If you have the New International Version of the Bible handy, please open it up to Matthew 18:24
“As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.”
The footnotes in my translation say that “ten thousand talents” was equal to “millions of dollars.”
My question, simple enough, is this: does the NIV on the other side of The Pond say “…millions of pounds?”
Sorry, King James version.
Harry Enfield, a comedian had a catch-phrase ‘loads-a-money’, and that would have been as good as anything, I expect…
Haven’t got New. Int. version but I found something called “Revised Standard Version” in which a footnote says
“This talent was more than fifteen years’ wages of a labourer.”
More sensible, but not as much fun as having it put into US$, Canadian $, DM, Euro, Kronor, UKL etc.
(The following is an estimate)
Let’s see… 15 years (52 weeks per year) is 5475 days
assume you get Saturday and Sunday off… 261 Days per year, 3915 days left. Let’s say 2 weeks vacation (unpaid) per year, 210 days, 3705 days left.
Now, assuming 5.15 per hour, say, 10 hours a day. No taxes, so that would be… 51.50 a day, or 257.50 per week, and with no taxes, that would be $12,875 per year before taxes. To make this slightly more realistic, let’s assume he has to pay a little in taxes, say, 20%?
Taken from the pretax yearly total, that would be… $10,300.
$10,300 * 15 would be… $154.500.
No wonder he was ticked. But how does that stack up around the world? Your Friendly Patron Saint of Nothing is here to help. Thanks to online currency conversion calculators, we have the answer! Pick the Currency from the chart below and be amazed!
$154,500 United States Dollar
Rates from Thu Nov 9 20:30:02 2000
Value Currency
2479550.21 Austrian Schillings
294173.6481 Australian Dollars
7269086.249 Belgian Francs
303283.5 Brazilian Real
238779.75 Canadian Dollars
274067.55 Swiss Francs
1278765.6 Chinese Renminbi
352432.6277 German Marks
1343284.8 Danish Kroner
29982081.88 Spanish Pesetas
1071396.414 Finnish Markka
1182007.89 French Francs
108481.9548 British Pounds
61305600 Greek Drachmas
1204945.5 Hong Kong Dollars
141915.8363 Irish Punt
7222875 Indian Rupees
348907995.1 Italian Lira
16594845 Japanese Yen
174894000 South Korean Won
12344550 Sri Lanka Rupee
1490616 Mexican New Pesos
587100 Malaysian Ringgit
397099.5976 Netherlands Guilders
1435845.75 Norwegian Kroner
386733.4168 New Zealand Dollars
36126042.69 Portuguese Escudo
1548399 Swedish Krona
268907.25 Singapore Dollars
6736200 Thai Baht
4959450 Taiwan Dollars
107414580 Venezuelan Bolivar
180195.9412 European Monetary Union
1196216.25 South African Rand
That was a nice chart. Oh well. It’s readable tho. 
I actually hire the occasional “laborer” and IMO if you think you’re going to get anyone reliable to do hard physical labor for 5.15 an hour over an extended period of time in the US in the year 2000, you need to think again. Typically 8.00 - 10.00 + per hour is the going rate. Average at 9.00 per hour would be in the ballpark.