Talent

TALENT (Greek: Talanton). - A weight used 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 t. = 60 minas = 3000 shekels = 6000 beqa' = 60000 gērāh, or else: 1 t. = 60 minas = 3600 shekels = 7200 beqa' = 72000 gērāh. Excavations have so far brought to light four beqa' weighing respectively 5.8 g; 5.87 g; 6.11 g; 6.65 g.

Starting from these data, the weight of the shekel would have been between 11.60 g and 13.30 g. If one admits, a very debatable point, a single measure for all Palestine, according to the results of the excavations one would have the system: 1 t. = 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 t. would have been almost identical to the Syrian one (40.500 kg).

Even when one speaks of a t. of gold and of silver, one must always understand it as a weight, and bear in mind that their value varied according to the regions. The Babylonian t. 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 give an exact equivalent in our currency; in general the drachma is considered equivalent to 0.90 gold lire.