On Weights and Measures is a historical, lexical, metrological, and geographical treatise compiled in 392 AD in Constantia by Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 315–403).
Its modern title belies its content, as the work also contains important historical anecdotes about people and places not written about elsewhere.
[4] The first to attempt a modern publication of Epiphanius' work was Paul de Lagarde in 1880, who reconstructed the original Syriac text by exchanging it with Hebrew characters,[5] and who had earlier published excerpts from several of the Greek fragments treating on weights and measures in his Symmicta.
[9] In spite of Epiphanius' interest in Jewish themes, his narrative often takes on a distorted and stereotypical view of Judaism.
In folios [54a–55c]; [55c–55d] Epiphanius treats on the lives of two prominent persons who became proselytes to the Jewish religion; the one Aquila (known also as Onkelos) who was a relation of Hadrian, and whom he made the overseer of Jerusalem's rebuilding around 115 AD.
He states the equivalent weights for the kab (cab),[15] kor,[16] the lethekh (Lethek), homer, bath, modius (Hebrew: seah = lit.
Epiphanius, explaining the sense of certain obscure passages in the original Aramaic New Testament, writes: "The talent is called Maneh (mina) among the Hebrews," the equivalent of 100 denarii.
"[19] In folios [73b–75a] Epiphanius gives the names of several cities and places of renown, both in his time and in ancient times, such as: Mount Ararat (§ 61), Aṭaṭ (§ 62), or what is known as the "threshing floor of the thorn bush" (Hebrew: גרן האטד), and whose description echoes that of Rashi's commentary on Genesis 50:10,[c] Abarim (§ 63); Aviʿazar (§ 68), or what is Eḇen haʿezer of I Samuel 4:1, said to be "fourteen [Roman] miles distant east and north of Eleutheropolis, in a valley"; Carmel (§ 77); Carmel of the sea (§ 78); Akko (§ 76); Anathoth (§ 66); Azekah (§ 64) - a city in whose time was called Ḥǝwarta;[20] Bethel (§ 73); Ophrah (§ 67); Carthage (§ 79) - where the Canaanites had migrated from Phoenicia and who were called in his day Bizakanoi (scattered people); Rekem (§ 71), Jaffa (§ 75), Jerusalem (§ 74), et al.
The regnal years of the Caesars as stated by Epiphanius differ slightly in some places from the extant Greek sources.