Table

VIEW:14 DATA:01-04-2020

TABLE.—See House, § 8; Meals, §§ 3, 4. For ‘Table of Shewbread’ see Shewbread, Tabernacle, § 6 (a), Temple, §§ 5, 9, 12.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

?Table? is derived from the Latin tabula, meaning primarily ?a board,? but with a great variety of other significances, of which ?writing-tablet? is the most important for the Biblical use of ?table.? So in English ?table? meant at first ?any surface? and, in particular, ?a surface for writing,? and further specialization was needed before ?table? became the name of the familiar article of furniture (?object with a horizontal surface?), a meaning not possessed by tabula in Latin. After this specialization ?table? in the sense of ?a surface for writing? was replaced in later English by the diminutive form ?tablet.? But ?surface for writing? was still a common meaning of ?table,? and in this sense it represents לוּח, lūaḥ (Exo_24:12, etc.), a word of uncertain origin, πλάξ, pláx, ?something flat? (2Co_3:3; Heb_9:4), δέλτος, déltos, ?a writing tablet? (1 Macc 8:22; 14:18, 27, 48), or πινακίδιον, pinakı́dion ?writing tablet? (Luk_1:63 - a rather unusual word). the American Standard Revised Version has kept the word in the familiar combination ?tables of stone? (Exo_24:12, etc.), but elsewhere (Pro_3:3; Pro_7:3; Isa_30:8; Jer_17:1; Hab_2:2; Luk_1:63) has replaced ?table? by ?tablet,? a change made by the English Revised Version only in Isa_30:8; Luk_1:63. See TABLET.
The table as an article of furniture is שׁלחן, shulḥān, in the Hebrew and τράπεζα, trápezal, in the Greek. The only exceptions are Son_1:12, מסב, mēṣabh, ?something round,? perhaps a ?round table,? perhaps a ?cushion,? perhaps a ?festal procession,? and Mar_7:4, the King James Version κλίνη, klı́nē, ?couch? (so the Revised Version (British and American)), while Joh_13:28 and Joh_12:2, the King James Version ?at the table,? and Tobit 7:8, the King James Version ?on the table,? represent only the general sense of the original. Of the two regular words, shulḥān is properly ?a piece of hide,? and so ?a leather mat,? placed on the ground at meal time, but the word came to mean any ?table,? however elaborate (e.g. Exo_25:23-30). Trapeza means ?having four feet.?
2Ki_4:10 seems to indicate that a table was a necessary article in even the simpler rooms. Curiously enough, however, apart from the table of shewbread there is no reference in the Bible to the form or construction of tables, but the simpler tables in Palestine of the present day are very much lower than ours. The modern ?tables of the money changers? (Mar_11:15 and parallel's) are small square trays on stands, and they doubtless had the same form in New Testament times. See SHEWBREAD, TABLE OF; MONEY-CHANGERS.
To eat at a king's table (2Sa_9:7, etc.) is naturally to enjoy a position of great honor, and the privilege is made by Christ typical of the highest reward (Luk_22:30). Usually ?to eat at one's table? is meant quite literally, but in 1Ki_18:19; Neh_5:17 (compare 1Ki_10:5) it probably means ?be fed at one's expense.? On the other hand, the misery of eating the leavings of a table (Jdg_1:7; Mar_7:28; Luk_16:21) needs no comment. The phrase ?table of the Lord (Yahweh)? in Mal_1:7, Mal_1:12 the King James Version (compare Eze_41:22; Eze_44:16 - Eze_39:20 is quite different) means ?the table (altar) set before the Lord,? but the same phrase in 1Co_10:21 is used in a different sense and the origin of its use by Paul is obscure. Doubtless the language, if not the meaning, of Malachi had its influence and may very well have been suggested to Paul as he wrote 1Co_10:18. On the other hand, light may be thrown on the passage by such a papyrus fragment as ?Chareimon invites you to dine at the table (klinē) of the lord Serapis,? a formal invitation to an idol-banquet (1Co_8:10; Pap. Oxyr. i. 110; compare iii. 523). This would explain Paul's ?table of demons? - a phrase familiar to the Corinthians - and he wrote ?table of the Lord? to correspond (compare, however, Pirḳē 'Ābhōth, iii. 4). ?Table at which the Lord is Host,? at any rate, is the meaning of the phrase. On the whole passage see the comms., especially that of Lietzmann (fullest references). Probably Luk_22:30 has no bearing on 1Co_10:21. The meaning of Psa_69:22 (quoted in Rom_11:9), ?Let their table before them become a snare,? is very obscure (?let them be attacked while deadened in revelings??), and perhaps was left intentionally vague.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

Psa_23:5 (b) David indicates the rich provision which the Lord makes for His children. He feeds them on heavenly dainties as they travel through this world. They have sources of joy that the world does not have. They feed on the Living Bread, and drink the Living Water, and their hearts are satisfied.

Psa_69:22 (b) This table represents the sinner's preparations for a good time. The Psalmist asks that their good times be turned into times of sorrow because of their hatred toward him, GOD's servant.

Psa_78:19 (b) By this picture we understand that GOD made provision for food and sustenance in the wilderness where there were no natural supplies.

Isa_28:8 (b) This is a type of the provision made by false religions for feeding their followers. The food which they offer is called "vomit." It represents good things taken into the person's soul and mind: there it is mixed with their own ideas and notions and this mixture is given out for others to feed on, and to accept as the doctrine of GOD. All false religions offer this vomit. The leaders take in some of the Word of GOD, change the meaning of it, mix it with their own ideas, and then give it out in books and speeches for others to accept and believe.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.


is the rendering in the A.V. usually of שֻׁלְחָן, shulchân (New Test. τράπεζα, likewise invariably so translated, except Luk_19:23 [“bank”]'; Act_16:34 [“meat”]), so called from being extended (שָׁלִח; comp. Homer, Od. 10:37; and see Psa_69:23), and denoting especially a table spread with food (Jdg_1:7; 1Sa_20:29; 1Sa_20:34; 1Ki_5:7; 1Ki_10:5; Job_36:16; Neh_5:17); but spoken likewise of the table of shew-bread (see below), and likewise of the lectisternia prepared before idols (Isa_45:11; see. Schumann, De Lectisferniis in Sacro Cod. [Lips. 1739]). For the “tables” of stone on which the Decalogue was engraved, see below. The word. מֵסֵב, mesâb, a divan (q.v.), is once rendered “at table” (Song of Solomon 1, 12). SEE SITTING.
Little is known as to the form of tables among the Hebrews; but, as in other Oriental nations, they were probably not high. In Exo_25:23, indeed, the table for the shew-bread is described as a cubit and a half in height; but the table of Herod's temple, as depicted on the arch of Titus at Rome, is only half a cubit high. Probably the table of the ancient Hebrews differed little from that of the modern Arabs, namely, a piece of skin or leather spread upon the ground (hence the figure of entanglement in it, Psa_69:23). In Palestine, at the present day, the general custom, even of the better classes, is to bring a polygonal stool (kursi), about fourteen inches high, into the common sitting-room for meals. Upon this is placed a tray (seniyeh) of basketwork or of metal, generally copper, on which the food is arranged. ‘These two pieces of furniture together compose the table (sûfrah). The bread lies upon the mat beneath the tray, and a cruse of water stands near by, from which all drink as they have need. On formal occasions, this is held in the hand by a servant, who waits upon the guests. Around this stool and tray the guests gather, sitting on the floor (Thomson, Land and Book, 1, 180). SEE EATING.
Among the ancient Egyptians, the table was much the same as that of the present day in Egypt, a small stool, supporting a round tray, on which the dishes are placed (see Lane, Mod. Eg. 1, 190); but it differed from this in having its circular summit fixed on a pillar, or leg, which was often in the form of a man, generally a captive, who supported the slab upon his head, the whole being of stone or some hard wood. On this the dishes were placed together with loaves of bread, some of which were not unlike those of the present day in Egypt, flat and round, as our crumpets. Others had the form of rolls or cakes, sprinkled with seeds. The table was not generally covered with any linen, but, like the Greek table, was washed with a sponge, or napkin, after the dishes were removed, and polished by the servants, when the company had retired; though an instance sometimes occurs of a napkin spread on it, at least on those which bore offerings in honor of the dead. One or two guests generally sat at a table, though, from the mention of persons seated in rows according to rank, it has been supposed the tables were occasionally of a long shape; as may have been the case when the brethren of Joseph “sat before him, the first-born according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth,” Joseph eating alone at another table where “they set on for him by himself.” But even if round, they might still sit according to rank, one place being always the post of honor, even at the present day, at the round table of Egypt (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. 1. 179). SEE DINE.
The tables of the ancient Assyrians, as delineated upon the monuments, were often of a highly ornamental character (Layard, Nineveh, 2, 236; Botta, Nineveh, p. 188). SEE BANQUET. For the triclinium of the Roman period, SEE ACCUBATION; SEE SUP. Other Greek words than τράπεζα above (which likewise denotes occasionally a broker's counter, SEE MONEY-CHANGER, not to mention ἀνακεῖμαι etc., often rendered ‘sit' at table), which are translated “table” in the A. V. in a different sense, are: κλίνη (Mar_7:4), a bed (as elsewhere rendered), or couch used for eating, i.e. the triclinium above noticed; and πλάξ (2Co_3:3; Heb_9:4),a tablet for inscription; more fully πινακίδιον, a writing-table (Luk_1:63). SEE TABLE OF THE LAW.



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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