The second debtor owed a hundred Cor of wheat' - that is, in dry measure, ten times the amount of the oil of the first debtor, since the Cor was ten Ephah or Bath, the Ephah three Seah, the Seah six Qabh, and the Qabh four Log. This must be borne in mind, since the dry and the fluid measures were precisely the same; and here, also, their threefold computation (the Wilderness,' the Jerusalem,' and the Galilean') obtained. As regards the value of wheat, we learn [4543] that, on an average, four Seah of seed were expected to produce one Cor - that is, seven and a half times their amount; and that a field 1,500 cubits long and 50 wide was expected to grow a Cor. The average price of a Cor of wheat, bought uncut, amounted to about 25 dinars, or 15s. Striking an average between the lowest prices mentioned [4544] and the highest, [4545] we infer that the price of 3 Seah or an Ephah would be from two shillings to half-a-crown, and accordingly of a Cor (or 10 Ephah) from 20 to 25 shillings (probably this is rather more than it would cost). On this computation the hundred Cor would represent a debt of from 100l. to 125l., and the remission of the steward (of 20 Cor), a sum of from 20l. to 25l. Comparatively small as these sums may seem, they are in reality large, remembering the value of money in Palestine, which, on a low computation, would be five times as great as in our own country. [4546] These two debtors are only mentioned as instances, and so the unjust steward would easily secure for himself friends by the Mamon of unrighteousness,' the term Mamon, [4547] we may note, being derived from the Syriac and Rabbinic word of the same kind ({hebrew}, from {hebrew}={hebrew}, {hebrew}, to apportion). [4548]
Another point on which acquaintance with the history and habits of those times throws light is, how the debtors could so easily alter the sum mentioned in their respective bonds. For, the text implies that this, and not the writing of a new bond, is intended; since in that case the old one would have been destroyed, and not given back for alteration. It would be impossible, within the present limits, to enter fully on the interesting subject of writing, writing-materials, and written documents among the ancient Jews. [4549] Suffice it to give here the briefest notices.
The materials on which the Jews wrote were of the most divers kind: leaves, as of olives, palms, the carob, &c.; the rind of the pomegranate, the shell of walnuts, &c.; the prepared skins of animals (leather and parchment); and the product of the papyrus, used long before the time of Alexander the Great for the manufacture of paper, and known in Talmudic writings by the same name, as Papir [4550] or Apipeir, [4551] but more frequently by that of Nayyar - probably from the stripes (Nirin) of the plant of which it was made. [4552] But what interests us more, as we remember the tablet' (pinakdion) on which Zacharias wrote the name of the future Baptist, [4553] is the circumstance that it bears not only the same name, Pinaqes or Pinqesa, but that it seems to have been of such common use in Palestine. [4554] . It consisted of thin pieces of wood (the Luach) fastened or strung together. The Mishnah [4555] enumerates three kinds of them: those where the wood was covered with papyrus, [4556] those where it was covered with wax, and those where the wood was left plain to be written on with ink. The latter was of different kinds. Black ink was prepared of soot (the Deyo), or of vegetable or mineral substances. [4557] Gum Arabic and Egyptian (Qumos and Quma) and vitriol (Qanqanthos) seem also to have been used [4558] in writing. It is curious to read of writing in colours and with red ink or Siqra, [4559] and even of a kind of sympathetic ink, made from the bark of the ash, and brought out by a mixture of vitriol and gum. [4560] We also read of a gold-ink, as that in which the copy of the Law was written which, according to the legend, the High-Priest had sent to Ptolemy Philadelphus for the purpose of being translated into Greek by the LXX. [4561] But the Talmud prohibits copies of the Law in gold letters, [4562] or more probably such in which the Divine Name was written in gold letters. [4563] [4564] In writing, a pen, Qolemos, made of reed (Qaneh [4565] ) was used, and the reference in an Apostolic Epistle [4566] to writing with ink and pen' (di mlanos ka kalmou) finds even its verbal counterpart in the Midrash, which speaks of Milanin and Qolemin (ink and pens). Indeed, the public writer' - a trade very common in the East [4567] - went about with a Qolemos, or reed-pen, behind his ear, as a badge of his employment. [4568] [4569] With the reed-pen we ought to mention its necessary accompaniments: the penknife, [4570] the inkstand (which, when double, for black and red ink, was sometimes made of earthenware, Qalamarim [4571] ), and the ruler [4572] - it being regarded by the stricter set as unlawful to write any words of Holy Writ on any unlined material, no doubt to ensure correct writing and reading. [4573] [4574]