The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1904-10-19
The Wealth OF Bible Days.

NIuite young lad asked ais latncT'
Gould | have been a millionaire
when Joseph was in Egypt
Recent historical researches and
statistics in ancient Jewish papers
tend to show that in the days preced-
ing the birth OF Christ there probably
we're wealthier men than the world has
even now. To illustrate, there was
one Jewish ruler by the name Of
Korah. To form an idea of his for
tune it is stated tnat it required no
less than three hundred white mules
TO carry the keys Of his grain store
houses, and these keys were not made
of heavy metal, but Of light leather
strips. Five Of these leather keys
weighed pound. The carrying ca
pacity Of each mule was about 200
pounds. Therefore korah had SO
many storc-houscs that he required
three hundred thousand keys to get
into them.
The mathematician who took these
figures from the Tamud estimates that
korah was worth three billion dollars,
or three times the amount accredited
to any single man in the world to-day.
King Solomon himself was an cxtraor-
dinarily wealthy man. He had 10, 900
stable horses and / 900 stables for l.
400 chariots, with 10000 horscmcn.
Every horse was worth $50 shckels
and every chariot 600 shckcls, as any
boy may learn BY cons ulting the books
Of Kings or Chronicles
\ shckel is worth about fifty cents
in American money, SO that it is cs-
timated that Solomon stables and
horscmcn represented an investment
Of nearly S6,0O0,000. The gifts which
the Queen of Sheba brought to Solo
mon have been valued at the equiva-
lent of 100000 German thalers.
What Solomon himself expended upon
the building of his temple is put at
the enormous sum Of $3.50, ,0O0,O 900. If
with this are included the precious
stones, marble and other rare building
material used, it is believed that an
exact reproduction Of the temple to-
day would make it cost approximate
$500, 900, 900 in American money.
The boy who is interested in figures
may take his own Testament and de-
termine that in the building of the
temple King Solomon gave to Hiram,
king of Tyre, nearly 4,50C 600 bushels
Of wheat, nearly the same amount of
barley, nearly million gallons of bath
wine and any quantity of bath oil. At
the current price of wheat today this
quantity would be worth near 81 4,000,-
900, and the barley would be worth
about sl,500,O00 The 5000 talents
Of gold you'd be valued at 1892, ,0Q0,-
900; the 1900 talents Of silver at
s1l ,0OO,OOO and the $4,000 talents of
brass at over 100000. The wages cf
the laborers employed for seven years
would equal over $37 100000
The temple of King Herod repre-
sented an enormous expenditure. 1t
was built Of intersecting bevelled-
edged alabaster and marble that resem-
bled the waves of the. sea. But this
temple of Herod's was surpassed by
the magnificent one built in Alexan-
dria by the Jews. This was called o
labyrinth and contained seventy one
cathedrals. Each cathedral cost no
less than 10000 talents Of gold, and
q talent Of gold was valued at s24 900.
When Jerusalem was besieged be.
fore its second destruction, there were
three rich Jews living there. They
resolved rather than surrender to the
enemy to- feed all the inhabitants Of
the city for twenty-one years, if neces.
sary. One Of them stipulated to fur.
nish wheat and barley, another to fur.
pish wine and oil, and another FIRE.
wood. Assuming that the population
was 100000 10y actual census at the
Passover festival in the year 66, or
three years before the destruction) and
allowing $100 year for the mainten.
anoe Of person, this would have cost
the three men over $4,000, 600, 600.
There is little doubt but that there
were enormously; rich men in those
days, but the people who worked aud
the people who believed that money
/ should not be the cole end Of life were
not as we'll of, and did not have as
much means as they do today. Wealth