The shekel here meant is probably that of 130-135 grains, while the price of the ox in Brugsch’s list is 1 ket or 140 grains. At a moderate computation this would make a horse worth 150 oxen, if our documents were contemporary. But from lists of relative prices in ancient and modern times it is preposterous to suppose that at any time or in any place such a remarkable difference in value existed between the horse and the cow. From this it follows that if Brugsch is right in his translation of his Egyptian text, the latter must date from several centuries before 1000 B.C., when as yet silver was of the same or almost the same value as gold. Finally, we have no means of knowing the age of the ox, but as it is equal in value to only four goats, it is possible that it was not a full-grown animal. I have dealt with this point at some length, and have little positive gain to show, but it is necessary to put before the reader all data which may aid in our search, and still more necessary to do so in the case of evidence which seems to present serious difficulties.
Unfortunately for us the Old Testament gives very scanty information on the question of the cost of various commodities, and in no place do we get any information regarding the price of cattle. For in the account of the purchase of the threshing-floor and oxen of Oman the Jebusite by king David, there is a discrepancy in price between the Second Book of Samuel (xxiv. 24) and First Chronicles (xxi. 25), the former making the sum 50 shekels of silver, the latter “six hundred shekels of gold by weight,” and in any case, as we do not know the number of oxen used in threshing or the value of the floor and threshing instruments, it is impossible for us to draw any inference. In the Book of Exodus, however, we obtain the value of a slave, from which we may at least get an approximate idea of the value of an ox: “If the (wicked) ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he (the owner of the ox) shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned” (xxi. 32). Here, as in the ancient laws of Wales and elsewhere, the value of the male and female slave is the same, and thirty shekels or pieces of silver seems to have been the conventional price of a slave among the Hebrews. To this Zechariah (xi. 12) seems to allude, “So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver,” in reference to which the Evangelist writes: “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value” (Matt. xxvii. 9). The average slave among the Homeric Greeks (as we saw above) was worth about three oxen, amongst the Irish three, among the modern Zulus about 10, and among the wild tribes of Annam seven (pp. 24-5). Allowing three oxen as the value of a slave among the Hebrews, the ox is worth 10 shekels (ancient) = 1300 grains of silver = 130 grains of gold, taking gold to silver as 10:1, which at an early period was probably the regular ratio in parts of Asia Minor. The result thus reached gives us once more the Homeric ox-unit as the value of the Hebrew ox. It is certain that it cannot have been higher, although we cannot show that it may not have been less.
The cow is estimated in the Commentary on Vendîdâd, Fargard, IV. 1-2 at 12 stirs or istirs.
Our task must be now to find out the weight of this istir. Istir or stir is identified with Greek στατήρ (as dirham is with Greek δραχμή).
The Pahlavi Texts, translated by Dr West, naturally afford us the readiest means of discovering our object[207].
THE VALUE OF A COW
| I | II | III | IV | V | VI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sins or equivalent good works | Shayast I. 1 | XI. 1 | XVI. 1-3 | XVI. 5 | Spiegel Rivaya | Spiegel Rivaya |
| Srôshô-Karanam | 1 dirham 2 mads | 3 coins and a half | ||||
| Farmån | weight of 4 stirs and each stir has 4 dirhams | 3 dirhams of 4 mads | 3 coins of 5 annas some say, 3 coins | a Farmant is a Srôshô-Karanâm | 7 stirs | 8 stirs |
| Agerept | 1 dirham | 33 stirs | 53 dirhams | 16 stirs | 12 stirs | |
| Avôirîst | 1 dirham | the weight of 33 dirhams | 73 dirhams | 25 stirs | 15 stirs | |
| Aredûs | 30 stirs | 30 stirs | 30 stirs | 30 stirs | ||
| Khôr | 60 stirs | 60 stirs | 60 stirs | |||
| Bâzâî | 90 stirs | 90 stirs | 90 stirs | |||
| Yât | 180 stirs | 180 stirs | 180 stirs | |||
| Tanâpûhar | 300 stirs | 300 stirs | 300 stirs |
There are in the Shayast-la-Shayast various lists of sins and good works. These sins or good works are put in the golden balance and weighed, in which case the stir is a weight, whilst in other cases we have a money evaluation. As much confusion arises from variations in the lists, it will be best to tabulate the different lists, and thus get a synoptic view of the whole.