WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

Tomb of Joshua) seem to confirm the deduction of the cubit of about 0-525 m. (3) The measurement of grains of barley. This has been objected to for more than one reason. But the Rabbinical tradition allowed 144 barley-corns of medium size, laid side by side, to the cubit; and it is remarkable that a recent careful attempt made on these lines resulted in a cubit of 17-77 in. (0-451 m.), which is the Egyptian common cubit. (4) Recently it has been pointed out that Josephus, when using Jewish measures of capacity, etc., which differ from the Greek or Roman, is usually careful to give an equation explaining the measures to his Greek or Roman readers, while in the case of the cubit he does not do so, but seems to regard the Hebrew and the Roman-Attic as practically the same. The Roman-Attic cubit (li ft.) is fixed at 0-444 m. or 17-57 in., so that we have here a close approximation to the Egyptian common cubit. Prob-ably in Josephus' time the Hebrew common cubit was, as ascertained by the methods mentioned above, 0-450 m.; and the difference between this and the Attic-Roman was regarded by him as negligible for ordinary purposes. (5) The Mishna. No data of any value for the exact determination of the cubit are to be obtained from this source. Four cubits is given as the length of a loculus in a rock-cut tomb ; it has been pointed out that, allowing some 2 inches for the bier, and taking 5 ft. 6 in. to 5 ft. 8 in. as the average height of the Jewish body, this gives 4 cubits = 5 ft. 10 in., or 17i in. to the cubit. On the cubit in Herod's Temple, see A. R. S. Kennedy in art. Temple (p. 902''), and in artt. in ExpT xx. [1908], p. 24 ff.

The general inference from the above five sources of information is that the Jews had two cubits, a shorter and a longer, corresponding closely to the Egyptian common and royal cubit. The equivalents are expressed in the following table: —

Parts and multiples of the unit. — The ordinary parts of the cubit have already been mentioned. They occur as follows: the finger's breadth or digit (Jer 52^1, the daktyl of Josephus) ; the palm or hand's breadth (l K 7», Ezk 405- 43 4313 etc.); the span (Ex 28" 39» etc.). A special measure is the gSmed, which was the length of the sword of Ehud (Jg 3"), and is not mentioned else-where. It was explained by the commentators as a short cubit (hence EV ' cubit ' ) , and it has been suggested that it was the cubit of 5 palms, which is mentioned by Rabbi Judah. The Greeks also had a short cubit, known as the pygon, of 5 palms, the distance from the elbow to the first joint of the fingers. The reed ( = 6 cubits) is the only definite OT multiple of the cubit (Ezk 40'). This is the akaina of the Greek writers. The pace of 2 S 6" is probably not meant to be a definite measure. A 'little way' (Gn 35" 48', 2 K 5") is also indefinite. Syr. and Arab, translators compared it with the para-sang, but it cannot merely for that reason be regarded as fixed. A day's journey (Nu ll^i, 1 K 19«, Jon 3«, Lk 2") and its multiples (Gn 30", Nu 10=') are of course also variable.

The Sabbath day's journey (Ac 1'^) was usually com-puted at 2000 cubits. This was the distance by which the ark preceded the host of the Israelites, and it was consequently presumed that this distance might be covered on the Sabbath, since the host must be allowed to attend worship at the ark. The distance was doubled

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

by a legal fiction: on the eve of the Sabbath, food was placed at a spot 2000 cubits on, and this new place thus became the traveller's place within the meaning of the prescription of Ex IB"'; there were also other means of increasing the distance. The Mt. of Olives was distant a Sabbath day's journey from Jerusalem, and the same distance is given by Josephus as 5 stadia, thus confirm-ing the 2000 cubits computation. But in the Talmud the Sabbath day's journey is equated to the mil of 3000 cubits or 7i furlongs; and the measure 'threescore furlongs' of Lk 24", being an exact multiple of this distance, seems to indicate that this may have been one form (the earlier?) of the Sabbath day's journey.

In later times, a Byzantine writer of uncertain date, Julian of Ascalon, furnishes information as to the measures in use in Palestine ( Pro-vincial measures, derived from the work of the architect Julian of Ascalon, from the laws or customs prevailing in Palestine,' is the title of the table). From this we obtain (omitting doubtful points) the following table: —

1. The finger's breadth.

2. The palm=4 finger's breadths.

3. The eubit=li feet=6 pakns.

4. The pace=2 cubits = 3 feet=12 palms.

5. The fathom =2 paces = 4 cubits = 6 feet.

6. The reed = li fathoms = 6 cubits = 9 feet = 36 palms.

7. The plethron=10 reeds = 15 fathoms=30 pace3=60 cubits = 90 feet.

8. The stadium or furlone=6 plethra=60 reeds=100 fathoms = 200 paces = 400 ciibits = 600 feet.

9. (a) The milion or mile, 'according to Eratosthenes and Strabo' = 8J stadia=833i fathoms.

(6) The milion 'according to the present use '=7 J stadia= 750 fathoms= 1500 paces = 3000 cubits.

10. The present milion of 7i stadia = 750 'geometric' fathoms = 833 J ' simple ' fathoms; for 9 geometric fathoms = 10 simple fathoms.

We may justifiably assume that the 3000 cubits of 9 (6) are the royal cubits of 0- 525 m. The geometric and simple measures according to Julian thus work out as follows: —

Measures of area. — For smaller measures of area there seem to have been no special names, the dimensions of the sides of a square being usually stated. For land measures, two methods of computation were in use. (1) The first, as in most countries, was to state area in terms of the amount that a yoke of oxen couid plough in a day (cf. the Latin fugerum). Thus in Is 5" (possibly also in the corrupt 1 S 14") we have ' 10 yoke' (tsemed) of vineyard. Although definite authority is lacking, we may perhaps equate the Hebrew yoke of land to the Egyptian unit of land measure, which was 100 royal cubits square (0-2756 hectares or 0-6810 acre). The Greeks called this measure the aroura. (2) The second measure was the amount of seed required to sow an area. Thus ' the sowing of a homer of barley ' was computed at the price of 50 shekels of silver (Lv 27"). The dimensions of the trench which Elijah dug about his altar (1 K 18'^) have also recently been explained on the same principle; the trench (i.e. the area enclosed by it) is described as being 'like a house of two seahs of seed' (AV and RV wrongly 'as great as would contain two measures of seed'). This measure 'house of t-wo seahs ' is the standard of measurement in the Mishna, and is defined as the area of the court of the Tabernacle, or 100X50 cubits (c. 1648 sq. yds. or 0-1379 hectares). Other measures of capacity were used in the same way, and the system was Babylonian in origin; there are also traces of the same system in the West, under the Roman Empire.

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