Pound

The English word "pound" stands for three different ancient weights in Scripture. The Hebrew maneh, the Greek mina, and the Roman libra all map onto the same English term in older translations, even though they belong to different metrological systems and different testaments. The UPDV preserves the underlying distinction: it renders the OT maneh and the Greek mina alike as "mina," and reserves "pound" for the Roman libra of John 12:3. The terminological seam can be traced through the books where it surfaces.

The Maneh of the Old Testament

The maneh is the Hebrew weight that older English Bibles called a "pound." Ezekiel, projecting the restored sanctuary, defines it against the shekel: "And the shekel will be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, will be your⁺ maneh" (Eze 45:12). The maneh is reckoned in shekels, and the shekel in gerahs — a layered standard descending from coin-sized fractions to the larger trading weight.

Solomon's gilded shields are weighed in this unit. The UPDV records that he made "three hundred shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went to one shield" (1Ki 10:17). The post-exilic offerings in Ezra and Nehemiah measure silver in the same way. The returning community "gave after their ability into the treasury of the work threescore and one thousand darics of gold, and five thousand minas of silver, and one hundred priests' garments" (Ezr 2:69). Nehemiah's parallel ledger records that the heads of fathers' houses gave "twenty thousand darics of gold, and two thousand and two hundred minas of silver" (Ne 7:71), and the rest of the people "twenty thousand darics of gold, and two thousand minas of silver, and threescore and seven priests' garments" (Ne 7:72). In each case the maneh is the standard for bulk silver: the unit by which sanctuary treasury contributions, royal bullion, and public offerings are reckoned.

The Mina in the Parable of Luke 19

In Luke's parable of the nobleman the same weight reappears under its Greek name. The nobleman, departing to receive a kingdom, "called ten slaves of his, and gave them ten minas, and said to them, Trade⁺ until I come" (Lu 19:13). The mina is presented as working capital. When the nobleman returns and audits his slaves, the first reports, "Lord, your mina has made ten minas more" (Lu 19:16), and is given authority over ten cities; the second has made five (Lu 19:18-19). A third has hidden his: "Lord, look, [here is] your mina, which I kept laid up in a napkin" (Lu 19:20). The judgment falls on the unwillingness to trade, not on the size of the gain: "Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked slave" (Lu 19:22). The mina is then transferred — "Take away from him the mina, and give it to him who has the ten minas" (Lu 19:24) — and the bystanders' protest, "Lord, he has ten minas" (Lu 19:25), is overruled by the same logic of stewardship. The unit itself is a substantial sum: roughly a hundred days' wages, given in tens to slaves who are expected to put it to work.

The Roman Pound of John 12:3

In John 12 a different weight is named. Mary "took a pound of ointment of pure nard, very precious, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment" (Joh 12:3). This is the Roman libra of about twelve ounces — a perfume-jar's worth, not a banker's bag of silver. The UPDV keeps the older English word here precisely because the underlying weight is different. The maneh and the mina belong to a silver-trading system; the libra of nard belongs to the household world of perfume and burial preparation. The same English term covers all three, but the contexts hold them apart.

A Single English Word, Three Weights

Read across the canon, "pound" in older Bibles is therefore not one unit but a translational umbrella. The OT pound is the Hebrew maneh, defined by Ezekiel against the shekel and used to weigh tribute and treasury silver. The Lukan pound is the Greek mina, a hundred-denarius working sum entrusted to slaves in a parable of stewardship. The Johannine pound is the Roman libra, a household weight of expensive ointment poured out at Jesus' feet. The UPDV resolves the ambiguity by translating the first two as "mina" and reserving "pound" for the third, while preserving the older term where the underlying weight is the Roman one.