Bowl

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

The word is used in the Revised Versioninstead of ‘vial’ to translate φιάλη, which occurs 12 times in Revelation. The change was desirable, as the former word, a modification of ‘phial,’ has come to mean a small glass vessel or bottle, as in Milton’s ‘precious vial led liquors.’ φιάλη meant in classical Greek (after Homer, to whom it was a cinerary urn) a broad shallow bowl used in drinking or in offering libations. Its saucer shape allowed its contents to be poured out at once or suddenly. It was often of finely-wrought gold or silver (Herod. ii. 151; Pind. Nem . ix. 122), and it is a familiar object in classical articleIn the Septuagintφιάλη denotes a bronze bowl or basin (מִזְרָק) used in the sacrificial ritual of Tabernacle or Temple ( Exodus 27:3)-the vessel in which the priest caught the warm blood of the victim, to dash it upon the altar. These uses of the word, with striking modifications, are reflected in Revelation. (1) In a single passage ( Exodus 27:8) it is employed with its classical connotation, except that the offering which the vessel holds is not the pagan libation of wine, but the Levitical gift of incense. ‘The ζῶα and the πρεσβύτεροι [representing perhaps all Nature and all saints] fell down before the Lamb, having … golden bowls [φιάλας χρυσᾶς] full of incense,’ The Vulgatehas ‘phialas aureas,’ but the proper Lat. equivalent of φιάλη was ‘patera,’ as in Virg. Geor . ii. 192, ‘pateris libamus et auro.’ The subjoined interpretation of the bowls and their contents as ‘the prayers of the saints’ is probably an editorial gloss suggested by  Revelation 8:4 (see Incense). (2) In every other passage where the word occurs the φιάλη does not exhale a cloud of fragrant incense, sent up with the adoration of saints, but is filled with the hot, bitter, poisonous wine of the wrath of God, which earth is made to drink-a figure resembling the prophetic ‘cup of reeling’ ( Isaiah 51:17;  Isaiah 51:22), but even more appalling. The seven angels who have the seven bowls are ‘laden with the seven last plagues’ ( Revelation 21:9). Every emptied φιάλη means an added judgment falling on land or sea or air ( Revelation 16:1 f.). Hence in common speech the words ‘vials’ and ‘wrath’ have become almost inseparably linked together.

James Strahan.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

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.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Φιάλη (Strong'S #5357 — Noun Feminine — phiale — fee-al'-ay )

(Eng., "phial") denotes "a bowl;" so the RV, for AV, "vial," in  Revelation 5:8;  15:7;  16:1-4,8,10,12,17;  17:1;  21:9; the word is suggestive of rapidity in the emptying of the contents. While the seals (ch. 6) give a general view of the events of the last "week" or "hebdomad," in the vision given to Daniel,  Daniel 9:23-27 , the "trumpets" refer to the judgments which, in a more or less extended period, are destined to fall especially, though not only, upon apostate Christendom and apostate Jews. The emptying of the "bowls" betokens the final series of judgments in which this exercise of the wrath of God is "finished" ( Revelation 15:1 , RV). These are introduced by the 7th trumpet. See  Revelation 11:15 and the successive order in   Revelation 11:18 , "the nations were wroth, and Thy wrath came ...;" see also  Revelation 6:17;  14:19,20;  19:11-21 .

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (n.) The game of tenpins or bowling.

(2): (n.) Specifically, a drinking vessel for wine or other spirituous liquors; hence, convivial drinking.

(3): (n.) A concave vessel of various forms (often approximately hemispherical), to hold liquids, etc.

(4): (v. i.) To play with bowls.

(5): (n.) An ancient game, popular in Great Britain, played with biased balls on a level plat of greensward.

(6): (v. t.) To roll, as a bowl or cricket ball.

(7): (v. t.) To roll or carry smoothly on, or as on, wheels; as, we were bowled rapidly along the road.

(8): (v. t.) To pelt or strike with anything rolled.

(9): (n.) The hollow part of a thing; as, the bowl of a spoon.

(10): (n.) The contents of a full bowl; what a bowl will hold.

(11): (v. i.) To move rapidly, smoothly, and like a ball; as, the carriage bowled along.

(12): (v. i.) To roll a ball on a plane, as at cricket, bowls, etc.

(13): (n.) A ball of wood or other material used for rolling on a level surface in play; a ball of hard wood having one side heavier than the other, so as to give it a bias when rolled.

King James Dictionary

BOWL, n. In Latin, vola is the hollow of the hand.

1. A concave vessel to hold liquors, rather wide than deep, and thus distinguished from a cup, which is rather deep than wide. 2. The hollow part of any thing as the bowl of a spoon. 3. A basin a fountain.

BOWL, n. A ball of wood used for play on a level plat of ground.

BOWL, To play with bowls, or at bowling.

BOWL, To roll as a bowl also, to pelt with any thing rolled.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Exodus 25:31,33,34 37:17,19,20 Genesis 44:2,12,16 Jeremiah 35:5 Zechariah 4:2,3 Exodus 25:29 37:16

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Besides the use to which bowls are commonly put, the word is applied to ornaments in the shape of a bowl placed on columns or on the golden candlestick.  Exodus 25:31-34;  Exodus 37:17-20;  1 Kings 7:41,42 .

Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types

 Exodus 25:31 (c) The bowl held the surplus. It indicates by figure that the Lord wants His light bearers to have a large amount of surplus ministry to give to GOD's people at all times.

Holman Bible Dictionary

Basin

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

bōl  :

(1) The primitive Hebrews, like the wandering Bedouin of today, probably used bowls of wood, as less breakable than earthenware. Some hollow dish of the sort would be indispensable, even in the lowest stage of nomad life, to receive the milk of the flock, and as the common dish in which to serve the family meal. We have abundant proof, however, that vessels of earthenware of various sorts were in use by the settled peoples of Canaan in the earliest times. Many interesting specimens, characteristic of different peoples and ages, have been found by excavators of the PEF , especially recently by Flinders Petrie and Fred. Bliss at Tell el-Hesy (see Tell el-Hesy (Lachish), by Petrie, and A Mound of Many Cities , by Bliss) and by Macalister and others at Gezer, Taanach, Megiddo, etc. (see PEFS ).

It was probably in some such dish - "a bowl fit for lords" (English Versions, "a lordly dish") - that Jael offered. Sisera a draught of sour milk ( Judges 5:25; compare Arabic leben ), and the bowl into which Gideon wrung the water from his fleece ( Judges 6:38 ) is denoted by the same word (ספל , ṣēphel  ; Septuagint lekánē ), though this may have been of earthenware instead of wood. Certainly the ṣēphel was a dish of goodly size.

(2) Another word rendered sometimes "bowl" and sometimes "basin" is מזרק , mizrāḳ ̌ . It is used of the large silver bowls presented by "the princes of the congregation" ( Numbers 7:13 f). See Basin . It is also applied by Amos ( Amos 6:6 ) to the costly bowls used by the nobles of Samaria in their debaucheries.

(3) A still larger bowl is mentioned by Jer ( Jeremiah 35:5 ), the King James Version "pot" (גּביע , gābhı̄a‛ ). This same word is used of Joseph's cup ( Genesis 44:2 f): "Put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth." As used at banquets it corresponds to the crater , from which the drinking cups (כּסות , kōṣōth ) were replenished. The material seems to have been uniformly silver. But see (4).

(4) Bowl is used in the King James Version to translation גּביע , gābhı̄a‛ , "the bowls made like almonds" ( Exodus 25:33 the King James Version), as applied to the "cups" (Revised Version), or calyxes, used to ornament the golden candlestick (see Tabernacle ). It seems to have been an elastic term.

(5) The bowl of  Zechariah 4:3 ( גּלּה , gullāh , found also in  Zechariah 5:2 correct text), is represented as the receptacle for oil in the candlestick of the prophet's vision. It is likewise used of "the lamp of life" (  Ecclesiastes 12:6 ) and to designate the bowl-shaped capitals of Jachin and Boaz ( 1 Kings 7:41 ,  1 Kings 7:42;  2 Chronicles 4:12 ,  2 Chronicles 4:13 ).

(6) Bowl is found in  Isaiah 51:17 ,  Isaiah 51:22 the Revised Version (British and American), "bowl of the cup" (the King James Version "dregs of the cup"). Some think the second word here ( קבּעת כּוס , ḳubba‛ath kōṣ ) is a gloss to explain the unusual preceding word.

(7) In Rev where the King James Version has "vial" ( phiálē ) the Revised Version (British and American) has "bowl." See Basin .