RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Weights and Measures
decimal system exist in the Babylonian measures. It is therefore well as yet to be reserved in regard to the relation of the Hebrew to the Egyptian set of measures. It is of considerable significance that inthe fifteenth century B.c. Babylonian culture was dominant in western Asia; on the other hand, while the Hebrew may be derived ultimately from the Babylonian, the supposition is not excluded that commerce with Egypt introduced modifications.
It is possible, then, to equate the Hebrew cubit with that of Gudea (of 495 millimeters, ut sup.; for Gudea see Basytonta, VI., 3, § 3), and after such a standard the Phenician owners of vessels seem to have reckoned the tonnage of their ships (their measurements reduce to a solid standard of 121.2, and the basis of a cubit of 495 millimeters gives as a result a solid standard of 121.28, and this can hardly be accidental). The larger cubit would correspond to a smaller of 424-425 millimeters, but this is not in evidence at all elsewhere. If it could be assumed that Ezekiel’s expression is inexact and that the small cubit is five-sixths of the larger, the latter would then be 412.5 millimeters long (the size of the early Italian cubit, which was derived from the Babylonian). But this does not furnish satisfactory proof. In modern times standards in different places do not exactly correspond, even with the advantages of scientific methods; still less can exact correspondence be supposed for antiquity. Moreover, the “ royal ”’ cubit may have been precisely defined, yet not followed with exactness in the provinces, and in the course of time the standards may have varied considerably.
In ascending scale the Hebrews have above the cubit only the reed, which in name and proportions (six cubits) agrees with the Babylonian reed. All
further designations for measures
5. Larger of distance indicate not measures in
Measures the strict sense of closely defined
of Length. length, but simple approximations like our term ‘‘ hour’s journey ”’ (cf. the ex-
pressions in Gen. xxxv. 16, xlviil. 7, which the Septuagint renders by hippodromos, “ post-station,” and the Syriac by parasang; owing to this last the expression has been taken to be equivalent to parasang, the Persian measure, = 5.67 kilometers [or nearly three and a half miles]; others take it as = 6.3 kilometers). Similarly the expression “a day’s journey ”’ which occurs so often in the Bible has no definite limits. The ordinary journey of a caravan means travel during about six to eight hours; Herodotus reckoned the day’s march of Persians at 150 to 200 stadia, representing continuous travel for eight to ten hours, and of Romans at 160 stadia. The case is different withfrespect to the “ Sabbath day’s journey ”’ (Acts i. 12; the expression does not occur in the Old Testament, though the rabbis had the expression éehwm hasshabbath). From the prohibition to gather manna on the Sabbath or to go forth from the camp (Ex. xvi. 26 sqq.) and from the delimitation of the Levitical cities (Num. xxxv. 5) the rabbis concluded that 2,000 cubits was the utmost distance allowed for travel on the Sabbath. There was a tradition that the distance of the Tabernacle from the limits of the camp was 2,000 cubits. In the case of cities the starting-point of
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measurement for the Sabbath day’s journey was the outer wall; within, even were the city as large as Nineveh, it was permissible to travel without limitation. There were also casuistic methods of circumventing the rabbinic limitation to 2,000 cubits and extending it to 4,000, though the purpose for which this extension could be sought was defined within certain bounds. Similarly, a Jew who on the Sabbath was caught on a journey at a distance from a dwelling might travel more than 2,000 cubits to the nearest travelers’ shelter. It seems not unlikely that this distance of 2,000 cubits corresponds to an early measurement or unit of distance; there was an Egyptian unit of 1,000 double steps, and the Talmud mentions a tradition that the Sabbath day’s journey was 2,000 steps, while in the same collection pace and cubit are practical equivalents. With the inrush of Greek civilization after the time of Alexander the Great the stadion became a part of the oriental system (cf. II Macc. xi. 5, xii. 9; John vi. 19, xi. 18; Rev. xiv. 20); the Olympic stadion measured 192.27 meters [=629.7 feet], the Attic stadion, 177.6 or 197.3 meters, according to the length given to the Attic foot. The Romans introduced their mile, with a length of 1,478.7 meters [=approximately 1,600 yards].
II. Measures of Surface: As a surface measure there appears in the Bible only the yoke (Hebr. zemedh) a piece of land which a man might plow in a day with a yoke of oxen. It has been compared with the Egyptian measure which Herodotus (Hist., ii. 168) calls arowra, measuring 100 royal cubits square. But this and other comparisons with the Babylonian measures of surface are pure conjectures. A similar system of measuring land obtains among the modern fellaheen of Egypt and Palestine.
III. Measures of Capacity: While the measures for liquids (water, wine, and oil) and those for such things as meal and grain were not the same among
the Hebrews, they belonged to the
1. Dry and same system. The smallest unit, the Liquid multiple of which made up other meas- Measure. ures, was in Hebrew the log (Septuagint, kotylé; Lev. xiv. 10, 12, etc.),
equivalent in volume, according to the rabbis, to six medium-sized hen’s eggs. In the one passage in the Old Testament where this occurs, it is as a measure for liquids, but this does not exclude its use as adry measure. The next measure in size mentioned in the Old Testament is the cab (Hebr. kab; Septuagint kabos), named in II Kings vi 25. Later data imply that this was used as a dry measure (Photius calls it a “ measure for grain,” and Hesychius one “for grain and wine’’). According to Josephus, paraphrasing the passage, the cab equaled 4 log, which agrees with the Talmud when it makes a cab equal one-sixth of a seah and one-third of a hin. The latter collection divides the cab into halves, fourths, and eighths, and this in connection with IT Kings vi. 25 suggests that the designation “log ”’ was seldom in use. The omer (or homer) (Hebr. ‘omer, Septuagint gomer; Ex. xvi. 16) seems to have been a measure for grain, and a gloss to the passage cited makes it equal the tenth of an ephah; it is then the equivalent of the ’issaron (Septuagint dekaton, Jo-
Weights and Measures