A talent was a large weight of silver or gold, and the Bible uses it for serious money. Hiram sent Solomon “sixscore talents of gold,” and ships brought back four hundred and twenty more from Ophir. Jesus uses the figure in two stories. In one a servant owes “ten thousand talents,” a debt he could never repay. In the other a master gives five talents to one servant, two to another and one to a third, “to every man according to his several ability.” In English the word later came to mean a gift or skill. Matthew 25 tells the story in full.
5 verses
And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold.
And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.
And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.
And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
Of silver contained 3,000 shekels (Ex. 38:25, 26), and was equal to 94 3/7 lbs. avoirdupois. The Greek talent, however, as in the LXX., was only 82 1/4 lbs. It was in the form of a circular mass, as the Hebrew name kikkar denotes. A talent of gold was double the weight of a talent of silver (2 Sam. 12:30). Parable of the talents (Matt. 18:24; 25:15).
William Smith, 1884
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