Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
of the liquid and the dry measures are stated differently by Josephus and the rabbinists, and as we
are unable to decide between them, we give a double estimate to the various denominations. In
the new Testament we have notices of the following foreign measures: (a) The metretes, (John
2:6) Authorized Version “firkin,” for liquids. (b) The choenix, (Revelation 6:6) Authorized Version
“measure,” for dry goods. (c) The xestec, applied, however, not to the peculiar measure so named
by the Greeks, but to any small vessel, such as a cup. (Mark 7:4,8) Authorized Version “pot.” (d)
The modius, similarly applied to describe any vessel of moderate dimensions, (Matthew 5:15;
Mark 4:21; Luke 11:33) Authorized Version “bushel,” though properly meaning a Roman measure,
amounting to about a peck. The value of the Attic metretes was 8.6696 gallons, and consequently
the amount of liquid in six stone jars, containing on the average 2 1/2 metretae each, would exceed
110 gallons. (John 2:6) Very possibly, however, the Greek term represents the Hebrew bath ; and
if the bath be taken at the lowest estimate assigned to it, the amount would be reduced to about
60 gallons. The choenix was 1-48th of an Attic medimnus, and contained nearly a quart. It
represented the amount of corn for a day’s food; and hence a choenix for a penny (or denarius),
which usually purchased a bushel (Cic. Verr. iii 81), indicated a great scarcity. (Revelation 6:6)
Well
Wells in Palestine are usually excavated from the solid limestone rock, sometimes with steps
to descend into them. (Genesis 24:16) The brims are furnished with a curb or low wall of stone,
bearing marks of high antiquity in the furrows worn by the ropes used in drawing water. It was on
a curb of this sort that our Lord sat when he conversed with the woman of Samaria, (John 4:6) and
it was this, the usual stone cover, which the woman placed on the mouth of the well at Bahurim,
(2 Samuel 17:19) where the Authorized Version weakens the sense by omitting the article. The
usual methods for raising water are the following:
•The rope and bucket, or waterskin. (Genesis 24:14-20; John 4:11)
•The sakiyeh, or Persian wheel. This consists of a vertical wheel furnished with a set of buckets or
earthen jars attached to a cord passing over the wheel. which descend empty and return full as the
wheel revolves.
•A modification of the last method, by which a man, sitting opposite to a wheel furnished with
buckets, turns it by drawing with his hands one set of spokes prolonged beyond its circumference,
and pushing another set from him with his feet.
•A method very common in both ancient and modern Egypt is the shadoof, a simple contrivance
consisting of a lever moving on a pivot, which is loaded at one end with a lump of clay or some
other weight, and has at the other a bowl or bucket. Wells are usually furnished with troughs of
wood or stone into which the water is emptied for the use of persons or animals coming to the
wells. Unless machinery is used, which is commonly worked by men, women are usually the
water-carriers.
Whale
As to the signification of the Hebrew terms tan and tannin, variously rendered in the Authorized
Version by “dragon,” “whale,” “serpent,” “sea-monster” see Dragon. It remains for us in this article
to consider the transaction recorded in the book of Jonah, of that prophet having been swallowed
up by some great fish” which in (Matthew 12:40) is called cetos (ketos), rendered in our version
by “whale.” In the first glace, it is necessary to observe that the Greek word cetos, used by St.
Matthew is not restricted in its meaning to “a whale,” or any Cetacean ; like the Latin cete or cetus,
it may denote any sea-monster, either “a whale,” Or “a shark,” or “a seal,” or “a tunny of enormous
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William Smith