Epiphanius of Salamis, Weights and Measures (1935) pp.135-145. Appendices
On the opposite page is a photographic reproduction of folio 13c-d of Or. Add. 14620, designated in this work as B. Only the column at left (d) and the line of characters across the bottom of both columns are of interest here. The rest is practically the same as A, and the collation is found in its proper place under folio 60d.
The caption at the top of B folio 13d is: "The alphabet of various scripts."
The words at the foot of the first subcolumn to the right in 13d are: "The Greek of the books," that is, the uncials.
At the foot of the second subcolumn: "Of the numbers," that is, the minuscules, used in writing numbers.
At the foot of the third subcolumn: "Tadmorine." To the left of this third subcolumn we read: "The Tadmorine alphabet, that is to say, the Phoenician. Tadmor is Phoenicia of Syria." Since it is well known that the Greek Palmyra was the older Tadmor, the identification of "Phoenicia of Syria" with Emesa, as quoted by R. Payne Smith (Thesaurus Syriacus, col. 3066), is in direct opposition to our manuscript. For a discussion of the forms of these Tadmorine letters see J. P. N. Land in Zeitschrift der Deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft XXII (1868) 549-51.
The word at the foot of the next subcolumn is the Greek shmeion, which Lagarde calls "numerorum siglae syriacae veteres" (cf. L, p. 36 n.).
Next toward the left is the Mesopotamian alphabet, without special designation. At the extreme left of the folio are the words, "Additions in 1 the Mesopotamian alphabet are these," referring to the eight characters immediately below, at least some of which are Syriac vowel signs.
Land calls the alphabet-like line of characters across the bottom of the two columns a Federprobe, as evidenced by the fourfold writing of C, with the opening in as many directions, and the presence of Greek φ. |136
21. Thus far, O great lover of the good, we have sufficiently treated the subject of the translators in all that precedes. Hereafter, for the rest, as we have promised in response to your entreaties, O man of God, we give attention to the weights and measures and numbers in the divine Scriptures, showing whence each one is named and what is the quality, the weight, and the force of each of them. So the kor is a measure. And it occurs in the Gospel according to Luke, where the Savior commends the sagacious steward who re-wrote so and so instead of so many kors in their accounts, and made (it) so and so instead of so many baths of oil. For the names of the measures are as follows: lethekh, homer, bath, seah, modius, cab, choinix, hyfe 2 of fine flour, handful of meal, ardeb, three measures of fine flour, three baskets of coarse meal, nevel of wine, kollathon, alabastron of ointment, kapsakes of water, kotyle of oil, kyathos, metretes of wine, metretes of oil, tryblion, xestes, amphora, aporryma, shafitha,3 hin, chus, the golden stamnos in which the manna was placed, mares, kupros, congiarium. Moreover, the koros is taken from the Hebrew language, where it is called the kor. And it is 30 modii. But the kor gets its name from the fundamental idea of a heap, for the heap is called a charia. And 30 modii heaped together make a camel's load. And (as for) a lethekh, since it is said in the prophet Hosea, "I have hired for myself for a lethekh of barley," but in other codices, "for a homer of barley," they are the same; for they signify 15 modii. But the lethekh is named according to a word of the Hebrews which means a "lifting up," from the circumstance that a young man can lift up 15 modii and place them on an ass. And this is also called the homer. But there are two homers, a great one and a small one, of which the great one is the same as the lethekh, it being also 15 modii, but the small one is 12 baths. And this comes from the Hebrew language, the oil press being synonymously called bith. For "bath"4 is interpreted oil press, but it is 50 xestai |137 and is the measure of the craft of the oil-presser.5 Menasis or 6 medimnos are taken, I think, from the Roman language, for in that language medium is interpreted as "middle." Menasis, moreover, is used as a measure 7 among the Cyprians and other peoples. And it is 10 8 modii of wheat or barley by the modius of 17 xestai among the Cyprians. But the medimnos varies among the same Cyprians; for the people of Salamis, that is to say, of Constantia, have a medimnos of 5 modii, while those of Paphos and the Sicilians measure it as 4 1/2 modii. (The seah) is called satos,9 being derived from the same Hebrew and pronounced as a feminine, but in Greek as neuter, for it is called salon and not satos. And it is an overfull modius, so that the modius is full and because of the overfulness a quarter of a modius (more). But it is called a seah, meaning according to this language a "taking up" or "lifting up," from the circumstance that the one measuring, according to a certain custom, takes the measure and lifts it up. But the name of the modius was invented by the Hebrews with great exactness, being 22 xestai, not in simple fashion or by chance, but from great exactness. For the "just" modius, as the Law is accustomed to say, is measured according to the sacred measure. For the sacred measure is nothing else than the twenty-two works that God did in the six days of the hebdomad.10 |138
But the cab, from the same language, is a different measure, that is to say, the fourth part of a modius.
But the choinix and hyfe are one, though called by a double name. And it is 2 xestai and a certain fraction.11
The handful of meal. This is simple and clear to all.
The ardeb. This measure was named by the Egyptians, and it is 72 xestai. And this also is so composed with great exactness. Seventy-two men were building the tower at the time when the one language was confounded into seventy-two. Hence also they are called meropes, because of the divided speech. But the metretes has the same capacity according to the sacred measure.
"Three measures of fine flour," those which Abraham commanded Sarah to prepare for the angels, from which measures he commanded an ash cake 12 to be made. Every one of these measures held an omer.
The omer,13 however, was the tenth part of the great measure, that is, of the ardeb, which makes 7 1/5 xestai.
Three baskets of coarse meal, where they were at that time accustomed to put the coarse meal. But it is a kind of wheat14 cut in two.
The nevel of wine, which is a measure of 150 xestai.
The seah is 56 xestai.15
The alabastron 16 of ointment is a little glass jar containing a libra of |139 oil, and the capacity is half a xestes. But it is called an alabastron because of its fragility.
(As for) the kapsakes of water, 12 xestai of water is the capacity; but the kapsakes prepared for Elijah is 4 xestai.
The kotyle is a measure, it is half a xestes. And it is called a kotyle because the xestes is cut in two.
The kyathos is the sixth part of a xestes. But the Scripture calls the kyathoi medekoth. And it calls the strainers masmaroth, which we also call ethmoi. But both are called by the same name because they have also the same use.
The tryblion is a saucer 17 in form, that is, a dish,18 but it has the capacity of half a xestes. The Alexandrian xestes holds 2 librae of oil by weight.
The aporryma is employed as a measure only among the Thebans, for it is half a saites. The true saites, however, is 22 xestai.
The sabitha.19 This is the Syriac term which is translated "the drawing vessel of the wine press"; among the people of Ashkelon it is 22 xestai.
The hin. The great hin is 18 xestai; the sacred hin is 9 xestai.
The chus is 8 xestai. But the one called "sacred" is 6 xestai, which is the twelfth part of a metretes.
The talent is that measure used in weighing that exceeds every other, 20 and in librae 20 it is 125 librae, 6,000 lepta to the talent, which lepta are called assaria; but the denarion is 60 assaria, and the silver (talent) is 100 denaria.21
Now the silver (coin) was coined as a coin from the beginning, but it was coined by the Assyrians.22 And they say Abraham brought the coin into Canaan.
The 1/125 part of the talent is 1 libra. But the libra is 12 ounces. And the ounce contains 2 staters. |140
And the stater is half an ounce, being a didrachmon.23
Concerning the shekel.24 The shekel, which is also called the kodrantes, is the fourth part of an ounce, half of the stater, being 2 drachmae, for the drachma was the eighth 25 part of the ounce.
And the drachma was called the holke. By this weight, the shekel,26 they weighed the hair of Absalom whenever he had his hair cut, the weight being 125 shekels, which is an ounce of 1 shekel, amounting to 2 1/2 librae.27
Even the obolus was coined among silver (coins). But this was the eighth part 28 of the ounce, the one made not of silver but of iron. But there was also another obolus coined of silver, being a very small coin, the eightieth part of the ounce. For it is said in Leviticus: "The didrachmon is 20 oboloi." We have already shown that the didrachmon is the fourth part of the ounce.
The chalkoi. The Egyptians invented these. There are two silver (coins) coined, and the silver (coins) are called copper among the Alexandrians. But the chalkus is the eighth part of an ounce by weight, like the drachma.
The mina, which is called the mane 29 in Hebrew. But the Italian mina is 40 staters, which is 20 ounces, a libra and two-thirds.
And there have been many types of silver coins from time to time.
The nummus was coined by a certain Numa, king of the Romans. But the ancients called half of the silver (denarius) 30 the dichryson. |141
And this silver (denarius) is what the Romans call the miliarision, which is translated "military gift."
This dichryson also was the silver (coin) that was later called repudiated, because after a time the king was killed and his stamp, which had been engraved upon the dichryson, was removed from it. For thereafter when one was found bearing the image of the dead king it was accounted repudiated, that is, fraudulent.
The follis, which is also called the talent.31 But it is double, composed of 2 silver (minas), which is 208 32 denarii. And the follis is 2 lepta according to the copper coinage, but not according to the silver coinage.
The mares is a measure of 2 pots among the people of Pontus. But the pot among them is 10 xestai, so that the kupros 33 is 20 Alexandrian xestai.
Among the same people of Pontus the kupros is a measure of dry produce of 2 modii, which 34 is said by them to be 5 choinikes. And the choinix among them is 5 35 xestai, so that the kupros would be 20 xestai. For among them the great modius is 24 xestai.
The kollathon among the Syrians is half of a liquid seah, and it is 25 xestai.
And the congiarium is a liquid measure, and called the same among the Hebrews. This measure is explained in the Chronicle of Eusebius and by other chroniclers, (who tell) how each of the kings in (his) time in accordance with (his) ambition made grants to the Roman populace for good cheer.36 It is to be interpreted "put together" or "coiled up." |142
[Notes moved to the end and renumbered]
2. 1 Lagarde says both c and r read ὑφε; he has οἰφεὶ in text.
3. 2 Lagarde says both c and r read σαβιθα; his text reads σαφιθα.
5. 4 This ἐλαιοτρέπτης should be added to the Greek lexicon.
6. 5 Greek: h2; but καὶ would fit the plural verb better.
7. 6 This sense of μετρέω in the passive is not indicated in the lexicons.
8. 7 Petavius (see Dindorf's ed. of Epiphanius IV1 98) says that the emendation of δε και to δεκα was made already by Cornarius.
10. 9 I.e., the week (of creation).
12. 2 Lagarde has the singular; Dindorf uses the plural without any word of explanation. Lagarde's footnote says both c and r read αρτου.
13. 3 Both Lagarde and Dindorf declare that their sources read γομον, but Lagarde prints γομορ in his text; there can be no doubt as to the meaning.
14. 4 Both Lagarde and Dindorf read ἄρτου instead; but in his Symmicta I 211 and 215 Lagarde has σέτου from various fragmentary Greek mss.
16. 6 Originally the name of a mineral (a variety of gypsum or calcite) from which vases and jars were made; but the term came later in careless popular speech to be applied to such objects made of other substances.
17. 7 ὀψόβαφον for the more usual ὀξύβαφον.
19. 9 Cf. p. 136, n. 2; the Syriac is shafitha.
20. 10 κατα δὲ τὸν ληρισμον, emended to λιτρισμὸν by both Lagarde and Dindorf. Lagarde, op. cit. I 216, gives this latter word.
21. 11 Much of this sentence is hopelessly corrupt; cf. Hultsch, Metrologicorum scriptorum reliquiae I 143 f. and 265, who gives on pp. 143 f. the emended reading translated above. Cf. also p. 57, n. 394, on denarion, denaria.
22. 12 For the emended reading (Ἀσσυρέων rather than ἀσσαρέων) cf. Hultsch, op. cit. I 265.
23. 13 Petavius (see the edition of Epiphanius by Dindorf or that by Migne) thinks δ́ δραχμάς was originally written and that a scribe copied the numeral mark as ι and thereupon further modified his text, thus giving us an inaccurate statement and a most unusual term, διδραγμα instead of δέδραχμον.
24. 14 According to Lagarde, both c and r read σιμου.
25. 15 Both Petavius and Hultsch (op. cit. I 265) insist that h ("eighth") must be supplied to make sense out of this sentence. Lagarde, op. cit. I 216, gives, indeed, ογδοον.
26. 16 Lagarde, op. cit. I 216, adds φημι, corresponding to the Syriac @ in § 48, and also uses the finite verb ἐστάθμιζον rather than a participle.
27. 17 Again corrupt. Cf. § 48 and Lagarde, loc.cit.
28. 18 Hultsch, op. cit. I 266, emends to this reading, which is found in Lagarde, op. cit. I 217.
29. 19 This spelling is cited by Hultsch, op. cit. I 266.
30. 20 The Lexicon of Sophocles identifies this ἄργυρον with the miliarision, the equivalent of the denarius.
31. 21 Hultsch, op. cit. I 267, and Lagarde, op. cit. I 217, give the true reading, βαλάντιον, "bag" or "purse"; cf. § 53.
32. 22 Lagarde says that r reads 220 denarii. The Syriac says 2 1/2 silver (minas) and 250 denarii; cf. § 53.
33. 23 Where the word mares might be expected; but kupros is the only reading I have been able to find in either Greek or Syriac. Cf. p. 63, n. 448.
34. 24 "Which" apparently refers to the kupros, but should refer to a single modius.
35. 25 Lagarde, op. cit. I 218, and Hultsch, op. cit. I 270, supply the right number, 2 xestai.
36. 26 One of the meanings of congiarium is a gift bestowed upon the populace on some festival occasion.
Superior figures indicate the section in which any particular equation is found.
MEASURES OF CAPACITY
kor......................30 modii21
lethekh...................15 modii21............great
homer21
bath.....................50 xestai21............little
homer3
menasis..................10 modii21
modius.... 17 xestai in Cyprus21.......22 xestai usually21....
24 xestai
in Pontus64 medimnos.... 5 modii in Constantia21....
4 1/2 modii in Paphos and Sicily21
seah*.......1 1/4 modii21
cab........1/4 or 1/5 or 1/6 modius25
choinix... 1/8 (Cyprian) modius26... 2 xestai26....
hyfi26.... 2 handfuls26
ardeb (dry measure).........metretes (liquid measure)28
metretes......72 xestai usually28......104 xestai
of wine in Cyprus28 .....also measured as 88 xestai 28.....82 xestai 28.....and
96 xestai 28
"three measures".....little omer28.......6 xestai28,
30 †
omer.................1/10 ardeb30........7 1/5 xestai30
nevel........150 xestai32......3 liquid seahs32.....
amphora3 or foreus32
liquid seah.........50 xestai32
kollathon..........1/2 liquid seah33...........25 xestai33
shatifta.....alabastron 34......1/2 xestes
34........libra of oil34
great kapsakes. .. .12 xestai 35... .spondeion
35.....1/4 liquid seah35.... qevuna (?) 35
|143
small kapsakes = 4 xestai35... .stamnos35.......qevurta
(?)35
kotyle.............1/2 xestes36
kyathos............1/6 or 1/3 xestes31
tryblion...........1/2 xestes 38
xestes.....2 librae of oil in Alexandria39........8 librae in Pontus39 ........22 ounces in Italy39.......20 ounces in Nicomedia39 ........24 ounces in the xestes castrensis 39.......sextarius 55
aporryma......1/2 saites 40............11 xestai 40
true saites........22 xestai 40
Nicaean saites.....8 or 10 xestai 40
shafitha......sapation 41......22 xestai in
Ashkelon41.......18 xestai in Azotus41.........14 xestai in Gaza41
great hin...........18 xestai 42
sacred hin...........9 xestai 42
complete chus.....8 xestai 43.....1/9 metretes 43........1/6
samios 43
sacred chus.......6 xestai43.....1/12 metretes 43
mares........2 pots in Pontus54.......20 Alexandrian xestai
3,54
pot (of the Pontians).......10 xestai 54
kupros.....2 modii 54.......10 choinikes 54........20
xestai (dry measure)54
congiarium.........6 xestai.55
little xestes........sexton 55
MEASURES OF WEIGHT
talent.....6,000 lepta or assaria 45........125 librae
45
centenarius......100 librae 45
libra ... 12 ounces46......288 grams54......1,728 carats54......3,456 barleycorns 54 ounce.. .2 staters47... .24 grams54... .4 shekels54.....8 lepta 54.....7 oboloi54
stater.........2 double zuze 47
gram.....6 carats 54
shekel.........2 lepta 48.........2 zuze 48........kodrantes
2
(another) kodrantes...........25 denarii 48
zuza.............lepton 48..........holke 48......1/8
ounce48
iron obolus......1/8 or 1/7 ounce49
silver obolus.... 1/80 ounce49 |144
Italian mina.....40 staters51......20 ounces51.......1
2/3 librae51
Theban mina.........60 staters51...........2 1/2 librae 51
other minae.............................2 or 4 librae 51
assarion.........100 lepta 2
MEASURES OF LENGTH AND AREA
field.... 5 or 6 seahs58.......5 plethra of land of the
first class or 6 plethra of land of the second class59
jugon......5 or 6 fields58.......30 sataeans 59.........koraean
59
field......20 akainai by 20 akainai 59
akaina.....6 2/3 cubits59
Egyptian field.......100 cubits by 100 cubits59
plethron............20 (akainai) by 20 cubits59
koraean of second class.....60 sataeans59
jugum.............2 1/3 sataeans59
sataean (modius)...........5 or 6 cabs59
jugera.....called zyga in Cyprus,59 syntelesmata elsewhere59
decad......(apparently) 10 days' plowing among the Palestinians, 10 sataeans, about 5 Roman jugera 59
cubit.......length of forearm to tip of middle finger60
cubit... .24 fingers60... .3 spans60... 6 hands60...
4 palms or hand-lengths60
square cubit.......48 fingers60
solid cubit....... 192 fingers60
finger..............8 lepta 60
palm (handlength).....6 fingers60
span..................8 fingers60
hand..................4 fingers60
COINS
denarion..............60 assaria 45
silver (talent)......100 denaria 45......6,000 lepta 2.....nomisma
2
stater..............2 double zuze 47
shekel..........2 lepta 48...........2 zuze 48
silver mina.....100 denarii 48
kodrantes........25 denarii 48........ködarion 3,48
iron obolus......1/8 ounce 49 |145
silver obolus......1/80 ounce49
double zuza........20 silver oboloi49
chalkus..........zuza 50.............1/8 ounce50
nummus...........dichryson 52........1/2 silver
(denarius) 52
silver (denarius)........miliarision 52
lepton...........assarion 45........ziretia 52...........obolus
3
double follis or purse........2 1/2 silver (minae)83........250
denarii 53
follis...................125 silver (denarii) 53
follis............2 lepta according to the copper coinage 53
folis.............sala or (better) selac 53........1/2
ounce 53
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* Apparently based on the Cyprian modius of 17 xestai, which would make the seah about the same as the usual modius of 22 xestai, more exactly 21 1/4 xestai. Peshitta and LXX identify seah and modius in Matt. 5:15. The seah is a dry measure.
† But cf. § 8.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, Ipswich, UK, 2005. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using unicode in the Palatino linotype font.
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