The Syriac Chronicle

medical pounds, that is, 100 minae a unit of weight, roughly equivalent to a mina = 142 medical pounds. The mina (as Lorsbach also confirmed from the works of Galen in the aforementioned place) is to the litra a pound-like weight, often equivalent to a Roman libra as 1 1/3 to 1; that is, as 4 to 3, or, which is the same, 3 minae are equal to 4 litrae, and thus 100 minae = 133 litrae. However, 100 minae were equal to 142 medical pounds. Therefore, 142 medical pounds = 133 litrae; in which way one litra would weigh more than one medical pound, or more accurately: 1 litra = 1 pound, 6 drachmae, 1 scrupulum a small unit of weight, 9 grana grains. So far, there is no help here for the passage in John, because, with the calculations thus deduced, 106 pounds, 4 drachmae, 1 scrupulum, 13 grains of medical weight would result for the 100 litrae in the Gospel of John. But it must be considered that the weights of the litrae were not equal in all places. Abulpharagius explicitly says in his Chronicle in more than one place (Page 282, line 13, and Page 488, line 4) that six Bagdad or Babylonian litrae were equal to one Syrian litra. Therefore, if you take the one hundred pounds of Nicodemus as Bagdad pounds, and divide the 106 pounds we posited above by six, these spices brought by Nicodemus weighed 17 pounds, 9 ounces, 4 drachmae, and 3 grains of medical weight, or, if a medical pound is set equal to 3/4 of a Frankfurt pound, the same weighed 12 Frankfurt pounds. How well this weight fits the passage in John is obvious.

Besides the utility that will redound to the Holy Scriptures from this Chronicle, I also foresee that the boundaries of the Syriac language will be extended significantly by its aid. The Castellian lexicon contained all the Syriac vocabulary known until now, and whoever has examined that book more deeply through frequent use must certainly have often wondered at the great diligence of Castell, who omitted nothing that could be sought out. But this very lexicon will be wondrously enriched by Bar-Hebraeus.