Talent (measurement)

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File:5-mina weight Shu-Shin Louvre AO246.jpg
Sumerian tablet with measurement glyphs

The talent (Ancient Greek: Script error: No such module "Lang"., talanton, Latin: Script error: No such module "Lang"., Biblical Hebrew: kikkar כִּכָּר, Ugaritic: kkr (𐎋𐎋𐎗),[1] Phoenician: kkr (𐤒𐤒𐤓),[2] Syriac: kakra (ܟܲܟܪܵܐ),[3], Akkadian: kakkaru or gaggaru in the Amarna tablets,[4] later Aramaic: Script error: No such module "lang". (<templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />קינטרא‎)) was a unit of weight used in the ancient world, often used for weighing gold and silver.

In the Hebrew Bible, it is recorded that the gold used in the work of the sanctuary (tabernacle), where the Ark of the Covenant was, weighed 29 talents and 730 shekels,[5] and silver 100 talents and 1,775 shekels[6] (1 talent = 3,000 shekels[7]). The enormous wealth of King Solomon is described as receiving 666 gold talents a year.[8]

The talent is also mentioned in connection with other metals, ivory,[9] and frankincense. In Homer's poems, it is always used of gold and is thought to have been quite a small weight of about Script error: No such module "convert"., approximately the same as the later gold stater coin or Persian daric.

In later times in Greece, it represented a much larger weight, approximately 3,000 times as much: an Attic talent was approximately Script error: No such module "convert"..[10] The word also came to be used as the equivalent of the Middle Eastern kakkaru or kikkar. A Babylonian talent was Template:Cvt.Template:Sfn Ancient Israel adopted the Babylonian weight talent, but later revised it.[11] The heavy common talent, used in New Testament times, was Template:Cvt.[11] A Roman talent (divided into 100 librae or pounds) was <templatestyles src="Fraction/styles.css" />1+1⁄3 Attic talents, approximately Template:Cvt. An Egyptian talent was 80 librae,[10] approximately Template:Cvt.[10]

Akkadian talent

The Akkadian talent was called kakkaru[12][13] in the Akkadian language,[14] corresponding to Biblical Hebrew kikkar כִּכָּר (translated as Greek τάλαντον 'talanton' in the Septuagint,[15] English 'talent'), Ugaritic kkr (𐎋𐎋𐎗),[16] Phoenician kkr (𐤒𐤒𐤓),[17] Syriac kakra (ܟܲܟܪܵܐ),[18] and apparently to gaggaru in the Amarna Tablets.[19] The name comes from the Semitic root KKR meaning 'to be circular',[20] referring to round masses of gold or silver.[21] The kakkaru or talent weight was introduced in Mesopotamia at the end of the 4th millennium BC, and was normalized at the end of the 3rd millennium during the Akkadian-Sumer phase. The talent was divided into 60 minas, each of which was subdivided into 60 shekels (following the common Mesopotamian sexagesimal number system). These weights were used subsequently by the Babylonians, Sumerians and Phoenicians, and later by the Hebrews. The Babylonian weights are approximately: shekel (Template:Cvt), mina (Template:Cvt) and talent (Template:Cvt).

The Greeks adopted these weights through their trade with the Phoenicians along with the ratio of 60 minas to one talent. A Greek mina in Euboea around 800 BC weighed 504 g;[22] other minas in the Mediterranean basin, and even other Greek minas, varied in some small measure from the Babylonian values, and from one to another. The Bible mentions the unit in various contexts, like Hiram king of Tyre sending 120 talents of gold to King Solomon as part of an alliance,[23] or the building of the candelabrum necessitating a talent of pure gold.[24]

Origin

William Ridgeway speculates that the kakkaru/kikkar was originally the weight of a load which could be carried by a man. Thus in the Book of Kings we read that Naaman “bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him”.[25] He notes that in Assyrian cuneiform, the same ideogram or sign was used for both "tribute" and "talent", which might be explained if a load of corn was the regular unit of tribute.[26]

Homeric talent

In Homer, the word Script error: No such module "Lang". in the plural is sometimes used of a pair of scales or a balance;[27] it is used especially of the scales in which Zeus weighed the fortunes of men (Iliad 8.69, 19.223, 22.209). The word is also used as a measurement, always of gold. "From the order of the prizes in Il. 23.262 sq. and other passages its weight was probably not great".[28]

According to Seltman, the original Homeric talent was probably the gold equivalent of the value of an ox or a cow.[29] Homer describes how Achilles set an ox as 2nd prize in a foot race, and a half-talent of gold as the third prize, suggesting that the ox was worth a talent.[30] Based on a statement from a later Greek source that "the talent of Homer was equal in amount to the later daric [... i.e.] two Attic drachmas" and analysis of finds from a Mycenaean grave-shaft, a weight of about Script error: No such module "convert". can be established for this original talent.[29] The later Attic talent was of a different weight than the Homeric, but represented the same value in copper as the Homeric did in gold, with the price ratio of gold to copper in Bronze Age Greece being 1:3000.[29]

Attic talent

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". An Attic talent was the equivalent of 60 minae or 6,000 drachmae.[31]

An Attic weight talent was about Script error: No such module "convert".. Friedrich Hultsch estimated a weight of 26.2 kg,[32] and Template:Harvp offers an estimate of 26.0 kg.[33] An Attic talent of silver was the value of nine man-years of skilled work, according to known wage rates from 377 BC.[34] In 415 BC, an Attic talent was a month's pay for a trireme crew.[35] Hellenistic mercenaries were commonly paid one drachma per day of military service.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Aeginetan talent

The Aeginetan talent weighed about Template:Cvt. The German historian Friedrich Hultsch calculated a range of Template:Cvt based on such estimates as the weight of one full Aeginetan metretes of coins, and concluded that the Aeginetan talent represented the water weight of a Babylonian ephah: Template:Cvt by his reckoning (the metretes and the ephah were units of volume).[36] Percy Gardner estimated a weight of Template:Cvt, based on extant weights and coins.[37]

An Aeginetan talent was worth 60 Aeginetan minae, or 6,000 Aeginetan drachmae.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Talent in late Hebrew antiquity

The talent (Template:Langx, kikkar; Aramaic: <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />קינטרא‎, Script error: No such module "lang".) in late Hebrew antiquity (c. 500 CE) was the greatest unit of weight in use at the time, and which weight varied depending on the era. According to the Jerusalem Talmud (Sanhedrin 9a, Pnei Moshe Commentary, s.v. <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />דכתיב בקע לגלגלת‎), the weight of the talent at the time of Moses was double that of the Roman era talent, which latter had the weight of either 100 maneh (Script error: No such module "Lang".), or 60 maneh (Roman Script error: No such module "Lang".),[38] each maneh (libra) having the weight of 25 selas[39] (sela being a term used for the biblical Shekel of Tyrian coinage, or 'shekel of the Sanctuary', and where there were 4 provincial denarii or zuz to each sela;[40] 25 selas being equivalent to 100 denaria).[39][41][42]

The standard talent during the late Second Temple period was the talent consisting of 60 maneh.[43][39] According to Talmudic scholars, the talent (kikkar) of 60 maneh (and which sum total of 60 maneh equals 1,500 selas, or 6,000 denarii (the denarius also being known in Hebrew as zuz),[40] had a weight of 150 dirham for every 25 selas.[39] The anatomic weight of each dirham at that time was put at 3.20 grammes,[44] with every sela or 'shekel of the sanctuary' weighing-in at 20.16 grammes. The sum aggregate of the 60 maneh talent (or 1,500 selas) came to c. Script error: No such module "convert".. According to Adani, in the silver coinage known as the Mughal India rupaiya, minted during British colonial rule (each with a weight of Script error: No such module "val". grammes (1 tola), of which weight only 91.7% was of fine silver), one talent (Heb. kikkar) would have amounted to 2,343 of these silver coins in specie (Script error: No such module "convert".), in addition to the minuscule weight of 12 ma’in (10.08 grammes).[39]

Talent in New Testament

The talent as a unit of value is mentioned in the New Testament in Jesus' Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14–30).[45] The use of the word "talent" to mean "gift or skill" in English and other languages originated from an interpretation of this parable sometime late in the 13th century.[46][47] Luke includes a different parable involving the mina.[48] According to Epiphanius, the talent is called mina (maneh) among the Hebrews, and was the equivalent in weight to one-hundred denarii.[49] The talent is found in another parable of Jesus[50] where a servant who is forgiven a debt of ten thousand talents refuses to forgive another servant who owes him only one hundred silver denarii.

In Revelation 16:21, the talent is used as a weight for hail being poured forth from heaven and dropping on mankind as punishment in the end times: "And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great." (KJV) Various definitions are provided in different translations:

  • NIV: a footnote says "Talent: 75 or 100 pounds."
  • NLT: text reads "weighing as much as seventy-five pounds".
  • ESV: text reads "about one hundred pounds each".

Bibliography

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References

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  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "Bibleverse".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "Bibleverse".
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "Bibleverse".
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "Bibleverse".
    Script error: No such module "Bibleverse".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "Lang". "talents of gold and ivory", Vergil, Aeneid 11.333.
  10. ↑ a b c John William Humphrey, John Peter Oleson, Andrew Neil Sherwood, Greek and Roman technology, p. 487.
  11. ↑ a b "III. Measures of Weight:", Jewish Encyclopedia.
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ or less specifically biltu 'tribute, load', corresponding to Biblical Aramaic בְּלוֹ (belu) 'tribute, tax' (Akkadian Lexicon Companion for Biblical Hebrew Etymological, Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalence, Hayim Tawil, 2009. Also Jastrow Dictionary.)
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  17. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  20. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  21. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  22. ↑ See J.H. Kroll, "Early Iron Age balance weights at Lefkandi, Euboea". Oxford Journal of Archaeology 27, pp. 37–48 (2008)
  23. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  24. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  25. ↑ 2 Kings 5.23.
  26. ↑ Ridgeway, William (1892). The Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards, Cambridge, p. 264.
  27. ↑ The Latin word Script error: No such module "Lang". also has a dual meaning of "balance" and "pound weight".
  28. ↑ Liddell, Scott, Jones, Greek Lexicon, s.v. τάλαντον.
  29. ↑ a b c Charles Theodore Seltman (1924) Athens, Its History and Coinage Before the Persian Invasion, pp. 112–114.
  30. ↑ Homer, The Iliad, Hom. Il. 23.750–1.
  31. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  32. ↑ Template:Harvp p 135
  33. ↑ Template:Harvp, in Appendix II
  34. ↑ Engen, Darel. "The Economy of Ancient Greece", EH.Net Encyclopedia, 2004.
  35. ↑ Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Book 6, verse 8: "Early in the spring of the following summer the Athenian envoys arrived from Sicily, and the Egestaeans with them, bringing sixty talents of uncoined silver, as a month's pay for sixty ships, which they were to ask to have sent them."
  36. ↑ Template:Harvp, p 502
  37. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  38. ↑ Jerusalem Talmud (Sanhedrin end of chapter 1 [9a]), where litra is used, being the Greek form of the Latin libra.
  39. ↑ a b c d e Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". (reprinted from Jerusalem editions, 1907, 1917 and 1988)
  40. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  41. ↑ cf. Babylonian Talmud (Kiddushin 11b), Rashi s.v. <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />בשקל הקודש במנה צורי‎
  42. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"., s.v. Hil. Kelei HaMikdash 2:3
  43. ↑ Jerusalem Talmud (Sanhedrin 9a), Pnei Moshe Commentary, s.v. <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />דכתיב בקע לגלגלת‎
  44. ↑ Shelomo Qorah, ʿArikhat Shūlḥan - Yilqūṭ Ḥayyīm, vol. 13 (Principles of Instruction and Tradition), Benei Barak 2012, p. 206 (Hebrew title: עריכת שולחן - ילקוט חיים) Template:Catalog lookup link
  45. ↑ Script error: No such module "Bibleverse".
  46. ↑ Skeat, Walter W. A concise etymological dictionary of the English language. p. 489. "Talent. (F.-L-Gk.) The sense of 'ability' is from the parable; Matt. xxv. F. talent, 'a talent in money; also will, desire;' Cot. —L. talentum. — Gk. Τάλαντον, a balance, weight, sum of money, talent. Named from being lifted and weighed; cf. Skt. tul, L. tollere, to lift, Gk. τάλ-ας, sustaining. (TAL.) Allied to Tolerate. Der. talent-ed, in use before A. D. 1700."
  47. ↑ "talent (n)". Online Etymological Dictionary. Retrieved 7 June 2022. "late 13c., 'inclination, disposition, will, desire', from Old French talent (12c.), from Medieval Latin talenta, plural of talentum 'inclination, leaning, will, desire' (11c.), in classical Latin 'balance, weight; sum of money', from Greek talanton 'a balance, pair of scales', hence "weight, definite weight, anything weighed', and in later times 'sum of money', from PIE *tele- 'to lift, support, weigh', 'with derivatives referring to measured weights and thence money and payment' [Watkins]; see extol."
  48. ↑ Script error: No such module "Bibleverse".
  49. ↑ Epiphanius. Treatise on Weights and Measures (Syriac Version). James Elmer Dean, ed. (1935). Chicago University Press. §45
  50. ↑ Script error: No such module "Bibleverse".

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External links

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