WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.(Weights and Measures. Info on Jewish money)

WEIGHTS:.'mishkowl' from shekel, the weight in commonest use; eben, a stone, anciently used as a weight; peles, scales.
   Of all Jewish weights the shekel was the most accurate, as a half shekel was ordered by God to be paid by every Israelite as a ransom. From the period of the exodus there were two shekels, one for ordinary business.(Exodus 38:29; Joshua 7:21; 2Kings 7:1; Amos 8:5).the other, which was larger, for religious uses: Exodus 30:13; Leviticus 5:15; Numbers 3:47.

The silver in the half-shekel was 1 shilling, 3½ pence; it contained 20 gerahs, literally, beans, a name of a weight, as our grain from grain. The Attic tetradrachma, or Greek stater, was equivalent to the shekel. The didrachma of the Septuagint at Alexandria was equivalent to the Attic tetradrachma. The shekel was about 220 grains weight. In 2Samuel 14:26."shekel after the king's weight".refers to the perfect standard kept by David.

The proportion of the holy shekel to the commercial shekel was five to three; for in Ezekiel 45:12 the maneh contains 60 of the holy shekels. In 1Kings 10:17 and 2Chronicles 9:16, each maneh contained 100 commercial shekels, i.e. 100 to 60 or five to three.

After the captivity the holy shekel alone was used. The half shekel mentioned in Exodus 38:26 and Matthew 17:24 was the beka, meaning division; the quarter shekel reba; the 20th of the shekel, gerah.

The shekel is calculated at half ounce weight and the maneh half of a pound, back then at 14 oz.; a shekel is 20 gerahs.(see Jewish money); 60 holy shekels were in the maneh, 3,000 in the silver talent, so 50 maneh in the talent: 660,000 grains, or 94 lbs. 5 oz. The gold talent is by Smith's Bible Dictionary is 100 manehs, double the silver talent; by the Imperial Bible Dictionary identical with it. A gold maneh contained 100 shekels of gold. The Hebrew talents of silver and copper were exchangeable in the proportion of about one to 80; 50 shekels of silver are thought equal to a talent of copper. 'Talent' means a circle or aggregate sum. One talent of gold corresponded to 24 talents of silver. See Jewish money.

MEASURES:.Those of length are derived from the human body. The Hebrews used the forearm as the "cubit", but not the 'foot'. The Egyptian terms hiyn, ephah and ammah.(cubit).favor the view that the Hebrews derived their measures from Egypt. The similarity of the Hebrew to the Athenian scales for liquids makes it likely that both came from the one origin, namely, Egypt.

Piazzi Smyth observes the sacred cubit of the Jews, 25 inches.(to which Sir Isaac Newton's calculation closely approximates), is represented in the great pyramid, B.C.E. 2500; in contrast to the ordinary standard cubits, from 18 to 21 inches, the Egyptian one which Israel had to use in Egypt. The 25-inch cubit measure is better than any other in its superior Earth-axis commensurability.

The inch is the real unit of British linear measure. 25 such inches.(increased on the present parliamentary inch by one thousandth).was Israel's sacred cubit; 1.00099 of an English inch makes one pyramid inch; the earlier English inch was still closer to the pyramid inch. Smyth remarks that no pagan device of idolatry, not even the sun and moon, is portrayed in the great pyramid, though there are such hieroglyphics in two older pyramids. He says the British grain measure 'quarter'; is just one fourth of the coffer in the king's chamber, which is the same capacity as the Saxon chaldron or four quarters.

The small passage of the pyramid represents a unit day; the grand gallery, seven unit days or a week. The grand gallery is seven times as high as one of the small and similarly inclined passages = 350 inches, i.e. seven times 50 inches.

The names Shofo and Noushofo.(Cheops and Chephren of Herodotus).are marked in the chambers of construction by the stonemasons at the quarry. The Egyptian dislike to those two kings was not because of forced labour, for other pyramids were built so by native princes, but because they overthrew the idolatrous temples. The year is marked by the entrance step into the great gallery, 90. 5 inches, going 366 times into the circumference of the pyramid. The seven overlappings of the courses of polished stones on the eastern and the western sides of the gallery represent two weeks of months of 26 days each so there are 26 holes in the western r on the other ramp 28, in the antechamber two day holes over and above the 26.

Four grooves represent four years, three of them hollow and one full, i.e. three years in which only one day is to be added to the 14 x 26 for the year; the fourth full from W. to E., i.e. two days to be added on leap year, 366 days. The full groove not equal in breadth to the hollow one implies that the true length of the year is not quite 365 1/4 days.

The pyramid  was built by careful measurement on a prepared platform of rock. French savants A.D. 1800 described sockets in the leveled rock fitted to receive the four corner stones. The fifth corner stone was the topstone completing the whole.

Pyramid is derived from peram 'lofty'.(according to Ewald), from puros 'wheat'.(according to P. Smyth). 

The Hebrew finger, about seven tenths of an inch, was the smaller measure. The palm or handbreadth was four fingers, three or four inches; illustrates the shortness of time. The span, the space between the extended extremities of the thumb and little finger, three palms, about seven and a half inches. The old Mosaic or sacred cubit.(the length from the elbow to the end of the middle finger, 25 inches).was a handbreadth longer than the civil cubit of the time of the captivity.(from the elbow to the wrist, 21 inches).

Furlong.(stadion), one eighth of a Roman mile, or 606 3/4 ft., 53 1/2 ft. less than our furlong. The mile was eight furlongs or 1618 English yards, i.e. 142 yards less than the English statute mile; the milestones still remain in some places.

Sabbath day's journey. A little way is a definite length: Onkelos, an acre; Syriac, a parasang.(30 furlongs). The Jews take it to be a mile, a French league.

A day's journey was about 20 to 22 miles.

Dry measures:.A cab or kab.(2Kings 6:25).a sixth of a seah.(3 1/3 omers or 6 kabs or 0.25 cubic feet or 2 gallons or 7.33 litres); four sextaries or two quarts. Omer, an Egyptian word, only in Exodus and Leviticus.(Exodus 16:16).the tenth of an ephah; Josephus makes it seven Attic cotylae or three and a half pints.(Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 3:6, section 6).

Liquid measures:.The log, a cotyle or half pint; related to our lake, a hollow; twelfth of the hin, which was sixth of a bath or 12 pints.(about 5 quarts {6 litres} or the vessel holding a hin of liquid). The bath was an ephah, the largest Hebrew liquid measure, nine gallons.(Josephus). The sextary contained nearly a pint, translated 'pots' in Mark 7:4,8. The choenix meaning the 'measure' as in Revelation 6:6, was one quart. The modius, 'bushel' two gallons, found in every household. Firkin.John 2:5,6 nearly nine gallons; answering to the Hebrew bath.
   The koros or cor, original for word 'measure' in Luke 16:7 is of grain; bath, original for 'measure' in Luke 16:6 refers to a measurement of oil.
   Twelve logs to one hin; six bins to one bath. One cab and four-fifths to one omer. Three omers and one third, one seah. Three seahs to one ephah. Ten ephahs to one homer.