THE Hebrews, from the Beginning of the Commonwealth, have had their Coins, Weights, and Measures. The Difficulty is to know what this Coin was, and what their Weights and Measures, so often mentioned in Holy Scripture. This is what has exercised the Pens of the several Authors following.
Edwardi Bernard, de mensuris & ponderibus antiquis, & de mari Salomonis, printed at Oxford 1688, in 8vo. in three Books; an Edition much larger than that which had before been printed. He was an Englishman, and died in 1697. aged 53.
Jo. Gaspar Eisenschmid de Ponderibus & mensuris veterum Roman. Græc. & Hebræorum; necnon de valore pecuniæ veteris. Argentorati, 1708. He was a German Lutheran.
Henrici Guntheri Thulemarii, de variis Siclis & Talentis Hebræorum. Erfurd, 1676. in 12mo. He was a German Calvinist, a Lawyer, and Counsellor to the Electoral Prince Palatine.
Andreæ Beyer, siclus sacer & Regius appensus, printed at Lipsick, 1667, in 12mo. Beyer was a German Lutheran, and lived in 1668. Car. Joseph. Imbonati de nummis Hebræorum, t. 4. p. 158. Biblioth Rabbin.
Ben-Ariæ Montani Tubal-Cain, t. 8. Critic. Lond. p. 642. It is also in the Author’s Polyglot of Antwerp.
Gasper Vaserus, de Nummis Hebræorum. Tiguri, 1605, &c. It was printed likewise at Heidelberg, 1610, in 4to. but it was afterwards inserted in the Great Criticks, tom. 8. p. 926. See his Title in the Index.
Edwardi Brerewood, de ponderibus & pretiis veterum nummorum; printed at London, 1614, in 4to. and in the Great Criticks, tom. 8. p. 1093.
Marqhardi Freheri, de numismate Census. Heidelburg. 1599, in 4to. It has been inserted in the ninth Tome of the above-mentioned Criticks, p. 3627. See our Lists upon St. Matthew.
Raphael Avellinus, declaratio numismatis Hebraici David & Abraham. Italicè.
Henrici Bunting, de monetis & mensuris Sacræ Scripturæ. Helmstadt, 1583. Of this Work there has been an almost infinite number of Editions, in all sorts of Languages: There is one of London, 1683, in English, 4to. Bunting was a German, of Hanover, a Lutheran, and Super-Intendant of Goslar. He flourished in 1590. Herman. Cnoringius, de nummis Hebr. paradoxa. Helm. 1675, in 4to. In these Paradoxes the Author pretends to prove, that all the ancient Shekels were of Silver, that there is no true Hebrew Coin representing the Figure of a Man, &c. This Work has been printed in the second Fasciculus of the Opuscula, at Lipsick, 1695, in 8vo. Fabricius, in his Bibliographia, is pretty particular in his Account of it, p. 533. See upon St. Luke what relates to this Author, or his Title in the Index.
Ottho Sperling, de nummis non cusis. This Author asserts likewise that there was no stamped Coins in use among the Jews before the Babylonish Captivity.
Fortunatus Schaccus, Myrothecii, l. 2. c. 3. treats of the same Subject. See his Title in the Index.
Adrianus Relandus, Dissert. de nummis Samaritanorum. We have spoken of him in the preceding Article, upon the occasion of another Work of his.
F. Hardouin, and John Gagnier, have written on the same Subject; F. Hardouin in his Chronology of the Old Testament, the 605th, and following Pages: What John Gagnier has written on the Coins, is in the Memoirs of Trevoux, for the Year 1705, in the Month of September, p. 1643, and November, p. 1997.
Richard Cumberland put out an Essay concerning the Coins, Weights, and Measures of the Hebrews, Lond. 1686, in 8vo. in English. In it he compares the Weights, Measures, and Coins of the Jews with those of the English. He was an Englishman, and a Divine of Cambridge, and died Bishop of Peterborough.
Stanisl. Grepsius, de Siclo, & Talento Hebræorum. Item de Ponderibus & Mensuris. He was of Poland, and lived in the 16th Century. His Book was printed at Antwerp, 1568, in 8vo.
Jacobi Tirini, de antiquis Hebr. &c. ponderibus, mensuris & monetis. What he has written on this Matter is in the nature of Prolegomena, and to be found both in the large and very large Bible of John de la Haie, and in the Polyglot of London.
Joan. Henrici Hottinger. de nummis Orientalium, Hebræorum maxime & Arabum; printed at Heidelburg, 1662. the second Edition, enlarged. At the End of his Work is a Plate, wherein we find several Jewish Coins. See his Title in the Index.
Joan. Pastritii, de Siclis & Nummis Hebraicis. Imbonati alone, in his Bibliotheca Latino-Hebraica, p. 123, speaks of his Treatise of Shekels, and several others, which would be of great Importance, if they were printed; the Titles of them may be seen in F. le Long’s Bibliotheca Sacra, tom. 2. p. 895. Pastritius was of Dalmatia, and understood Greek and Hebrew, which he taught at Rome, and died in 1708.
Joan. Selden, Liber de nummis, printed at London, 1675, in 4to. See his Title in the Index.
Joan. Wolferi, de Siclo mense Adar offerendo. This is a Talmudical Treatise, concerning the Manner of offering the Shekel every Year, while the Jewish Temple was in being. Wolfer is only the Translator of it, and has joined a Comment with it, printed at Altorf, 1680, in 4to.
Josiæ Simleri, vocabula rei nummariæ, ponderum & mensurarum Græca, Hebraica, Arabica; printed at Zurich, 1610, in 8vo. Simler was of Zurich, a Calvinist, and died in 1576.
Ludov. ab Aleazar, opusculum de ponderibus & mensuris, printed at Antwerp, 1614, and at Lyons, 1616, in fol. This Work, which is to be esteemed for its own sake, and its Author’s, is a curious Enquiry after the Truth in Weights and Measures. See upon the Revelations.
Marini Mersenne, Tract. de mensuris, ponderibus & nummis Hebræorum, Græcorum, &c. printed at Paris, 1644, in 4to. This Author, who was of the Province of Maine, turned Minim, became an able Mathematician, and died in 1648. He had a particular Intimacy with the celebrated Descartes.
Matthei Hostii, Historia rei nummariæ veteris, &c.
Ejusdem lib. 3. de veteribus ponderibus & mensuris intervallorum Romanis, Græcis, Hebraicis, &c. These two large Works were printed at Frankfort in 1580, and 1595, two Vols. in 8vo. and again with the ancient Authors who have written upon Coins, at Leyden, 1695, in 4to. See the Title Hoste, or Hostius, in the Index.
Philippi Labbe, Bibliotheca nummaria; printed at Paris, 1664, in 8vo. We have spoken of this learned Author in the Article of Annals, above.
M. le Pelletier of Rohan, his Reduction of the Coins, Weights and Measures of the Hebrews to the Standard of France, printed before our Comment upon Genesis.
The Reduction of the Coins of the Hebrews, and of some other People, to our Standard, by M. Turpin, Counsellor in the Court des Monnoyes, printed in this Dictionary, Tome I. the second Edition.
F. Lamy, of the Oratory, has likewise published Tables of the Coins, Weights, and Measures of the Hebrews, in his Apparatus; but this is only an Abridgment of a large Work lately published by him on this Subject.
Joan. Mariana, de ponderibus & mensuris. This is in the new Edition of Menochius, wherein F. Tournemine adapts what Mariana has said of Coins with respect to Spain, to the Weights and Coins of France.
It may be advisable to see what M. le Pelletier of Rohan has written on the Weight of Absalom’s Hair; because he has hereupon made a long and learned Discussion concerning the Shekels and Measures of the Hebrews. It is in the Memoirs of Trevoux for 1702, in the Month of August. He has in particular written a Treatise of Weights and Measures, printed in the Literary Essays of May, 1703, p. 316. We have spoken of him upon Genesis. See upon Noah’s Ark in the Dissertations.
Zwinger wrote a Dissertation upon the Shekels of the Hebrews, printed in Latin at Basil, 1709, in 4to. He distinguishes here the Sacred and Profane Shekel: He has also a long Discussion concerning the Thirty Pieces of Silver that Judas receiv’d as the Reward of his Treachery. Fabricius, in his Bibliographia, mentions all those who have treated of this Matter, p. 530, 540, 544. and Lipenius, in his Bibliotheca Philosophica, Tome 1. and 2.