Talent (measurement)

The talent (Ancient Greek: τάλαντον, talanton, Latin: talentum, Biblical Hebrew: kikkar כִּכָּר, Ugaritic: kkr (𐎋𐎋𐎗), Phoenician: kkr (𐤒𐤒𐤓), Syriac: kakra (ܟܲܟܪܵܐ),, Akkadian: kakkaru or gaggaru in the Amarna tablets, later Aramaic: qintara (קינטרא‎)) was a unit of weight used in the ancient world, often used for weighing gold and silver.

In the Hebrew Bible, it is recorded that the gold used in the work of the sanctuary (tabernacle), where the Ark of the Covenant was, weighed 29 talents and 730 shekels , and silver 100 talents and 1775 shekels. (1 talent=3000 shekels. ) The enormous wealth of King Solomon is described as receiving 666 gold talents a year.

The talent is also mentioned in connection with other metals, ivory, and frankincense. In Homer's poems, it is always used of gold and is thought to have been quite a small weight of about 8.5 grams (0.30 oz), approximately the same as the later gold stater coin or Persian daric.

In later times in Greece, it represented a much larger weight, approximately 3,000 times as much: an Attic talent was approximately 26.0 kilograms (57 lb 5 oz). The word also came to be used as the equivalent of the Middle Eastern kakkaru or kikkar. A Babylonian talent was 30.2 kg (66 lb 9 oz). Ancient Israel adopted the Babylonian weight talent, but later revised it. The heavy common talent, used in New Testament times, was 58.9 kg (129 lb 14 oz). A Roman talent (divided into 100 librae or pounds) was 1+1⁄3 Attic talents, approximately 32.3 kg (71 lb 3 oz). An Egyptian talent was 80 librae, approximately 27 kg (60 lb).