(Melchizedek Communique, MC121009) "What's a cubit?" asked Bill Cosby, in one of his great 1960s-era comedy routines.

It was in a bit called "Noah", on one of his record albums.

Neighbor: "What's that you're building?"

Noah: "It's an ark."

Neighbor: "What's it for?"

Noah: "I can't tell you."

Neighbor: "Well can you get it out of my driveway? I've got to get to work."

Noah had been told to build an ark. He too had asked, "What's an ark?"

"Build it 300 cubits by 50 cubits by 30 cubits."

"What's a cubit?"

But, as it turns out, the question of what is a cubit, like the best and nearest solution for the quadrature of the circle, is not definitely known. And the source of the derivation for the ancient cubit measure has remained a mystery. (Key to the Hebrew-Egyptian Mystery in the Source of Measures, by J. Ralston Skinner. 1894)

Various cubit values have been given as 1.7187 feet, 1.70607 feet, 1.71489 feet, 1.71817 feet, 1.72153 feet, 1.7208 feet, and 1.717 feet. (Skinner, op. cit.)

What J. Ralston Skinner calls "the most important" is the cubit value "ascertained by Seyffarth" who used "the measures of the French Expedition of 1799": 1.71759+ feet.

It is through the Parker values -- 6561: 5153 x 4 = 20612 -- that the cubit value is derived, suggests Skinner. The Parker values come from the efforts of John A. Parker to solve the centuries-old problem of squaring the circle (a.k.a. quadrature of the circle). (Background: "Quadrature May Be Source of Measures", http://www.shout.net/~bigred/mc120609.html)

"If it is desired to display the process of the establishment of the co-ordinating unit of measure spoken of, by way of symbol, it would be by the figure of the cube unfolded, in connection with the circle, whose measure is taken off onto the edges of the cube." (Skinner, op. cit.)

The cube has 12 edges. Unfold the cube (take the 12 edges), then divide 12 into the Parker value of 20612. This yields 1717.666666667. The thousandth part of this number is 1.717666667 -- in feet, the ancient cubit value. Here it can be seen how even the word "cubit" connects with the cube.

In fact, claims Skinner, both the ansated cross of the Egyptians and the Christian cross suggest this unfolding of the cube. (See image above.) Visualize a cube unfolded, and either the ansated cross (with circle superimposed) or the Christian cross, comes to mind.

Also of interest in the unfolding of the cube is the presence of Parker's 4:3 value, found in the problem of the 3 revolving bodies. (Background: "Problem of the 3 Revolving Bodies", http://www.shout.net/~bigred/mc120809.html). The length of the unfolded cube being 4, and the width being 3, suggests the golden candlestick in the temple, "so composed that, counting on either side, there were four candle-sockets; while, at the apex, there being one in common to both sides, there were in fact 3 to be counted on one side and 4 on the other, making in all the number 7." (Skinner, op. cit.)