TALENT (Gr. τάλαντον). - A weight in use among many ancient peoples. Among the Hebrews, according to Ex. 28, 25-27, it was equivalent to 300 shekels. Depending on whether the shekel is taken as the fiftieth (cf. Deut. 22, 19, 29) or the sixtieth (cf. Ex. 38, 25; Ex. 45, 12) part of the mina, one must establish: 1 talent = 60 minas = 3000 shekels = 6000 beqa' = 60000 gērāh, or: 1 talent = 60 minas = 3600 shekels = 7200 beqa' = 72000 gērāh. Excavations have thus far revealed four beqa', weighing respectively 5.8 g.; 5.87 g.; 6.11 g.; and 6.65 g.
On the basis of these data, the weight of the shekel would have ranged between 11.60 g. and 13.30 g. If one assumes, a highly questionable matter, a single measure for all Palestine, the results of the excavations would yield the following system: 1 talent = 39.900 kg.; 1 mina = 665 g.; 1 shekel = 13.30 g.; 1 beqa' = 6.65 g.; 1 gērāh = 0.665 g. In practice, the talent would have been almost identical with the Syrian one (40.500 kg.).
Even when talents of gold and silver are mentioned, they must always be understood as weights, and it must be borne in mind that their value varied according to the regions. The Babylonian talent weighed 30.300 kg.; the Attic one expressed the weight of a quantity of gold estimated at 60 Attic minas, or 6000 drachmas. It is impossible to provide an exact equivalent in our currency; generally, the drachma is considered equivalent to 0.90 gold lire.