HKBKKW WEIGHTS AND MKASDKKS. 



above). The T( V,t part of this talent gives a mina of 6,735 to 

 6,315 grs.; but this is precisely the range of the Syrian-Attic 

 monetary mina in Syria and Palestine under the Seleucid 

 dynasty (for actual weights see below). Josephus, therefore, 

 here informs us that a (heavy) Hebrew talent of gold was equal 

 in weight to that of 100 Attic minas, or 10,000 drachms. But 

 1 would specially ask you to note that the same applies to 

 Josephus or his authorities, when reckoning with talents of 

 silrrr, as anyone may see who takes the trouble to compare the 

 various entries of the revenues of Herod and his family in book 

 XVI I of the Antiquities (cf. XIX, viii, 2). Here talents and 

 ten thousands of drachms are used interchangeably. Again 

 Herod's bequest to Augustus and his family is given in XVII, 

 viii, 1, as 15,000,000 drachms, but in xi, 5, as 1,500 talents, 

 showing as before that Josephus knows only one talent of 10,000 

 (reduced) Attic drachms. Elsewhere, it is true, in a passage 

 already twice cited, he tells us that the Hebrew silver shekel 

 was equal to 4 Attic drachms, which gives 12,000 for the 

 talent. Here, however, "Attic drachms" are the denarius- 

 drachms of the late Jewish system explained above ; the weight 

 and intrinsic value of the talent are the same in both equations. 



Eeturning now to the crucial passage which has hitherto 

 been supposed to disclose the Babylonian gold standard, I ask 

 your particular attention (1) to the fact that there is no hint of 

 any distinction between the standard of the " 2,000 talents of 

 (silver) money" and the "8,000 talents of gold" in the temple 

 treasury, and (2) to the alternative weights given to the gold 

 beam in question, viz., 300 minas each of 2J Eoman pounds, and, 

 near the end of the section, " many ten thousand (drachms),'* 

 that is, as we have just seen, " many talents" in reality only 

 six ! From this, in the light of the results of the preceding 

 paragraph, we see that the talent is the same heavy Hebrew- 

 Phoenician talent, equal in weight to 10,000 Attic drachms; only 

 — and here, in my opinion, lies the solution of the apparently 

 irreconcilable discrepancy between the two passages — Josephus, 

 instead of reckoning the talent of 125 Eoman pounds at 100 

 ordinary or light Attic minas of 1^ pounds, as in the former 

 passage, here reckons it at 50 heavy Attic minas of 2 J lbs. each.* 



* The value of the talent of 125 libras of gold, at the British mint 

 price, may be put at about £5,125. The amount of gold in the temple 

 treasury, 8,000 talents, would thus reach the huge total of £41,000,000 

 sterling. The monetary value of the silver talent of the same weight on 

 the basis of 25 denarius-drachms to the pound sterling was £480. 



