TALENT

The largest of the Hebrew units of weight and of monetary value. (Ex. 38:29; 2 Sam. 12:30; 1 Ki. 10:10; 2 Ki. 23:33; 1 Chron. 29:7; 2 Chron. 36:3; Ezra 8:26) Calculated on the basis of its equaling 60 minas or 3,000 shekels (Ex. 38:25, 26; see MINA), a talent weighed about seventy-five pounds avoirdupois or ninety-two pounds troy (c. 34 kilograms). In modern values a talent of silver would be reckoned at about $1,423.59 and a talent of gold at about $38,661.00. Since a mina equaled 100 Greek drachmas in the first century C.E., a talent of 60 minas weighed less (about 45 pounds avoirdupois or 55 pounds troy [c. 20 kilograms]) than in Hebrew Scripture times. Accordingly, in modern values, a first-century silver talent would be worth $845.64, and a gold talent $22,965.21.

Whether reckoned according to the ancient Hebrew or the later Greek standard, the symbolic hailstones weighing one talent, as referred to at Revelation 16:21, would in either case be unusually great.