BOWL . It is impossible to distinguish with certainty between the numerous words reodered, somewhat indiscriminately, ‘cup,’ ‘bason,’ and ‘bowl.’ The wandering Bedouin of to-day make little use, for obvious reasons, of the fragile products of the potter’s art, preferring vessels of skin, wood, and copper. The ‘lordly dish’ with which Sisera was served ( Judges 5:25 ) was a bowl, doubtless of wood; so too, perhaps, Gideon’s bowl ( Judges 6:38 ) which bears the same name. For ordinary domestic purposes bowls of glazed or unglazed earthenware were preferred, of which specimens in endless variety have been unearthed (see Pottery). Among the wealthier classes silver and even gold ( 1 Kings 10:21 ) were employed. Of one or other of these were doubtless the large bowls the word elsewhere used for the Basons (wh. see) from which the nobles of Samaria quaffed their wine ( Amos 6:6 ). Similar, probably, were the large wine-bowls, distinguished from the smaller cups, to which Jeremiah refers ( Jeremiah 35:5 RV [Note: Revised Version.] and AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘pots’).
From the above are to be distinguished the bowl or reservoir for the oil of the ‘candlestick’ (Zechariah 4:2 f.), the golden cup-like ornaments of the Tabernacle lampstand ( Exodus 25:31 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘bowls,’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘cups’), and the ‘bowls of the chapiters’ ( 2 Chronicles 4:12 f. RV [Note: Revised Version.] and AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘ pommels ’). See, further, Cup, Bason, Vial.
For an important ritual use of bowls and lamps, recently discovered, see House, § 3 .
A. R. S. Kennedy.