Before coined money, money WAS weight: Abraham “weighed to Ephron the silver… four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant” (Gen 23:16), and Zechariah’s “thirty pieces of silver” were likewise “weighed for my hire” (Zech 11:12). The shekel was the base weight; in the Hebrew system a mina held fifty shekels and a talent three thousand, so a “talent” of silver or gold is not a coin but a fortune by weight, in the Jewish Encyclopedia’s reckoning over ninety pounds of metal, which is the crushing point of the parable’s “ten thousand talents” against a hundred shillings (Matt 18:24, 28). Coined shekels came late, the surviving Maccabean-era shekels weigh about 14½ grams of silver.
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- Genesis 23:16bsb
Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the standard of the merchants.
- Zechariah 11:12bsb
Then I told them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver.
- Matthew 18:24bsb
As he began the settlements, a debtor owing ten thousand talents was brought to him.
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