Talent (measurement)

A talent (Latin: talentum, from Ancient Greek: τάλαντον "scale, balance") is an ancient unit of mass. The many cultures that used the word each gave it their own definition, so it has no single meaning. For the Ancient Romans, it was the mass of water that a wine amphora could hold, about 26 liters (7 US gallons), meaning about 26 kilograms (57 lb).

To the Babylonians and Sumerians, a talent weighed about 30 kilograms (66 lb).

At the time of the Ancient Greek poet, Homer, a gold talent was about the value of an ox and weighed 8.5 grams (0.30 oz).

Another way to calculate the modern value to a talent of money is compare it with modern military pay. During the Peloponnesian war in Ancient Greece, a talent was the amount of silver needed to pay the entire crew of a trireme for one month. Mercenaries were commonly paid one drachma for every day of service, which was a good salary in those days. 6,000 drachma made a talent.

In Revelation 16:21, the talent is used as a weight for hail being poured forth from heaven and dropping on mankind as punishment in the end times: "And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great." (King James Bible) Various definitions are provided in different translations:

• New International Version: a footnote says "Talent: 75 or 100 pounds."
• New Living Translation: text reads "weighing as much as seventy-five pounds".
• English Standard Version: text reads "about one hundred pounds each".