The earliest units of measurement were from the human body and other natural occurring objects. The cubit, used as early as 3,000 BC and often referred to in the Bible, was the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. Since the length of arms vary somewhat, the cubit was standardized by the Egyptians for the building of the pyramids. No doubt they used the arm of some high official as the standard, possibly the Pharaoh. Some of the first units of measure were from the Babylonians and the Middle East. They used a base-60 system from which we have inherited 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 360 degrees in a circle. The Romans used a base-12 system, and they divided the foot and the pound into twelve parts (inciae) from which we get inches and ounces. The Romans called five feet a pace (passus) and used 1,000 paces (5,000 feet) for a mile (mille Passus).
During the Middle Ages there were many variations in different countries with the invention of the rod, furlong and yard. The rod as described in a German surveyor's manual was obtained by lining up the first 16 men coming out of church on a Sunday morning and placing their left feet one behind the other. This distance was then divided by 16 to obtain a foot. The furlong came from the length of a furrow or plowed strip of land. The yard (gierd) was the length of a man's arm. Since these early days, the English system of measurement was codified in the Magna Carta in 1215, and later had major revisions in 1824. Since Great Britain dominated the world trade in the 17 th century, the English system was widely adopted by colonies such as the United States.
The French Revolution resulted in a different system of measurement called the metric system, and this became the accepted system throughout Europe. The basic unit of the metric system is the meter which is defined as one ten millionth of the length of the longitudinal meridian that passes through Paris from the pole to the equator. Since the metric system is a base-10 system, it is more compatible with our 10-digit number system, and therefore has been adopted by the scientific community worldwide. The meter has now been standardized as 1,650,763.73 wavelengths in a vacuum of the orange-red line of the spectrum of krypton-86.
The Bible contains many references to the measurement of length, volume, and weight. An angel is portrayed with a reed (Ex. 16. Zech. 2, 2 Sam. 8), and with a measuring rod (Eze. 40,41,42,47), measuring the temple, and an angel is given a golden reed to measure the Holy City (Rev. 21:16,17). But God is also measuring us spiritually. He weighed Belshazzar and found him wanting, and He has described certain nations as having a full cup of iniquity. We are told that we shall all be judged or measured by the law of liberty. You might call this "God's tape measure."
