Epiphanius of Salamis, Weights and Measures (1935) pp.135-145. Appendices
APPENDIX I
THE ALPHABETS IN SYRIAC MANUSCRIPT B
On the opposite page is a photographic reproduction of folio 13c-d of Or. Add. 14620, designated in this work as B. Only the column at left (d) and the line of characters across the bottom of both columns are of interest here. The rest is practically the same as A, and the collation is found in its proper place under folio 60d.
The caption at the top of B folio 13d is: "The alphabet of various scripts."
The words at the foot of the first subcolumn to the right in 13d are: "The Greek of the books," that is, the uncials.
At the foot of the second subcolumn: "Of the numbers," that is, the minuscules, used in writing numbers.
At the foot of the third subcolumn: "Tadmorine." To the left of this third subcolumn we read: "The Tadmorine alphabet, that is to say, the Phoenician. Tadmor is Phoenicia of Syria." Since it is well known that the Greek Palmyra was the older Tadmor, the identification of "Phoenicia of Syria" with Emesa, as quoted by R. Payne Smith (Thesaurus Syriacus, col. 3066), is in direct opposition to our manuscript. For a discussion of the forms of these Tadmorine letters see J. P. N. Land in Zeitschrift der Deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft XXII (1868) 549-51.
The word at the foot of the next subcolumn is the Greek shmeion, which Lagarde calls "numerorum siglae syriacae veteres" (cf. L, p. 36 n.).
Next toward the left is the Mesopotamian alphabet, without special designation. At the extreme left of the folio are the words, "Additions in the Mesopotamian alphabet are these," referring to the eight characters immediately below, at least some of which are Syriac vowel signs.
Land calls the alphabet-like line of characters across the bottom of the two columns a Federprobe, as evidenced by the fourfold writing of C, with the opening in as many directions, and the presence of Greek φ. |136
APPENDIX II
TRANSLATION OF THE GREEK TEXT OF § 21
21. Thus far, O great lover of the good, we have sufficiently treated the subject of the translators in all that precedes. Hereafter, for the rest, as we have promised in response to your entreaties, O man of God, we give attention to the weights and measures and numbers in the divine Scriptures, showing whence each one is named and what is the quality, the weight, and the force of each of them. So the kor is a measure. And it occurs in the Gospel according to Luke, where the Savior commends the sagacious steward who re-wrote so and so instead of so many kors in their accounts, and made (it) so and so instead of so many baths of oil. For the names of the measures are as follows: lethekh, homer, bath, seah, modius, cab, choinix, hyfe of fine flour, handful of meal, ardeb, three measures of fine flour, three baskets of coarse meal, nevel of wine, kollathon, alabastron of ointment, kapsakes of water, kotyle of oil, kyathos, metretes of wine, metretes of oil, tryblion, xestes, amphora, aporryma, shafitha, hin, chus, the golden stamnos in which the manna was placed, mares, kupros, congiarium. Moreover, the koros is taken from the Hebrew language, where it is called the kor. And it is 30 modii. But the kor gets its name from the fundamental idea of a heap, for the heap is called a charia. And 30 modii heaped together make a camel's load. And (as for) a lethekh, since it is said in the prophet Hosea, "I have hired for myself for a lethekh of barley," but in other codices, "for a homer of barley," they are the same; for they signify 15 modii. But the lethekh is named according to a word of the Hebrews which means a "lifting up," from the circumstance that a young man can lift up 15 modii and place them on an ass. And this is also called the homer. But there are two homers, a great one and a small one, of which the great one is the same as the lethekh, it being also 15 modii, but the small one is 12 baths. And this comes from the Hebrew language, the oil press being synonymously called bith. For "bath" is interpreted oil press, but it is 50 xestai |137 and is the measure of the craft of the oil-presser. Mnasis or medimnos are taken, I think, from the Roman language, for in that language medium is interpreted as "middle." Mnasis, moreover, is used as a measure among the Cyprians and other peoples. And it is 10 modii of wheat or barley by the modius of 17 xestai among the Cyprians. But the medimnos varies among the same Cyprians; for the people of Salamis, that is to say, of Constantia, have a medimnos of 5 modii, while those of Paphos and the Sicilians measure it as 4 1/2 modii. (The seah) is called satos, being derived from the same Hebrew and pronounced as a feminine, but in Greek as neuter, for it is called salon and not satos. And it is an overfull modius, so that the modius is full and because of the overfulness a quarter of a modius (more). But it is called a seah, meaning according to this language a "taking up" or "lifting up," from the circumstance that the one measuring, according to a certain custom, takes the measure and lifts it up. But the name of the modius was invented by the Hebrews with great exactness, being 22 xestai, not in simple fashion or by chance, but from great exactness. For the "just" modius, as the Law is accustomed to say, is measured according to the sacred measure. For the sacred measure is nothing else than the twenty-two works that God did in the six days of the hebdomad.
APPENDIX III
TRANSLATION OF THE FRAGMENTARY CONCLUSION OF THE GREEK TEXT FOLLOWING §24
But the cab, from the same language, is a different measure, that is to say, the fourth part of a modius.
But the choinix and hyfe are one, though called by a double name. And it is 2 xestai and a certain fraction.
The handful of meal. This is simple and clear to all.
The ardeb. This measure was named by the Egyptians, and it is 72 xestai. And this also is so composed with great exactness. Seventy-two men were building the tower at the time when the one language was confounded into seventy-two. Hence also they are called meropes, because of the divided speech. But the metretes has the same capacity according to the sacred measure.
"Three measures of fine flour," those which Abraham commanded Sarah to prepare for the angels, from which measures he commanded an ash cake to be made. Every one of these measures held an omer.
The omer, however, was the tenth part of the great measure, that is, of the ardeb, which makes 7 1/5 xestai.
Three baskets of coarse meal, where they were at that time accustomed to put the coarse meal. But it is a kind of wheat cut in two.
The nevel of wine, which is a measure of 150 xestai.
The seah is 56 xestai.