Quatuor ex granis digitus componitur unus. Est quater in palmo digitus, quater in pede palmus, OF THE HEBREW MONEY. They were formerly wont in their commerce and payments, not to tell the money, as we now do, but to weigh it; and the same pieces served them both for weights and money. They were made of one of these three sorts of metals, brass, silver, or gold ". But the word brass was used to denote any kind of money, what metal soever; the reason of which is, that the weight of brass was the standard whereby money was valued. of One of the least pieces of money mentioned in the New Testament is the lepton or mite, which is by St. Jerome called minuta. St. Mark tells us, that two of these pieces made one quadrans. It is probable that the word lepton was used to specify any small piece of money, since what St. Matthew calls quadrans, is by St. Luke named lepton. (The lepton was worth Ol. Os. Od. 0q. 36.) The quadrans was a piece of brass money weighing three ounces, which makes the fourth part of the Roman as, or penny. This word, as well as lepton was used to denote any small piece of money. The quadrans was the fee of the bath-keepers at Rome. (0l. Os. Od. Og. 3.) The as, or penny, was a brass piece, which weighed seven ounces and a half, at least, in the time of our Saviour JESUS CHRIST. For it is to be observed, that at first the Roman as or penny weighed one pound, that is, twelve Roman ounces. Afterwards it was reduced to (a) Matt. x. 9. (b) Mark vi. 8. (d) Matt. v. 26. Luke xii. 59, xxi. 2, (c) Mark xii. 42. (e) The sestertius was worth two-pence half-penny. ten ounces, then to nine, and at last to seven and a half, as it was in Augustus's time. There is no mention in the Evangelists of the as, but only of a piece of less value, which is by them termed assarion *. The as, as is supposed, was worth 8 lepta, (or 3q.15.) The drachma was a silver coin, in use among the Greeks, and afterwards among the Jews and Romans ", It was somewhat less than the Roman denarius, and more than the as, since it weighed eight ounces. The didrachma was two drachmas, which made half a shekel. Every Israelite, when he was arrived at the age of twenty, was obliged to pay yearly this tribute for the use of the temple. It is commonly supposed that the Roman emperors, upon their becoming masters of Judea, exacted the same sum and that so the Jews came to pay it twice, once to the temple, and once to the Emperor. If this conjecture is well grounded, it may give a great light to these words of JESUS CHRIST; Render to Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's". But CHRIST is not there speaking of the tribute of the didrachma, which is mentioned elsewhere' but of that of a denarius. Thus much is certain, that after the destruction of the temple, Vespasian ordered all the Jews to pay yearly those two drachmas to the capital ". (The drachma was 74. 3q. of our money. The Roman denarius was a silver piece weighing ten ounces, which was worth at first ten as's ". After the war with Annibal, it mounted to sixteen, and afterwards was reduced to twelve. It is frequently mentioned in the gospels; being one of those Latin words to which the Evangelists have given a Greek sound and termi son it was named denarius, i. e. the tenth. There was the number X marked on one side. nation. The denarius was worth 7d. 3q. of our money. The statera was also a piece of silver money worth about four drachmas or denarii. It was the same with the Shekel, which made 2s. 3d. 1q. 4. The Rabbins infer from Exod. xxx. 13. and Leviticus xxvii. 25. where there is mention of the shekel of the sanctuary, that there were two sorts of shekels, the one sacred, and the other profane, and that the sacred was worth double the profane. But several learned authors' rejecting this distinction, understand by the shekel of the sanctuary, a shekel of just weight and good silver, such as was kept in the sanctuary, for a standard; in imitation of the Egyptians, who kept in their temples standards of their weights and measures. However it be, it is commonly supposed that it was some of these pieces the priests gave Judas to betray Jesus?. And indeed when the ancients spoke of a piece of silver in general, they meant the shekel. There are Hebrew shekels still to be seen in the cabinets of the curious. They have on one side a vessel, which is supposed to be the pot wherein the manna was laid up, or else Aaron's censer, with this inscription in Samaritan characters, The shekel of Israel: and on the other, a blown flower, which seems to be Aaron's rod that budded, with these words round it, Jerusalem the Holy. The mina', or silver mark, weighed sixty shekels, and according to others, fifty *: which might make about 67. 16s. 7d. 19. . There were also minas of gold that weighed 100 shekels. 4. Some learned authors infer from Exod. xxxviii. 25, 28. that the silver talent weighed three thousand shekels. But it must be observed that the talent was not the same every where. The Hebrew one weighed more than (0) Matt. xvii. 27. (p) Cleric. in Exod. &c. (9) Matt. xxvi. 15. * The passage in Ezek. xlv. 12. where the mina is mentioned, is obscure. In some copies in the septuagint the mina is said to be 50 shekels, in others 60, &c. that of the Greeks, and amounted to 3417. 10s. 4d. 1q. 4. The common Attic talent might be worth about 1937. 15s. It is very probable that the Jews made use of it in their commerce. We have given but a general description of these matters, thinking it both needless and impossible to pretend to give an exact account of them, since authors are so very much divided about them. We may say the same concerning the measures, and it will also be sufficient to have only a general notion of them. There are two sorts of measures; some are used in taking the dimensions, as the length or breadth of any thing; others are vessels for measuring corn, and the like, or liquors, as wine and oil, &c. The long measures of the Hebrews were as follows; * sures. The digit or finger's breadth is something less than an inch, [0 foot. 0 inch. 1.] The lesser palm is four fingers, or three inches; the The long meagreat palm is the length between the top of the thumb and the top of the middle finger when the hand is stretched out. The common cubit is one foot and a half. The royal cubit is longer than the last by three digits. The geometrical cubit consists of six common cubits. The dimensions of Noah's ark are supposed to have been made according to this. Reeds, or lines were used in measuring land'. Hence this expression in the Psalms', The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. The reed or line was six cubits and one palm long". Of dry and The choenix, mentioned in the Revelations*, was one of the least of the dry measures. It held as much as a temperate man can eat in a day. But it was not of the same bigness every where. It is supposed that that which is mentioned in the Revelations was one of the least of those that went liquid mea sures. *The Chaldee paraphrast hath rendered by a royal cubit, what is called the cubit of a man. Deut. iii. 11. (t) Psal. xvi. 6. (s) Josh. xvii. 14. (*) Rev. xxi. 15. (x) Rev. vi. 5, 6. This under that name, and held about two pounds. measure was used in distributing to the soldiers their allowance of food. There is mention in St. Matthew of a measure called statum †, which was very much in use in Palestine. The learned are not agreed about its bigness, some making it bigger, and others smaller. It is most generally supposed, that it was the third part of an ephah, which was an Hebrew measure containing 447 cubic inches, that held one gallon, and seven pints. The ephah was otherwise named bath. The corus is the same measure as the Hebrew chomer*, as is manifest from Ezekiel, by comparing the original Hebrew with the Seventy The chomer was the largest piece the Hebrews had. It held ten ephahs, [or twenty-four pecks] and contained 13410 inches. It was also a liquid measure". The modius, mentioned in St. Matthew, is supposed to be the same as the satum or seah. The Hebrews had several other kinds of dry measures, but since they are not mentioned in the New Testament, we think it needless to give an account of them here, and therefore desire the reader to consult those that have fully treated of this matter. C The least measure that is mentioned in the gospel is the sextarius †, which is supposed to be the same as the log of the Hebrews, that held about one pound of oil. d (y) Matt. xiii. 33. This word is derived from the Hebrew seah, which is the name of this measure. (a) 1 Kings v. 11. *We must take which held three Luke xvi. 7. (b) Matt. v. 15. Grot. in Loc. The modius is one of those Latin words to which the Evangelists have given a Greek sound and termination (c) Mark vii. 4. The word sextarius is also a Latin word, to which the Evangelists have given a Greek termination; it was so called, because it was the sixth part of the Roman congius, which was a vessel containing ten Roman pounds of water. (d) Lev. xiv. 12. |