Talent
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Exod. 38:25–29; Matt. 18:24; 25:15)—a large unit of weight and monetary reckoning, commonly divided into sixty minas. Its exact mass and value varied by place, period, and standard; Hebrew sanctuary reckoning associated it with three thousand shekels, while Greek systems could reckon six thousand drachmas. Scripture speaks of talents of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and lead. In Christ’s parables the enormous sum emphasizes both the master’s generous trust and, in Matthew 18, the servant’s unpayable debt. Obsolete conversion into nineteenth-century rubles is omitted.