There are two divisional systems found in these measures : 1. A decimal ; and 2. A duodecimal, thus :— IIomer . .
Bath and ephah to Gomer . . too to By putting together the measures for dry and those for liquid articles, we obtain the duodecimal division :— Ephah or Bath Seah . . 3 Hin . . . . 6 2 1 Cab . . . t8 6 3 I Log . . . 72 24 12 4 1 Here all the numbers are divisible either by twelve or by submultiples of twelve. Such a duodecimal arrangement is found in the cubic measures of the Greeks and Romans. Hence the three systems give and receive support.
We will now exhibit all these measures in rela tion to the greatest, the homer :— Homer . . .
Bath and Ephah to Seah . . . 3o 3 Hin . . . 6o 6 2 I Gomer . . . too to 3* ti Cab . . . 18o 18 6 3 it I Log . . . 72o 72 24 12 7i 4 1 The duodecimal is the original principle, the decimal system being introduced only to bring the two methods into harmony. The homer did not at first form a part of the Hebrew system (Ezek. xlv. 1).
For the actual size of these measures we must refer to Josephus, of whom Theodoret Exoa'. xxbc.) says : rtoretrriov Si iv rarms re?' 'Iocriprcp crucp0c7,s rob' Mous ra. i.arpa ertarccAgrco,—` follow in these things Josephus, who well understood the measures of the nation' (comp. Antiq. 3. S). To the homer or cor Josephus ascribes (Antiq. xv. 9. 2) twelve Attic medimni, where the reading should be metret. Bath and Ephah are the same. Jose phus (,4ntiq. Ali. 2. 9) determines each at seventy two xestw, and makes them equal to an Attic metretes. The saton is twenty-four sextarii ; the hin is tv.'elve sextarii ; the gomer, the tenth part of the ephah, must hold seven and one-fifth sextarii ; the cab is equal to four xestx. On the log Jose phus gives no information ; as the fourth part of the cab, it held a xestes. The Attic metretes, which corresponded with the Hebrew bath and ephah, contains 739,Soo Parisian grains of rain water, which would fill a space of about 1985 Parisian cubic inches. Thus we come to the fol lowing table :— BOckh has proved that it is in Babylon We are to look for the foundations of the metrological systems of the ancient world ; for the entire sys tem of measures, both eastern and western, must I be referred to the Babylonish foot as to its basis. Here is the root of the original system, and of the individual systems which sprang from the original one. This important fact, ascertained •and estab
lished by Bockh, has been investigated and con firmed by an independent inquirer of the highest authority—viz. K. O. Miiller. Not only the me trological system, but with it other knowledge went westward from Babylon. This metrological system bears traces of having proceeded from the hands of Babylonian astronomers. The ancient world was dependent for its astronomy on Babylon. Hero (lotus (ii. roi) says that the Greeks borrowed the division of the day into twelve parts from the Baby lonians, calling to mind the duodecimal division which we have spoken of. The Zodiac too is of Asiatic, Ideler holds of Babylonian origin ; but recent investigations have shown a striking agree ment between the astronomy of the Babylonians and the Chinese, to say nothing of other nations in the farther east (Ideler, Uber a'ie Zeitrechnung- der Chinesen, etc., Berlin 1839 ; Biot, 7ournal des &mans, Dec. 1839, Jan. and May 1840 ; Gottingen Gel. Anzeig-en, 1840, p. 201, se.y.) Of this common knowledge several considerations concur in refer ring the origin, not to the Chinese, but to the Babylonians. Hence Babylon appears as the land which was the teacher of the east and the west in astronomical and mathematical knowledge, stand ing as it were in the middle of the ancient world, and sending forth rays of light from her two ex tended hands. Palestine could not be closed against these illuminations, which in their progress westward must have enlightened its inhabitants, who appear to have owed their highest earthly culture to the Babylonians and the Egyptians.
The following works may be consulted :—J. D. Michaelis, Supplem. ad Lex. Ilebr. p. 1521 ; Hus sey, Essay 071 the Ancient Weights, Money, etc., Oxford 1836 ; F. P. Bayer, De Nummis Hebrceo Sanzaritanis, Valentite Edetanarum, I78t, written in reply to Die Undchtheit der .111iinzen, But zow 1779 ; Hupfeld, Eetrathtung dunkler Stellung der A. T. Textgeschichte, in the Studien una' ken, 1830, 2d heft, pp. 247-301 ; G. Seyffarth, Beitrlige zur Kenntniss der Literatur, Kunst, Illy thol. und Gesch. des alten Aeopten ; see especially Bertheau, Zur Geschichte der Israeliten, Gottingen 1842 ; Cumberland, Essay on Welghts and Mea sures ; Arbuthnot, Tables of Ancient Coins ; The nius in Studien tend Kritiken for 1846, p. 73 and p. 297, etc.—J. R. B..