MINA (Heb. Mâneh; Gr. Μνᾶ; Lat. Mina or Mna). - A unit of weight, used in biblical times for gold (1 Kings 10:17) and for silver (Esther 2:69; Neh. 7:71) and based on the Babylonian weight system, in which the m. (manū "to count") was 502.2 gr. and corresponded to 1/60 of a talent (30.13 kg.) divided into 60 shekels (8.37 gr.). The heavy m. was double. Among the Hebrews the talent was also worth 60 m., but only 3000 shekels (instead of 3600, cf. Ex. 38:25-27), thus reducing the m. to 50 shekels as in Syria and at Rās Samrah.
In some legal texts the trace of the ancient m. of 60 shekels has been preserved (Ex. 21:32), while in the Deuteronomic texts the current use of the m. of 50 shekels seems to have to be recognized. Ex. 45:12 seems to want to restore, with a somewhat strange computation, the m. of current use of 50 shekels to the primitive value of 60 for the use of the Sanctuary. The stone and lead weights with or without inscription, found during the excavations, do not permit any approximation, because they are of local use, and different according to age.
In Hellenistic times the Attic talent used in Palestine (1 Macc. 11:18) seems to be divided into 60 m. or 6000 drachmas (ibid. 14:24; 15:18; Lk. 19:13-25) and therefore the value of the m. is 10 drachmas. Flavius Josephus (Antiq. Jud., 14, 7, 1) writes that the talent of the weight of 43 kg. was divided into 50 m., each of the value of about two and a half Roman pounds.
Bibliography2 worksA.-G. Barrois, La métrologie dans la Bible, in Revue biblique, 41 (1932), p. 50; A. Segrè, A documentary analysis of ancient palestinian uni
BIBL.: A.-G. Barrois, La métrologie dans la Bible, in Revue biblique, 41 (1932), p. 50; A. Segrè, A documentary analysis of ancient palestinian units of measure, in Journal of biblical literature, 64 (1945), pp. 358-68.
Baldi, Donato. “Mina (Ebr. Mâneh; Gr. ΜΝΑ͂; Lat. Mina O Mna).” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VIII, coll. 1016–1017. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952. https://azioneromana.com/article/mina-ebr-maneh-gr-mna-lat-mina-o-mna.
MLA
Baldi, Donato. “Mina (Ebr. Mâneh; Gr. ΜΝΑ͂; Lat. Mina O Mna).” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VIII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952, coll. 1016–1017. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/mina-ebr-maneh-gr-mna-lat-mina-o-mna.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec8_mina_ebr_maneh_gr_mna_lat_mina,
author = {Baldi, Donato},
title = {Mina (Ebr. Mâneh; Gr. ΜΝΑ͂; Lat. Mina O Mna)},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VIII},
pages = {1016--1017},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1952},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/mina-ebr-maneh-gr-mna-lat-mina-o-mna}
}
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