[177] For a fuller discussion of children’s toys, see Rice, Orientalisms in Bible Lands, pp. 49-58.
[178] An early Christian writer, born in 315, died in 403 A. D., who was bishop of Salamis in Cyprus.
[179] From this equivalence the reader can easily compute the value which the intermediate measures would have according to this theory. The multiples of the Log which formed the Cab, etc., are given above.
[180] See Père Germer-Durand, “Mesures de capacité des Hebreux au temps de l’évangile” in Conferences de Saint-Étienne, Paris, 1910, pp. 89-105, and [Fig. 185].
[181] The Jewish name for an offering to God. (See Mark 7:11.)
[182] “Mana” is both the Babylonian and the Hebrew term. In English it has usually been corrupted to “Mina.”
[183] Some scholars understand MENE to be such a reference.
[184] The weight is now in the library of Haverford College, near Philadelphia.
[185] The words rendered “the price was a pim” are translated in the Authorized Version, “they had a file,” margin, “a file with mouths”; in the Revised Version, “they had a file,” margin, or “when the edges ... were blunt.” The Revisers add, “The Hebrew text is obscure.” The Hebrew word rendered “file” and “blunt” comes from a root that means “to prescribe” or “appoint.” It could easily mean the “established price,” but can mean neither “file” nor “blunt.” Pim means “mouths” and is employed figuratively for “edges,” but neither of those meanings fits the passage. The discovery of these weights has cleared up the whole obscurity. This interpretation was suggested by Pilcher in the Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement, 1914, p. 99.
[186] See Macalister, Excavation of Gezer, II, 279.