Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CUP

A small bowl that lacked a stem or handle, typically made of pottery but sometimes of metal, such as silver (Gen. 44:2; cf. Jer. 51:7). Such cups were the most common ceramic form represented in Iron Age domestic assemblages, and were likely used for both eating and drinking. This style of shallow, stemless cup is found throughout the ancient Near East, and is evident, e.g., in King Tutankhamen’s tomb and in reliefs of the Assyrian king Assurbanipal. Cups are found as well in Israelite graves, which suggests a belief in dining after death. Chalices — vessels with a shallow bowl on a high foot — were another type of drinking vessel in the biblical period.

Cups are noted in association with meals (2 Sam. 12:3; Ps. 16:5; 23:5), but they occur in the texts primarily for drinking: wine (Gen. 44:5; Prov. 23:31; Amos 6:6; Matt. 26:27) and water (10:42). The “cup of consolation” in Jer. 16:7 may indicate a custom of drinking wine while mourning the dead. Since the cup was an essential feature of everyday life, it became a symbol for holding Yahweh’s impact on that life, through wrath or salvation (e.g., Isa. 51:17; Ps. 11:6). The cup of wine at Jesus’ Last Supper was a feature of the meal and became a symbol holding his blood in remembrance for the disciples and the early Church (Matt. 26:27 par.; 1 Cor. 11:26).

Bibliography. R. Amiran, Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land (Jerusalem, 1963); J. Kelso, The Ceramic Vocabulary of the Old Testament. BASORSup 5-6 (New Haven, 1948): 3-48.

Carey Walsh

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CUP

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)