In one single instance ' portion ' or ' part ' occurs in the unique sense of one of the ways in which God is served ; but here the word is fj-epis, not /xepoi (Lk lO''^ 'Mary hath chosen the good part'; the context seems to demand the sense of ' the best part'). W. O. E. Oesterley.
PORTRAITS (of Christ).— See Christ in Art, vol. i. p. 314 f.
POSSESSION.— See Demon, Demoniacs.
POT. — There are two words rendered ' pot ' in the Gospels, ^ear-qs and vSpLa. The first is a cor- ruption of the Lat. scxtarius, and stands for a wooden vessel holding about a pint and a half, used at table for holding water and wine. This it is that is mentioned by Mk. (T"*' ^) when he is re- lating how ' the Pharisees and all the Jews ' kept 'the tradition of the elders.' 'When they come from the market,' he says, ' except they dip them- selves' (^aTTlffuvTai, v.l. pavTiawuTai) ' they do not eat ' ; and, among the ' many other things which they have received to hold,' he specilies ' the dip- pings (jSaiTTiaixovs) of cups and /»ci<5 ' {^ea-ruii'), etc. This he mentions to explain why the Pharisees and scribes came to ask Jesus, ' Why walk thy disciples not according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands ? ' thus giving Jesus occasion to apply to them the pro- phecy of Isaiah, ' This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me,' and other- wise exposing and rebuking their ' hypocrisy.'
When Jn. (4-^) tells us of the Samaritan woman, in the excitement of her new-found joy, ' leaving her water-pot,' he uses the words ttjv vdpiav, point- ing doubtless to just such a portable earthen water-pot as women in Palestine are everywhere to-day seen carrying on their heads. But in 2", where he gives an account of the miracle at the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee, he tells of ' six water-pots of stone ' (Xidifm vSpiai), which were clearly ' pots ' of a very different kind — too large to use at table, or to be portable in the ordinary way. Their size may be gathered from the next clause, ' containing two or three firkins a piece ' — about nine English gallons. They Avere probably just such huge stone pitchers as are shown to tourists to-day at Kcfi- Kenna, and as may be found elsewhere in Palestine. Scarcity of drink- ing water in Palestine made it necessary to keep a supply on hand in large vessels that would serve as coolers, especially in hot weather. Then a copious supply would be needed according to Jewish custom (' after the manner of the purifying
* It is interesting in this connexion to recall the fact that ^s/jof is connected radically with Mo7/!«, the goddess of Fate.
of the Jews '), for use in the washing of hands and vessels before and after meals (Mt 15^, Mk 7*).
Geo. B. Eager. POTTER.— 'The Potter's Field' was the name of the property in the purchase of which the chief priests spent the thirty pieces of silver returned by Judas, and which they proposed to use as a burial-place for strangers (Mt 27"). Mt 27^ states that this spot came in consequence to be known as ' the field of blood ' — that is, the field bought with the price of blood ; but a different reason for that name is given in Ac !'*• '**, where Judas him- self purchases the Held, and commits suicide in it. The 'held of blood,' or Akeldama (nc^ "jpn), is generally identified with a spot in which there are numerous tombs, and where also clay is found, lying to the south of Jerusalem, in the valley of Hinnom, not far from the point Avhere it joins the valley of the Kidron (Baedeker, p. 103). St. Matthew believes that this incident of the pur- chase of the field happened in fulfilment of Zee \IV2. 13^ which he reads as a prediction, and ascribes to Jeremiah. This may be a mere slip due to the mention in the Book of Jeremiah of the potter's house (18-) and the Potsherd Gate (19^), just as in Jer 27' Jehoiuldm is a slip for Zedckiah. Or, as Mede (d. 1638) supposed, Jeremiah may actually have been the author of these ciiapters. It is agreed that they are not byZechariah. Although, however, there is no doubt that St. Matthew has this passage in his mind, his citation of it is quite free, and diverges largely from the Hebrew, and even more from tlie Greek, in which v.'-* becomes an injunction to throw the silver into the smelting- pit [x^vevT-qpiov, thus reading some derivative of ps; or of 'lis) in order to prove whether it were genuine. Neither does the Targum come any nearer to the text of Matthew. The Syr. of Zech. instead of ' potter ' (t^v) reads ' treasury ' (isix), which is generallj^ accepted as correct.
Literature. — Hastings' DB, artt. 'Potter,' 'Akeldama'; Edersheini, LT ii. 575 f. The difficulties of Mt 277-10 are dis- cussed with especial fulness in the Comm. of Meyer and Morison.
T. H. Weir.
POUND (/xt'a).— The value of the denarius (AV ' penny ') being about 9|d., the mina (AV ' pound '), which was 100 of these, was - £4 in our money. It was the 60tli part of a talent. The only Gospel reference in this sense is in the parable of the Pounds (Lk 19"-2'). ' Pound ' as a Aveight (Xtrpa = 12 oz. avoird.) is alluded to in Jn 12^ and 19^** (see artt. Money and Weights and Measures.