W. M. Taylor, see, for the above and other homiletic details,
Cox, Biblical Expositions, pp.
Jesm by Various Authors (J. Robinson, Manchester). We may
155-107, and The Miracles
refer also to Longfellow's poem ' Blind Bartimse
George Milligan. BASKET. — All four Evangelists, in narrating the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, describe the baskets in which the fragments were placed as K6<t>tvot (Mt 14="=Mk6"=Lk 9" = Jn 0'^) ; while the two who report the other miracle of feed- ing the fotir thousand, state that the fragments were placed in a-n-vploa (Mt 15^' = Mk 8'*). It is clear from Mt le"'- ( = Mk 8'i"-) that the variation is in- tentional. The baskets used on the one occasion differed either in size, sliape, or material from those used on the otlier (cf. RVm in Mt 16"'- and
174
BASKET
BASON
Mk8"''). Our Lord preserved the distinction, aud our present Gospels have also done so.
' Basket ' occurs in the EV Gospels in the above passages only. The older English versions use the confusing rendering of 'baskets' for both words, except that Wyclif has 'coffvns' and 'leepis.' By 'coffyn' he evidently meant a small basket. Rheims renders ff-r^p.Swf, 'maundes,' i.e. hand-baskets. David- son (-Vr, 1875) at Jlk 819- 2" has 'basketfuls' for »«?;.»i« and ' walletsful ' for rr-j^^hu^^ as if he had found ■xr.p^v.
The authors of such renderings a.s the above for- got that St. Paul (Ac 9^) made his escape in a CTiri/pis. This fact at once excludes wallets or hand- baskets. If the distinction was one of size at all, which is not certain, we should perhaps have to as.suine that the airvph was the larger. Bevan (Smith's DB^ i. 172) says that tlie k6^ii>os was the larger, quoting Etyin. Mag.,pa9u khI koiXov x<-'PVt^'>; and the use of cop/iinus in Latin, e.g. Colum. xi. 3, p. 460, as containing manure enough to make a hotbed. Greswell {Diss. viii. pt. 4, vol. ii.) thought that the cophinus was big enough to sleep in. He probably misunderstood the i)assage in Juvenal quoted below ; for though the hay may have been used as a bed, it Is 7iot said that it was in the cophinu.t. Nor is it clear that the Latin cophinijs and the Greek Kdtptros were at all times identical in meaning (so the French balle is not a cannon- ball but a musket bullet, while our cannon-ball is a boulet). Let us examine the two words more closely.
(1) x6<fivat is said to be derived from xirrai ; but this appears to be more than doubtful, and the grammarians considered it; less Attic than ipfix':, which was clearly a wicker or flag basket. In the Or. OT it is used by LXX and S\Tnm. for Heb. dud in Ps 80 [SI)", and by Symm. only in Jer 2Ji- 2 (where L.X.X has «ix»fo.-), and for sal by Aq. in Gn 4016 (where LX.X has ««>«). Certainly in the two latter passages a small basket, carried in the hand, or on the head, would suit the contexts. Suidas dctines «. as ccyym. ^xmrn. In CIG 1025, lines 44-46, it is clearly a corn-basket of a recognized size ; cf. also CI9 2347 k. In Xen. A nab. iii. S. G it occurs as a dung-basket (see the Latin (-op/iiiiits in Columella, as cited above). It is said that the Jews at Rome carried cophini about with them to avoid the chance of food contracting any Levitical pollution in heathen places. The reason given appears fanciful, and anv- how would hardly apply to the journeys of our Lord and llis apostles. But the fact is vouched for by Juvenal (Sa(. iii. " • ' Judaeis. quorum cophinus fffinumque supelli ' "
fiEuoque rehcto
mendicat
•Cophi
in aurem ') and ilartial (.Epig. v. 7).
(2) cr.,p,< (or <r.-w„-, as WH prefer) U not found in the LXX. It is generally connected with r-rupo.= anything liristed (\'ulg.
mitives sporUlla &nd sporttUa occur,
i-baskets). Hesychius explains trrvfi:
sporta, of which I
fore Pentecost, the season of wheat harv miracle took place, thedisoiples wereable to use corn-baskets, while the first miracle happening before Passover time, they used another kind of basket ! Besides the improbability of this, we may note that there is no proof that in either cisethe baskets belonged to or were carried about by the disciples, for they may have been borrowed when needed. Yet Trench (Miracles, p. 380 note 2) inquires why the aiwstles should have been provided with either kind, and mentions (a) that perhaps they carried their provisions with them while travelling through a polluted land, such as Samaria (vetcf. Jn 4'< 431 44? Lk 95-); and ((/) he also mentions Greswell s theorv, that the disciples
; baskets in order 1
applying to the Twelve in the Holy Land what
'' about Jewish beggars at Rome.
2 Co 11», and as the Vulg. has
Roman
spoita in both places (and also in the Gospels for c-rvf!! but for niiiw), we are led to inquire as to the force of r«t/>yi«:. It is used of anything twisted like a rope, or woven of rope (^Esch. Suppl. 791—T>.iyfux. T, U rz'i'-'", Suid.). Fish-baskets were specially so made (its <rx»j»<'«» TA(>.,a«T», i/,- iirtiixi' '•x^imt, Etym. Mag.'), as rush-baskets are used in London.
Meyer considered the difference between a-n-vpU and Ko>iyos to lie not in size, but in k60i»os being a "eneral term, and awvph specially a food-basket. Perhaps the true force of the words we have dis- cussed is to be discovered in the use made of them by Greek-speaking working people at the present day. The writer of this article has therefore con- sulted a Greek priest, the Rev. H. A. Teknopoulos. In his reply he .says : ' In Asia Minor and in Con- stantinople our porters call k60i>'os that big and deep basket in which they carry different things.