VESSEL (כְּלִי, H3998, utensil, vessel; נֵ֫בֶל֒, H5574, jar; ἄγγος, G35, container; σκεῦος, G5007, vessel). A vessel is “a receptacle for a liquid or some other substance made of some durable material, especially a utensil of this nature in domestic use, employed in connection with the preparation of food or drink” (OED). Vessels were used for storage of food or valuables (e.g. the DSS, and Paul’s figure: “we have this treasure in earthen vessels” [2 Cor 4:7]). Materials were varied from the ubiquitous pottery of ancient civilizations to precious metals, glass, and ornamental stone, such as alabaster (Mark 14:3). Baskets of wicker, and bottles of leather are also vessels. Size varied from small flasks for cosmetics (Mark 14:3 sup. cit.) to vast jars, such as those which figure in the story of “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” and which may be seen, fitted with multiple handles for ropes, in the storerooms of Minos’ palace at Knossos in Crete. Baskets varied in size from those that could be carried on head or shoulder (Gen 40:16; Exod 29:3), made to hold fruit (Jer 24:1, 2) or to serve as a brickmaker’s hod (Ps 81:6), to containers large enough to hold a man (Acts 9:25; 2 Cor 11:33).

The following alphabetical survey is not exhaustive:

1. Baskets. Add to above the baskets mentioned in connection with the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000. The former instance (Matt 14:20) has the word kophinos, a rush or wicker basket used by Jews to contain food free from alien pollution. Juvenal mentions the word in a reference to the Jews in the slum ghetto outside Rome’s Capena Gate (Sat. 3. 14). Curiously, the second instance (Matt 15:37) has a word which appears to describe the large bottle-shaped Gentile basket. The incident took place in the predominantly Gentile territory of the Decapolis.

2. Bottles. Animal skins for keeping water (Gen 21:14, 15, 19), milk (Judg 4:19), wine (Josh 9:4, 13; 1 Sam 1:24; 10:3; 16:20; 2 Sam 16:1); fig. use in Job 32:19 and Isaiah 40:15.

3. Buckets. Perhaps pitchers were used for drawing water from wells. They could be lowered by a rope through the handles; it is not known whether these were buckets of leather or of wood (Gen 24:14-19; John 4:11).

4. Baths and bushels (1 Kings 7:26, 38; 2 Chron 2:10; Isa 5:10; Matt 5:15) are rather measures of capacity than containers.

5. Basins (or bowls). Mainly for libation, and mentioned frequently in connection with the ritual utensils of Tabernacle and Temple (e.g. Num 7:13; 1 Kings 7:42, 50), but also in domestic contexts (2 Sam 17:28; John 13:5).

6. Cups. Nomenclature is wide and distinctions uncertain. Size and shape were varied in all contexts. The “dishes” and “bowls” of several references may well be cups in modern terminology. The following are references of special interest. Joseph’s cup was used for “divination,” and the meaning is not clear. The movement or color of the contents may have had oracular significance in Egyp. superstition, to which Joseph may or may not have subscribed (Gen 44:2, 4, 5). Jeremiah alludes to the “cup of consolation” offered to mourners (Jer 16:7). There was the famous cup of the Last Supper (Matt 26:27; 1 Cor 11:25, 28); fig. used: Psalm 23:5; Jeremiah 25:15; John 18:11; Revelation 14:10.

7. Dishes. Usually for food on the table, a large deep container commonly of bronze, still used for the common meal of the Bedouin. (See T. E. Lawrence’s account of the feast in Abdullah’s tent in the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, ch. 64.) Jael’s “lordly dish” was similar. Some such dish was used at the Last Supper as at all Passover feasts. (See Judg 5:25; Prov 19:24; 26:15; Matt 26:23.)

8. Pitchers. Commonly with two handles, jugs large and small, flat, rounded, or pointed bottoms for insertion in a perforated board, like the wine jars in the taverns of Pompeii and those in the hold of the sunken Rom. ship near Marseilles. Normally carried by women going after water (Gen 24:14-19), rarely by men (Luke 22:10). People slept with a pitcher of water near at hand (1 Sam 26:7-11). Used for solids as well as liquids (1 Kings 17:12). A fig. expression of life’s fragility (Eccl 12:6).