Before narrating Zeezrom’s offer to bribe Amulek (Alma
11:22), Mormon places Zeezrom’s bribe in context by giving an account of
Nephite weights as compared to measures of grain (Alma 11:1-20). In doing so,
he observes that “a senum of silver was equal to a senine of gold, and either
for a measure of barley, and also for a measure of every kind of grain” (Alma
11:7). This listing of an exchange rate provides a means of comparison that
sheds light on the Nephite practices. Unfortunately, we know neither the grain
measure nor the weights in question, which diminishes our understanding an
appreciation of the passage.
In order to shed light on the Nephite measurement, earlier
studies have compared the Nephite system of weights with a set of Egyptian
measures.
1
Unfortunately, the system of Egyptian measures used is a small one normally
used in recipes and ranging in size from the equivalent of two teaspoons up to
about a gallon. In which case, Zeezrom’s bribe would be the equivalent of about
28.8 liters (about 6 ½ gallons) of grain, and judges would get paid just less
than half a liter (about 1 3/4 cups) of grain per day of judging, perhaps half
a loaf of bread, an unrealistically small wage. This suggests that a one to one
comparison of Egyptian measures to Nephite ones is not likely. Another
comparison, however, might prove a bit more enlightening.
Most ancient systems have two sets of measures, one for
smaller prices, measured in the equivalent of grain, and one for larger prices,
measured in the equivalent of metal. At a certain point, these two measuring
systems meet where a certain amount of grain is equivalent to a smaller amount
of metal. We will refer to this point as the equivalence point. A number of
ancient monetary systems follow this pattern, including the Nephite system.
Ancient Egypt follows the same pattern where prices on less
expensive items are usually given in grain measures rather than in units of
money,
2
and more expensive items are given in weights of copper, silver and gold. The
equivalence point is at one copper weight called a
diban (91 grams)
3
which is the equivalent of a measure (
h3r, literally “sack”) of
grain (= 76.88 liters).
4 Silver in ancient Egypt is worth ten
times the same amount of copper.
5 The normal monthly wages of grain
given to ordinary workmen at Deir el-Medina was 422.84 liters (5 ½
h3r)
of grain per month,
6 or 14.09 liters of grain per day. Officials at Deir
el-Medina received about a third again as much at 7 ½
h3r of
grain per month.
7 The exchange rate in Ramesside Egypt was roughly 8.49
liters of grain per gram of silver.
The earlier Assyrian king, Shamshi-Adad I, claims to have
fixed the prices in ancient Assyria to 2 gur (240 liters) of barley for a
shekel (8 1/3 grams) of silver,
8 or 28.8 liters of grain per gram of
silver, but this price was artificially low and was generally ignored, the
actual price being much higher.
9
If, for purposes of comparison, we assume that a Nephite
measure is about equivalent to a
h3r of grain and a Nephite
worker gets paid about the same as a worker at Deir el-Medina, then a Nephite
judge is paid approximately 6 times what a Nephite worker is paid. Zeezrom’s
bribe would then be about a year’s worth of wages for a worker. This is a
considerable sum of money. If something more like the Assyrian system were in
use, Zeezrom’s bribe would amount to about three and a half years’ worth of
wages. These comparisons, rather than about two day’s wages as suggested above,
are more likely to give us an idea of the magnitude of Zeezrom’s bribe.
Since “the judge received for his wages according to his
time–a senine of gold for a day” (Alma 11:3), rather than on a per case basis,
it is in the judge’s economic interest to judge more often; “it was for the
sole purpose to get gain, because they received their wages according to their
employ, therefore, they did stir up the people to riotings, and all manner of
disturbances and wickedness, that they might have more employ” (Alma 11:20).
Keeping our assumptions that a judge is paid a week’s wages for a laborer per
day, this could have been instituted by Mosiah to be roughly compensatory
assuming that the judge would only need to judge once a week. But the amount of
pay would be sufficient that a judge would have reason to want to work more
often.
The lawyers were not paid
per diem but rather they
“get money according to the suits” (Alma 11:20). Thus if a judge heard ten
cases per day, he was paid the same amount as if he only heard one, while a
lawyer would get paid for ten cases. So a lawyer would potentially get paid
much more unless the judges took bribes. Zeezrom’s actions indicate that a
bribe was standard procedure: Zeezrom “being one of the most expert among them,
having much business to do among the people” (Alma 10:31) begins his
examination of Amulek by proposing a bribe (Alma 11:21-22). Thus, in Ammonihah,
the judges, the lawyers, and the clergy (Alma 14:16, 18; 16:11; 1:3, 12) all
served their own economic interest rather than whatever interests they should
have served. Thus, Amulek’s charge “that the foundation of the destruction of
this people is beginning to be laid by the unrighteousness of your lawyers and
your judges” (Alma 10:27), is certainly in keeping with speaking “in favor of
your law, to your condemnation” (Alma 10:26).
1The topic is also discussed in John W. Welch, “Weighing and Measuring in
the Worlds of the Book of Mormon” in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies
8/2 (1999): 36-46; John W. Welch and J. Gregory Welch, Charting the Book of
Mormon: Visual Aids for Personal Study and Teaching (Provo, Utah: FARMS,
1999), charts110-13.
2Jac. J. Janssen, Commodity Prices from the Ramessid Period: An
Economic Study of the Village of Necropolis Workmen at Thebes (Leiden:
Brill, 1975), 514-23.
8RIMA A.0.39.1, in A. Kirk Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the Third and
Second Millennia BC (to 1115 BC), RIMA 1 (Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 1987), 49; Albert Kirk Grayson, Assyrian Royal Inscriptions, 2
vols. (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1972-76), 1:20; the conversions are based
on M. A. Powell, "Masse und Gewichte," Reallexikon der
Assyriologie 7:499, 510.
9Grayson, Assyrian Royal Inscriptions, 1:20-21, n. 64.
