Thetalent (Ancient Greek:τάλαντον,talanton, Latintalentum) was a unit of weight used in the ancient world, often used for weighing gold and silver, but also mentioned in connection with other metals, ivory,[1] andfrankincense. InHomer's poems, it is always used of gold and is thought to have been quite a small weight of about 8.5 grams (0.30 oz), approximately the same as the later goldstater coin orPersian daric.
In later times in Greece, it represented a much larger weight, approximately 3,000 times as much: anAttic talent was approximately 26.0 kilograms (57 lb 5 oz).[2] The word also came to be used as the equivalent of the Middle Easternkakkaru orkikkar. A Babylonian talent was 30.2 kg (66 lb 9 oz).[3]Ancient Israel adopted the Babylonian weight talent, but later revised it.[4] Theheavy common talent, used in New Testament times, was 58.9 kg (129 lb 14 oz).[4] A Roman talent (divided into 100librae or pounds) was1+1⁄3 Attic talents, approximately 32.3 kg (71 lb 3 oz). An Egyptian talent was 80 librae,[2] approximately 27 kg (60 lb).[2]
The Akkadian talent was calledkakkaru[5][6] in the Akkadian language,[7] corresponding to Biblical Hebrewkikkar כִּכָּר (translated as Greek τάλαντον 'talanton' in theSeptuagint,[8] English 'talent'), Ugaritickkr (𐎋𐎋𐎗),[9] Phoeniciankkr (𐤒𐤒𐤓),[10] Syriackakra (ܟܲܟܪܵܐ),[11] and apparently togaggaru in theAmarna Tablets.[12] The name comes from the Semitic rootKKR meaning 'to be circular',[13] referring to round masses of gold or silver.[14] Thekakkaru or talent weight was introduced in Mesopotamia at the end of the 4th millennium BC, and was normalized at the end of the 3rd millennium during the Akkadian-Sumer phase. The talent was divided into 60minas, each of which was subdivided into 60shekels (following the common Mesopotamiansexagesimal number system). These weights were used subsequently by theBabylonians,Sumerians andPhoenicians, and later by theHebrews. The Babylonian weights are approximately: shekel (8.4 g, 0.30 oz), mina (504 g, 1 lb 1.8 oz) and talent (30.2 kg, 66 lb 9 oz).
The Greeks adopted these weights through their trade with the Phoenicians along with theratio of 60 minas to one talent. A Greek mina in Euboea around 800 BC weighed 504 g;[15] other minas in the Mediterranean basin, and even other Greek minas, varied in some small measure from the Babylonian values, and from one to another. The Bible mentions the unit in various contexts, likeHiram king of Tyre sending 120 talents of gold to King Solomon as part of an alliance,[16] or the building of thecandelabrum necessitating a talent of pure gold.[17]
William Ridgeway speculates that thekakkaru/kikkar was originally the weight of a load which could be carried by a man. Thus in the Book of Kings we read that Naaman “bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him”.[18] He notes that in Assyrian cuneiform, the same ideogram or sign was used for both "tribute" and "talent", which might be explained if a load of corn was the regular unit of tribute.[19]
In Homer, the wordτάλαντα in the plural is sometimes used of a pair of scales or a balance;[20] it is used especially of the scales in which Zeus weighed the fortunes of men (Iliad 8.69, 19.223, 22.209). The word is also used as a measurement, always of gold. "From the order of the prizes in Il. 23.262 sq. and other passages its weight was probably not great".[21]
According to Seltman, the original Homeric talent was probably the gold equivalent of the value of an ox or a cow.[22]Homer describes howAchilles set an ox as 2nd prize in a foot race, and a half-talent of gold as the third prize, suggesting that the ox was worth a talent.[23] Based on a statement from a later Greek source that "the talent of Homer was equal in amount to the laterdaric [... i.e.] two Atticdrachmas" and analysis of finds from aMycenaean grave-shaft, a weight of about 8.5 grams (0.30 oz) can be established for this original talent.[22] The later Attic talent was of a different weight than the Homeric, but represented the same value in copper as the Homeric did in gold, with the price ratio of gold to copper inBronze Age Greece being 1:3000.[22]
An Attic talent was the equivalent of 60minae or 6,000drachmae.[24]
An Attic weight talent was about 25.8 kilograms (57 lb). Friedrich Hultsch estimated a weight of 26.2 kg,[25] andDewald (1998) offers an estimate of 26.0 kg.[26]An Attic talent of silver was the value of nine man-years of skilled work, according to known wage rates from 377 BC.[27] In 415 BC, an Attic talent was a month's pay for atrireme crew.[28]Hellenisticmercenaries were commonly paid one drachma per day of military service.[citation needed]
TheAeginetan talent weighed about 37 kg. The German historian Friedrich Hultsch calculated a range of 36.15 to 37.2 kg based on such estimates as the weight of one full Aeginetanmetretes of coins, and concluded that the Aeginetan talent represented the water weight of a Babylonianephah: 36.29 kg by his reckoning (themetretes and theephah were units of volume).[29]Percy Gardner estimated a weight of 37.32 kg, based on extant weights and coins.[30]
An Aeginetan talent was worth 60 Aeginetan minae, or 6,000 Aeginetan drachmae.[dubious –discuss][citation needed]
The talent (Hebrew:ככר,kikkar;Aramaic:קינטרא,qintara) in late Hebrew antiquity (c. 500 CE) was the greatest unit of weight in use at the time, and which weight varied depending on the era. According to theJerusalem Talmud (Sanhedrin 9a,Pnei Moshe Commentary, s.v.דכתיב בקע לגלגלת), the weight of the talent at the time ofMoses was double that of the Roman era talent, which latter had the weight of either 100maneh (Roman librae), or 60maneh (Romanlibrae),[31] eachmaneh (libra) having the weight of 25selas[32] (sela being a term used for the biblical Shekel of Tyrian coinage, or 'shekel of the Sanctuary', and where there were 4 provincialdenarii orzuz to eachsela;[33] 25selas being equivalent to 100denaria).[32][34][35]
The standard talent during the lateSecond Temple period was the talent consisting of 60maneh.[36][32] According toTalmudic scholars, the talent (kikkar) of 60maneh (and which sum total of 60maneh equals 1,500selas, or 6,000denarii (thedenarius also being known in Hebrew aszuz),[33] had a weight of 150dirham for every 25selas.[32] The anatomic weight of eachdirham at that time was put at 3.20 grammes,[37] with everysela or 'shekel of the sanctuary' weighing-in at 20.16 grammes. The sum aggregate of the 60maneh talent (or 1,500selas) came to c. 28.800 kilograms (63.49 lb). According to Adani, in the silver coinage known as theMughal Indiarupaiya, minted during British colonial rule (each with a weight of11.6638038grammes (1tola), of which weight only 91.7% was of fine silver), one talent (Heb.kikkar) would have amounted to 2,343 of these silver coins in specie (27.328 kilograms (60.25 lb)), in addition to the minuscule weight of 12ma’in (10.08 grammes).[32]
The talent as a unit of value is mentioned in theNew Testament inJesus'Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14–30).[38] The use of the word "talent" to mean "gift or skill" in English and other languages originated from an interpretation of this parable sometime late in the 13th century.[39][40]Luke includes a different parable involving themina.[41] According toEpiphanius, the talent is calledmina (maneh) among the Hebrews, and was the equivalent in weight to one-hundreddenarii.[42] The talent is found inanother parable of Jesus[43] where a servant who is forgiven a debt of ten thousand talents refuses to forgive another servant who owes him only one hundred silverdenarii. The talent is also used elsewhere in theBible, as when describing the material invested in theArk of the Covenant.[44]Solomon received 666 gold talents a year.[45]
In Revelation 16:21, the talent is used as a weight for hail being poured forth from heaven and dropping on mankind as punishment in the end times: "And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great." (KJV) Various definitions are provided in different translations:
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)One Attic talent was the equivalent of 60minae or 6,000drachmae...
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