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Table
TABLE. Translation of a number of words in the OT and NT with various meanings, including tables for ritual, eating, writing, and money-changing.
Terminology.
There are a number of words tr. as “table” in the Eng. Bibles:
a) לוּחַ, H4283. Most often used of tables of stone on which the law given to Moses was written (
b) שֻׁלְחָן, H8947. Table for bread of the Presence (
c) מֵסַב, H4990, (from a word meaning to go around, surround [Song of Solomon]; “couch” RSV).
d) πλάξ, G4419. “Tables of the covenant,” (
e) τράπεζα, G5544. Table for eating (
f) κλίνη, G3109. A reclining couch or bed (
g) πινακίδιον, G4400. “Writing tablet” RSV; “writing table” KJV (
i) פָּנָיו (lit. “his face”); “before him” KJV; “at table” RSV (
j) יָשַׁב, H3782, (lit. “to sit”); “sit at meat” KJV; “sit at table” RSV (
Tables for ritual
Table for bread of the Presence.
Other Hebrew ritual tables.
Solomon made ten tables, which he placed in the Temple (
Table of the Lord.
Malachi referred to the table of the Lord as polluted (
In other religions.
There seems to be a reference to an idolatrous practice of setting a table for the god of Fortune (
Tables for eating.
The homes of common people in the ancient Near E were furnished with a minimum of household furnishings. The people squatted, even while eating, a custom still practiced. Only those who lived in palaces and better houses were accustomed to chairs, tables, and beds (
Tables of rulers.
Tables in the home.
The modern Jewish Passover (Pesach) is highlighted by the Seder service, a family banquet in the home where the family gathers around the table and participates in an elaborate ritual that essentially consists of telling the story of the Exodus.
Tables for writing
Tables of the law.
Table of the nations.
A term often applied to the genealogical account (
Writing tables.
Small tablets, ordinarily a small block of wood covered with wax, used for writing (
Other tables.
The Ten Commandments were prob. written on stones similar to the Egyp. stone steles, with rounded tops. The “Cultus Table of Sippar” (c. 9th cent. b.c.) contained certain provisions regarding priests. A “Table of Offerings of Massilia” (3rd cent. b.c.) contains parallels to the OT, naming the specific parts of the sacrificial animal to which the priests were entitled.
Tables of money-changers.
The stool-like tables, behind which the money-changers sat on the ground cross-legged, that Jesus overturned in indignation when He saw the commercialism in the Temple (
Figurative usage.
Eschatological usage.
Those faithful to the Lord are promised that they will eat and drink at His table in the kingdom (
Bibliography
Price, Sellers, and Carlson, The Monuments and the Old Testament (1958), 128, 201; M. G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King (1963), 19; M. Noth, The Old Testament World (1966), 158.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
See Tablet.
The table as an article of furniture is shulchan, in the Hebrew and trapezal, in the Greek. The only exceptions are
See Table of Shewbread; Money-changers.