Dish
DISH. A receptacle for food, generally made of baked clay or else of metal. The “chargers” (niv “silver plates”) of Num.7.1-Num.7.89 were large flat dishes of beaten silver, but most of the dishes in Scripture were pottery. Orientals ate from a central platter or dish, generally using a thin piece of bread for a spoon and handling the food quite daintily (Matt.26.23). A special courtesy consisted in picking out a good piece of meat from the central dish and handing it to a guest. See also Pottery.
DISH. The tr. in ERV of four Heb. and two Gr. words. 1 and 2. In Exodus 25:29; 37:16; Numbers 4:7, where the KJV, ASV have “dishes and spoons,” the RSV has “plates and dishes.” The Heb. word for “plates” is קְעָרָה, H7883, and refers, in these passages, to a deep and large gold dish in which oblong cakes were brought to the table, or laid upon it. The word for dishes is כַּף, H4090, and refers to the cups for frankincense, which were placed upon the loaves and burned on the altar of burnt-offering at the end of the week.
1. Jael brought Sisera curds in a “lordly bowl” (Judg 5:25, KJV “dish”), evidently a bowl of large size, one fit for a lord. The Heb. word is סֵ֫פֶל, H6210.
2. “Flat dish” (צַלַּ֫חַת, H7505) is used metaphorically in 2 Kings 21:13.
3. The “dish” (τρύβλιον, G5581) into which Jesus and the apostles dipped the sop at the Last Supper (Matt 26:23; Mark 14:20) was really a large bowl, made either of earthenware or bronze.
4. When Jesus said in Luke 11:39 that the Pharisees cleansed the outside of the cup and of the dish (πίναξ, G4402), He had in mind a shallow dish. In four other occurrences of the Gr. word in the NT the RSV trs. it “platter” (Matt 14:8, 11; Mark 6:25, 28).