280 PROF. ARCHIBALD R. S. KENNEDY, M.A., D.D., ON 



for us to-day, that beyond all doubt it is the Hebrew silver 

 shell el, in terms of which money vias weighed and paid in all 

 periods of Hebrew and, Jewish history. Other shekels, as we 

 shall see, were known and used, but this shekel is the Hebrew 

 shekel par excellence. It is " the shekel of the sanctuary," more 

 correctly, as in the Greek translation, " the sacred shekel," so 

 frequently used in the priestly sections of the Pentateuch 

 legislation (see the detailed argument in my article, Money, in 

 Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [H.D.B.], iii, 422). 



This identity of the Hebrew and Phoenician shekel (minaand 

 talent) is further shown (1) by the fact that the famous Jewish 

 shekels and half-shekels of the years 1 to 5 are on this 

 standard, the best specimens in the British Museum register 

 218 to 220 grs. — it is immaterial for my argument whether 

 you regard them as struck by Judas Maccabseus or, as I have 

 always held, by the leaders of the First Eevolt, a.d. 66-70 ; 

 (2) by Josephus' valuation of the Tyrian and Hebrew shekels 

 equally at 4 Attic drachms (B.J., II, xxi, 2, Ant. Ill, viii, 2) ; 

 and (3) by the express evidence of the Mishna, which lays down 

 that " all payments according to the sacred shekel are to be 

 made in Tyrian money " (Bekoroth viii, 7). 



In the Pentateuch the " sacred shekel " is defined as " twenty 

 gerahs," themselves defined by the Greek translators as " 20 

 obols." Its talent of 3,000 shekels (673,800 grs.) is thus 

 equivalent to 60,000 obols or 10,000 Attic drachms of 67'38 

 grs. The importance of this equation will appear in the 

 sequel. 



Passing now from the evidence of the coins to that of 

 existing stone weights, it is interesting to find that the largest 

 Hebrew weight known to me is a Hebrew talent on this same 

 standard. It is a cylindrical stone weight said to weigh 42^ 

 kilogrammes, say 93f lbs. avoir., now in the museum of 

 St. Anne's at Jerusalem. An inscription is said to read " weight 

 of King David, 3,000 shekels," but to me, at least, it is quite 

 illegible (see Jewish Chronicle, August 16th, 1912) ! The 

 corresponding shekel ( 30 1 00 ) is 14-18 grammes or 218*8 grs. 

 By far the largest weight found by the Germans at Megiddo 

 weighed 2,775 grammes, which represents a weight of four 

 minas, or 200 shekels of about 214 grs. A large proportion 

 of the weights found by Mr. Macalister at Gezer, from \ and J 

 shekel upwards, belong also to this system. Professor Flinders 

 Petrie, twenty years ago, assigned 44 per cent. — 27 out of 61 — 

 of the Lachish (Tell el-Hesy) weights to the Phoenician 

 standard. 



