| Ammah | 1 |
| Zereth | 2 . 1 |
| Tephach | 6 . 3 . 1 |
| Eçba | 24 . 12 . 4 . 1 |
"The knowledge of the absolute value of any one of these would therefore be sufficient to enable us to deduce those of the rest; but since on this point we have no positive datum, in the writings either of Josephus or of the Rabbins, we must be contented with an approximate estimate by the aid of the Egyptian measures, which modern discoveries enable us to fix with a certain precision. It is probable, besides, that the system of the Hebrews was borrowed from that of the Egyptians. The Rabbins determine their measures of length by the breadth of grains of barley placed side by side—a custom which also prevails amongst the Arabs and other Eastern tribes. It is easily seen that there is an uncertainty in this method of measurement, owing to the unequal sizes of the barley-grains. Maimonides, who has made minute calculations on the subject, has found that the Eçba of the Bible is equal to the breadth of seven average-sized grains of barley[B], which gives for the Ammah 168. It is found by calculations sufficiently exact that the Arab cubit, which is estimated at 144 grains of barley (that is, twenty-four fingers of six grains each), when reduced to (Paris) lines and decimal parts of lines, gives 213.050[C], which would give for the Hebrew Ammah of 168 barley-grains 248.564 (about 560 millimetres, or 22 inches). This result is not thoroughly exact, but it will be seen that it does not differ much from the probable value of the Egyptian measures;—at any rate it may serve to establish the connexion which existed between the measures of the Hebrews and those of the Egyptians.
"But another question presents itself. The learned have attributed to the Hebrews more than one kind of cubit[D], and while we reject mere conjectures that have no solid basis, we must at any rate admit two kinds; the one ancient or Mosaic, used for the measurement of sacred things, the other modern, for common use. In the second book of Chronicles (iii. 3), a 'cubit of the first measure,' or ancient cubit, is spoken of as employed for the measurements of the Temple of Solomon,—which implies the existence of a modern or common cubit. The prophet Ezekiel (xl. 5, xliii. 13) in a vision in which he sees the dimensions of the future temple, speaks evidently of a cubit containing a hand-breadth more than the ordinary cubit, from which we may conclude that between the two cubits there was a difference of a hand-breadth. This difference the Talmud interprets in the sense, that the less contained only five of the six hand-breadths of the greater[E]; but it would be more consistent to give them the same ratio as the two different Egyptian cubits had, i.e. that of 7 : 6, approximately. Further, it is probable that each of the two was divided into six hand-breadths; the Talmud speaks expressly of longer and shorter hand-breadths[F]. The old Mosaic cubit was, without doubt, the royal cubit of the Egyptians, and the different scales of this still extant, together with the measurements of several Egyptian monuments, give for its mean value about 525 millimetres[G] (or 20.67 inches). This result appears less doubtful since it differs by only 35 millimetres from that which was found by the very uncertain calculation of the breadth of the barley-grains. Admitting this, we obtain for the value of the ordinary cubit 450 millimetres or 433.5 (i.e. 17.71 or 17.07 inches), according as we take the Egyptian ratio 7 : 6 or that of the Talmud 6 : 5. Each of these two cubits was divided in the same proportion into two spans, six hand-breadths, and twenty-four fingers.
"With measures of length may be classed those of distance, or road-measures; but the old Hebrews measured their roads in a very vague and uncertain manner; and as we shall not need to refer to their measurements in this book, I leave the discussion of them to turn to those which are necessary.
"In the Græco-Roman period the Jews reckoned by stadia and miles; which measures are found in the Old Testament and in the Talmud, as is also the Sabbath-day's journey (Acts i. 12), which was about 2000 cubits."
Josephus also often quotes his measurements in stadia, so I will speak of these. Three principal kinds of stadia are known; the Olympic, equivalent to 184.95 metres (or 606.8 feet); the Pythian, equal to 147.6 metres (or 484.3 feet), and lastly the Philæterian, of 213 metres (or 698.8 feet). Through the whole of this work I have adopted the Olympic, because in the measurements taken in Jerusalem itself, and its environs, I have found that it alone corresponds with all the distances which are cited in stadia by Josephus. That author, speaking of the Mount of Olives, puts it at five stadia from the city, Mount Scopus at seven, the monument of Absalom at two, Herodium at sixty, and lastly, Anathoth at twenty stadia. All these distances I have verified, comparing them with the Olympic stadium, and have always found them exact. Hence it is that I employ this to measure the thirty-three stadia of the city's circumference, and the thirty-nine of the lines drawn round it by Titus, &c. For the sacred cubit of the first measure I have adopted the Egyptian of 20.67 inches, and for the common cubit that of 17.71 inches, as a result of the extended observation and study of measurements that I have made on the old stones which are found in the Eastern wall of the Temple, or of the Haram es-Sherîf; with considerable difficulty I have managed to measure many such which have suffered no mutilation, and have found them to correspond with the ordinary cubits and their aliquot parts of spans, hand-breadths, and digits.
In case the reader should desire to examine more minutely the question of Jewish measures, I refer him to the following works, to which the numerals in the text above relate.
David Kimchi's Dictionary, s. vv. 'Zereth' and 'Tephach;' Maimonides, Comment. on Mishna, part 5, tract Middoth, ch. 3, § 1, part 6; tract Kilim, ch. 17, § 9.]