.iii^s zelah&h, a dish or bowl in which sacrifices were boiled as in 2 Ch 35", or a flat saucer for salt 2 K 2'-» 21'\ Pr 19=-' 26".
njvjv zinzeneth, in Ex 16", was the pot in which the manna was laid up, a vase or jar according to Abu'l Walid and Sa'adya.
'A\d^ao-Tpof of Mt 26' was a vessel made of satin spar or Oriental alabaster, which is a variegated kind of marble of calcium carbonate, not the jij-psura or calcium sulphate now called alabaster. Vessels of this kind are described by Theophrastus {de Odoribtis, 41) and by Pliny (ix. 56) as elongated or pear-shaped with fairly narrow necks. Some alabastra were made of glass, gold (Plutarch, Vit. Alex.), or earthenware (Epiphanius, de men- turis et ponderibus, xxiv. 182).
nii'aj, the charger in which the Baptist's head was sent (Mt 14'- "), w.as a flat dish. Finn refers to a case in which some Bedawin sent the head of an enemy on a dish on the top of a pillau of rice (p. 35). The Trapofis of Mt 23^ was a smaller dish on which dainty food was served.
Of other NT vessels, TroTTipioK is the drinking cup of Mk 7'', and that used at the Last Supper Mk 14^ etc. ^^a-T-qs in Mk 7'' is a Latinism, a cor- ruption of sextarius, a pint measure. The word is used by Sicilian WTiters. x''^"""' '■> t''6 same passage is a copper or bronze vessel of any shape. iSpiai \L$tvai at the feast at Cana (Jn 2") were stone pitchers of considerable capacity. Early figures of these from sarcophagi ana from the well-known ivory plaque in Ravenna are published by Bottari and Bandini, and an ancient hydria is shown as one of these in the Ch. of St. tlrsula in Cologne ; for others see Didron, Annates Archfol. xiii. 2.
VI. The usual meals in ordinary life were two — a mid-day meal or dinner, and an evening meal or BU]iper, which was the more important. Break- fast was, and still is, an informal repast. That in Jn 21" was a meal after a night of toil, so ' dine ' in AV is replaced in RV by ' break your fast' {ipuniiaaTe). The meal at the Pliarisee's house in Lk 11" is also, as in RVm, a breakfast or early meal. Peter, defending the apostles, points out that they could not be drunken, as it was only 9 o'clock in the morning (Ac 2'°). Early drinking of wine at such a time was a sign of degradation
(Is 5"), and eating in the morning is deprecated as culpable luxury (Ec 10") and out of due season.
It is still the custom in the East to make the morning repast a very slight one — a cup of milk, a piece of butter. Robinson describes melted buttei (seinen), or oil poured over bread, as a breakfast dish (ii. 70), or cakes baked on the ashes and broken up and mixed with butter in a dish (ii. 18). The morning meal of the Bedawi is about 9 or 10 o'clock (Burckhardt, Notes, i. 69). Drumniond notices how his negro bearers in tropical Africa rose from sleep and began their day's work without food {Tropical Africa, p. 100).
The mid-day meal or dinner in Egypt was at noon (Gn 43"), and probably was at the same time in Palestine (Ru 2'''). Abstinence from this is called fasting (Jg 20-'', 1 S 14-^, 2 S 1'^ 3^). From these passages it is evident that the people were accustomed to ' eat bread ' at mid-day. Uod pro- mised to Israel bread in the morning and flesh in the evening (Ex 16'-). This early meal is the ipiarov of Lk 14'^. St. Peter's intended meal, interrupted by Cornelius' messengers, was at 12 o'clock. This meal took some time to prepare, so the good housewife began to make ready this pn while it was yet night (Pr 31'=). The meal is called nnn.S 'aruMh, as in Jer 40' 52'', 2 K 25*', and Pr 15". The noon meal is described in Lane's Modern Egyptians, p. 156 If. (Gardner's ed.). It sometimes was a period of excess (1 K -JO"*).
The supper after the day's work is done (Ru 3') is, and was, the more important meal (see Burck- hanlt's Notes, i. 69), and the one at which flesh meat was more commonly used. At these meals the whole family was gathered together. Accord- ing to .loseplius, the law required dinner to be at the sixth hour on the Sabbath day (Life, 54), i.e. at 12 o'clock ; but in § 44 he speaks of feasting with his friends at the second hour of the niglit = !i p.m. See also BJ I. xvii. 4, and the great supjier of Lk 14'=f-
In the patriarchal days they seem to have sat on the ground as they do at present. Abraham's guests probably thus sat while he stood and served (Gn IS*). Jacob says to his father ' sit and eat of my venison,' but that was probably because the blind old man was recumbent (Gn 27''-'). Jacob's sons also sat down to eat (Gn 37-^), as the Egyjitian shepherds are represented in a painting from Sakkarah, now in the Gizeh Museum. The Levite and his concubine sat down to eat (Jg 19"). Saul also sat at nieat(l S 2U°- ■■^), as did Samuel when he brought Saul to feast with him (1 S 9-"-'), and Jesse and his family (1 S 16"). The old iirophut and his guest likewise took the forbidden meal sitting at a table (1 K 13**). Sitting at moat is mentioned in Pr 23', Jer 1G», Ezk 44». Sitting, however, might have in some of these cases meant reclining, for Oholibah is described as sitting on a stately bed with a table prcimred before it (Ezk 23''), and the guests at Esther's banquet reclined on couches (Est 7*). The table is also mentioned in Ps 23'. Sitting on the ground was, however, regarded as a sign of humiliation and abasement in prophetic times, as in Is 3-" 47' 52-, Jer 13" RVm, La 2'», Ezk 26".