2. Measures of Surface. ^Oi measures of area no mention is made in the Gospels or in the NT any- where. Occasional allusions to the purchase of land (Mt IS"** 27^ Lk 14i8 ; cf. Ac P*) are not of such a character as to include the measurement used in these and similar transactions.
3. Measures of Capacity. —These naturally fall into liquid and dry measures. Primitively the most common word for measure of volume in Bible lands was perhaps the seah {ctAtop, fjArpov, cf. Mt 1333^ which is also the usage of the LXX). This was the ' measure ' par excellence. This, however, became differentiated at least as early as before the NT age into a unit of dry measure, and the hin, with twice the capacity of the seah, took its place in the corresponding liquid scale. Neverthe- less, in ascertaining the values of both liquid and dry standards of measurement, the most con- venient starting-point is the seah. This, on the one hand, is easily traceable in its equivalents in the Grajco-Roman metrology, and, on the other, as the unit on which the ephah-bath is based, furnishes a key to the Palestinian metrology of both dry and liquid varieties.
As to the equivalency of the seah in the classical Gra?co-Roman system, the following data give testimony : Josephus {Ant. IX. iv. 5) says, 'A seah is equal to one and one-half Italian moclii.' An anonymous writer, cited by Hultsch (Metr. Script. i. 81. 6), speaks to the same eft'ect ; so also Jerome (on Mt \Z^% who, however, probably simply re- produces this representation. On the other hand, according to Epiphanius [Metr. Script, i. 82. 8), the sertA was equal to one and one-quarter modii (20 sextarii) ; but that this is not a precise state- ment appears from the same writer's equating the seah with 22 sextarii elsewhere {Metr. Script, i. 82. 9). Indirectly from the identification of the bath, the cor, and the hin by Josephus, with their corresponding Roman equivalents (cf. Ant. Vlll. ii. 9, XV. ix. 2, III. viii. 3), the value of the seah^ is computed at 22 sextarii ; and as this agrees with the equation of the Babylonian ephah-hnth with 66 s'',xtarii (Hultsch, Griech. and Rom. Metr. ii. p. 412), it may be taken as correct.
This gives us the value of the seah in Roman sextarii. The reduction of the sextarii to present- day English standards may be made either upon the basis of the calciilations of Hultsch {Metrol. p. 453), which yield a sextarius of '96 pt. (cf. Smith, Diet, of Ant., followed by Harper's Z)^f^. of Class. Lit. and Ant., ed. H. T. Peck), and a seah of 21-f pts. (2 gals. 2 qts. and 1 -t- pts.) ; or this reduction may be made upon the basis of the use of the Farnese congius ( = 6 sextarii) in the Dresden Museum, which yields a sextarius of "99 pts. The difference in results between these methods amounts to no more than -03 pt. in the Roman sextarius.
Neither of the two methods positively excludes the possibility of error, but the latter appears upon the whole more trustworthy. Thus in the reconstruction of a table Ave have the equation to start with: sextarius=-m pt. The seah (22 sext. = 2 gal. 2 qts. 1-78 pts.) is, then, approximately 23+ pts.
This yields for the dry measure the scale as
follows :
Log. Kab. Omer. Seah. Ephah. Cor.
Log . . 1 = \ pt-
Kab . . 4 1 = 4 pts-
Omer .. 7-5 1-8 1 - 7^ „
Seah .. 24 6 3-6 1 = 23-75 „
Ephah .. 72 18 10 3 1 =71-28 „
Cor (Homer) . 720 180 100 30 10 1 =712-8 „
And for the liquid the scale as follows :
Log.
Hin.
Seah.
Bath.
Cor.
1
= 1 pt.
Hin
. 12
1
= 11-9 pts
Seah
. 24
2
1
= 23-8 „
Bath
. 72
6
3
1
= 71-28 „
Cor
. 720
60
30
10
1
= 712-8 „
These two scales represent the values of mea- sures of capacity of the later days of Judaism. For OT times the value of the seah would have to be made larger, and the table correspondingly in- creased. For practical purposes the Jog = sextarius = pt. equation may be deemed sufficient.
In the Gospels the following allusions to the scales occur. The seah (Mt IS^K Lk I321) is the equivalent of one-third of an ephah, and so is meant to designate generally as large a quantity as was usually handled in household necessities. Three seahs are equal to 35i qts. or I bushel. The cor (Lk le'') appears under the name of ' measure,' the expression being naturally a general and inexact one. The total quantity intended to be indicated is 100 cors or 1110 bushels.
Measures not included in the above scales occur as follows. The xestes {^^aT-rjs, translated 'cup,' Mk 7^(8') was probably a small and handy house- hold vessel, with the capacity of a pint measure, and used as such. The modius {fidScos, Mt 5^^ Mk 4'^_i, Lk 1P^ tr. in all the English versions 'bushel ') is not the English bushel, but the Hebrew seah. The name is borroAved from the Grajco-Roman usage. The measure itself was, like the xestes, a useful household utensil. The metretes {fierp-nTrjs, Jn 2«, tr. 'firkin') is evidently the bath of the HebreAV scale, containing approximately 9 gallons.