Objects

The standard liquid measure of ancient Israel — about 22 litres, the same volume as the dry ephah. Solomon's Temple sea held 2,000 baths of …

A wheel-thrown clay vessel, palm-sized, with a wick spout and a fill hole. Filled with olive oil, it burned through most of the night with t…

The standard ancient unit of length — about 45 cm, the distance from a man's elbow to his fingertips. Noah's ark was 300 cubits long, Goliat…

Paired bronze plates struck together for a sharp ringing crash, used by the Levite percussion in Temple worship. Paul's 'clanging cymbal' is…

A small silver Roman coin, about 18 mm across, equal to one day's wages for a labourer. Most denarii in Jesus' day bore the head of Tiberius…

A Greek silver coin of similar weight to the denarius, current across the eastern Mediterranean. The woman in Luke 15 swept her house to fin…

The standard dry measure of ancient Israel — about 22 litres of grain, a large basket. The prophet Amos rails against shopkeepers who shrink…

Two related stringed instruments of ancient Israel: the small portable kinnor that David carried, and the larger ten-stringed nevel used in …

The smallest coin in circulation in Judea — a tiny bronze prutah worth 1/128 of a denarius. The widow's two leptons were her entire savings.

A small dry measure, about 2.2 litres — the daily ration of manna in the wilderness. One-tenth of an ephah, roughly two big handfuls of grai…

A long sheet of parchment or papyrus wound around one or two wooden rollers — the standard book of the biblical world. Jesus read from an Is…

A silver coin and weight, about 11 grams, used to pay the Temple tax. Thirty silver shekels was the price paid for Judas to betray Jesus.

A trumpet made from a ram's horn, hollowed and shaped to give a piercing, primal blast. It announced the new year, called Israel to war, and…

The largest biblical weight, about 34 kg of silver or gold — roughly twenty years' wages. The 'talent' Jesus' servants invested was a fortun…