |
The Omer was one-tenth of an Epha, and contained 6 pints; the Metretes of Syria, translated in John ii, 6, “firkins,” 7⅛ pints; and the eastern Cotyla, half a pint. This Cotyla, says the bishop of Peterborough, contains just 10 ounces Averdupois of rain water; the Omer, 100 ounces; the Epha, 1000; and the Chomer, 10,000 ounces. So by these weights all these measures of capacity may be expeditiously recovered to a near exactness.
MEASURES FOR THINGS DRY, REDUCED TO ENGLISH CORN MEASURE.
| Pecks. | Gals. | Pints. | |||||||
| Gachal | 0 | 0 | 0.1416 | ||||||
| 20 | Cab | 0 | 0 | 2.8333 | |||||
| 36 | 1.8 | Omer or Gomer | 0 | 0 | 5.1 | ||||
| 120 | 6 | 3.3 | Seah | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 360 | 18 | 10 | 3 | Epha | 3 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 1800 | 90 | 50 | 15 | 5 | Letech | 16 | 0 | 0 | |
| 3600 | 180 | 100 | 30 | 10 | 2 | Chomer Homer, &c. | 32 | 0 | 0 |
TABLES OF MONEY.
JEWISH MONEY, REDUCED TO THE ENGLISH STANDARD.
| £. | s. | d. | |||||
| Gerah | 0 | 0 | 1.3687 | ||||
| 10 | Bekah | 0 | 1 | 1.6875 | |||
| 20 | 2 | Shekel | 0 | 2 | 3.375 | ||
| 1200 | 120 | 50 | Maneh, or Mina Hebraica | 5 | 14 | 0.75 | |
| 60,000 | 6000 | 3000 | 60 | Talent | 342 | 3 | 9 |
| Solidus Aureus, or Sextula, was worth | 0 | 12 | 0.5 | ||||
| Siclus Aureus, or Gold Shekel | 1 | 16 | 6 | ||||
| Talent of Gold | 5475 | 0 | 0 | ||||
The bishop of Peterborough makes the Mina Hebraica to contain 60 Shekels, and to weigh 27 oz. 7½ dwts.; which, at 5s. per ounce, will amount to 6l. 16s. 10½d.; and the Talent of Silver to contain 50 Minæ, which, at 5s., will equal the amount in this table, 342l. 3s. 9d.
ROMAN MONEY, MENTIONED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, REDUCED TO THE
ENGLISH STANDARD.
| £. | s. | d. | far. | |
| Mite (Assarium) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ¾ |
| Farthing, (Quadrans,) about | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1½ |
| Penny, or Denarius (Silver) | 0 | 0 | 7 | 3 |
| Pound, or Mina | 3 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
According to the bishop of Peterborough, the Roman Mite is one-third of our farthing; Quadrans, three-fourths of a farthing; the Assarium, a farthing and a half; and the Assis three farthings.
⁂ In the preceding Tables, Silver is valued at 5s., and Gold at £4. per ounce.
Since the publication, in 1727, of Dr. Arbuthnot’s “Tables of Ancient Coins, Weights, and Measures,” that celebrated work has been regarded by the best divines as the general standard on these difficult subjects. More recently the bishop of Peterborough has rendered good service to this part of Biblical antiquity by entering into several nice and extensive calculations on the weights and measures mentioned in the Bible, which have, with very few exceptions, confirmed the previous investigations of Dr. Arbuthnot: and as the axiom, “What is new in theology is false,” holds good only in regard to the doctrines of Scripture, and not to its statics and numismatics, no hesitation has been felt in presenting the reader, under each of the preceding Tables, with some of the most important of the results which the bishop has thus obtained.
In the abstruse department of mensuration of superficies, the same learned prelate has also ably demonstrated, that the altar of incense, described in Exodus xxx, 2, as consisting of a cubit in length, and a cubit in breadth, and yet “four-square,” contained exactly one square cubit, that is, three English square feet, and about forty-seven square inches;--that the table of shew bread, described in Exodus xxv, 23, as being two cubits long and one broad, and rectangular, contained above six English square feet;--that the boards of the tabernacle, described in Exodus xxvi, 16, as ten cubits in length and a cubit and a half in breadth, and rectangular, contained nearly fifty square feet of English measure;--that the mercy seat, which Moses is directed to make “two cubits and a half the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof,” Exodus xxv, 17, contained twelve and a half square feet;--that the altar of incense, which was directed to be “a cubit the length thereof and a cubit the breadth thereof, and four square,” Exodus xxx, 2, contained upward of three square feet;--that the court of the tabernacle, the orders concerning which were, “The length of the court shall be a hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty every where,” Exodus xxvii, 18, comprised upward of sixteen thousand six hundred and thirty-four square feet, or in English land measure one rood, twenty-one perches, and twenty-seven and a half feet;--and that the Levites’ glebe, which is thus described in Numbers xxxv, 3–5: “The cities they shall have to dwell in: and the suburbs of them shall be for their cattle, and for their goods, and for all their beasts. And the suburbs of the cities, which ye shall give unto the Levites, shall reach from the wall of the city and outward a thousand cubits round about. And ye shall measure from without the city on the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits,” &c; “and the city shall be in the midst;” contained three hundred and five acres, two roods, and one perch, which was, for each of the four sides, seventy-six acres, one rood, twenty perches, and eighty square feet.
Respecting the Egyptian aroura, which is sometimes mistranslated “acre,” the bishop remarks, “Reflecting upon Moses’ measure by cubits, and,” in the case of the court of the tabernacle, “finding them to be precisely five thousand square cubits, I observed that they were just half ten thousand, which I had observed from Herodotus to be the area of the Egyptian aroura, by which their land was as generally measured as ours is by acres and roods. I called also to mind a passage in Manetho, an Egyptian priest, cited by Josephus, in his first book against Apion, where he affirms, that Manetho, in his history of the reign, wars, and expulsion of the Pastors, (whom Africanus affirms to be Phenicians or Canaanites, and Josephus vainly believed to be Jews,) wrote out of the public records of Egypt, that these Pastors made at Abaris a very large and strong encampment, that encompassed ten thousand arouræ, sufficient to contain two hundred and forty thousand men, and long to maintain their cattle. Hence it appears, that not only the Egyptians, but also the Phenicians or Canaanites, that had dwelt among them, and had reigned there during the time of six kings successively, used this measure of land called aroura. Now this was long before the time of Moses; for the beginning of Amosis or Tethmosis, who expelled them out of Egypt, was very near the time of Abraham’s death. Wherefore I believe that Moses, who was skilled in all Egyptian learning, especially in surveying, did of choice make the court of the tabernacle to be just half an aroura, which was a known measure to him and his people, and that divine authority directed him so to do.” In another part of his work he reduces the Egyptian aroura into English measure, and finds it to be three roods, two perches, and fifty-five and a quarter square feet.
THE END.
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