I have heard many estimates on the value of the talent, a currency used in Biblical times. (I’m not sure when it became obsolete)
Some say it was worth $1,000 in today’s economy. Others say $10,000. And I just heard a preacher say that he did some studies, and estimates a talent to be worth $300,000!!
Which is it?
“Life is hard…but God is good”
“A talent of what” is the question that really has to be asked.
A talent is really a measure of weight, not a unit of currency (as “pound sterling” once was). IIRC, the equivalence is 1 talent = 2 staters = 60 minae = 6,000 drachmae = 36,000 obols (the talent is a Greek measure). A drachma (“handful”) is about 4.5 grams by Athenian measure (there were several measures in use in ancient times). A drachma of silver (coined or otherwise), was about a day’s wage for a skilled laborer in the 5th century BCE, although I believe that by the 1st century CE (New Testament times), this had risen to about 2½ drachmae.
A talent of gold, based on Wednesday’s New Yotk close, would be worth about $252,000; I don’t track the price of silver as closely, but a talent of silver would be worth about $4,000. In terms of wages, a talent is 2,400 days’ wages; the standard of living has changed so much in the past 2,000 years that no comparison could have any real meaning.
“I don’t just want you to feel envy. I want you to suffer, I want you to bleed, I want you to die a little bit each day. And I want you to thank me for it.” – What “Let’s just be friends” really means
. . . Well, my writing talent plus a dollar fifty will get me on the subway . . .
…and of course my talent would get me kicked off the subway…