Measures & money
Mina
An ancient unit for an amount of metal or money; its use depends on the passage and the system of measures.
Also called · maneh
What it means
Ezekiel 45 calls for an end to violence and dispossession and for just weights and measures. A shekel is twenty gerahs; twenty, twenty-five, and fifteen shekels together make a mina. Here the term belongs to a standard of weight.
In Luke 19, a nobleman gives ten servants ten minas before leaving to receive a kingdom and tells them to trade until he returns. The first reports gaining ten minas, the second five. Another says he kept the money in a handkerchief.
How it appears in the Bible
The first two servants receive authority over ten and five cities; the money kept by the other is taken away. At the end, the ruler orders his enemies who opposed his reign to be brought and killed. Jesus tells this parable when people expect God’s Kingdom to appear immediately; it should not be reduced to a story about investment returns.
Translation note
Read Ezekiel’s weight standard and Luke’s money in their own contexts. A universal number of shekels or modern currency equivalent should not be imposed across all periods.