Cheese

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Cheese. Cheese is mentioned only three times in the Bible, and on each occasion, under a different name in the Hebrew.  1 Samuel 17:18;  2 Samuel 17:29;  Job 10:10. It is difficult to decide how far these terms correspond with our notion of cheese, for they simply express various degrees of coagulation.

Cheese is not, at the present day, common among the Bedouin Arabs, butter being decidedly preferred; but there is a substance closely corresponding to those mentioned in 1 Samuel 17, 2 Samuel 17, consisting of coagulated buttermilk, which is dried until it become quite hard, and is then ground; the Arabs eat it mixed with butter.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Cheese. The cheese of the East is made of cows' milk, though that of sheep and of goats and of camels is sometimes used. Instead of rennet, the milk is coagulated either with buttermilk or a decoction of the flowers of the wild artichoke; and putting the curds into small baskets made with rushes, or with the dwarf-palm, they bind them up close and press them. These cheeses are rarely above two or three pounds weight; and are about the size of a tea saucer. Oriental cheese when new is comparatively soft, but it soon turns hard and dry; and is excessively salt.  1 Samuel 17:18;  2 Samuel 17:29.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Job 10:10 , curdled milk is meant by the word.

Copyright Statement These dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., DD Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain.

Bibliography Information Easton, Matthew George. Entry for 'Cheese'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/c/cheese.html. 1897.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (n.) The curd of milk, coagulated usually with rennet, separated from the whey, and pressed into a solid mass in a hoop or mold.

(2): (n.) A low courtesy; - so called on account of the cheese form assumed by a woman's dress when she stoops after extending the skirts by a rapid gyration.

(3): (n.) A mass of pomace, or ground apples, pressed together in the form of a cheese.

(4): (n.) The flat, circular, mucilaginous fruit of the dwarf mallow (Malva rotundifolia).

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

 Job 10:10;  1 Samuel 17:18;  2 Samuel 17:29. The modern Arabs use either butter, or coagulated buttermilk dried so as to be hard. Our "butter" means in derivation "cheese of kine." In ancient Palestine probably by "cheese" is meant milk compressed in cakes, salted, soft when new, but soon becoming hard and dry.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

Several times alluded to in Scripture, and still an important article of food in the East,  1 Samuel 17:18;  2 Samuel 17:29 . It is usually white and very salt; soft, when hew, but soon becoming hard and dry. The cheese was like a small saucer in size,  Job 10:10 .

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Curdled milk, which in some instances is dried and is solid enough to be cut into slices.  1 Samuel 17:18;  2 Samuel 17:29;  Job 10:10 .

King James Dictionary

CHEESE, n.

1. The curd of milk, coagulated by rennet, separated from the serum or whey, and pressed in a vat, hoop or mold. 2. A mass of pumice or ground apples placed on a press.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Job 10:10  1 Samuel 17:18  2 Samuel 17:29

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

CHEESE . See Milk.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(in  1 Samuel 17:18, חֲרַיצֵי הֶחָלָב , Charitsey ´ He-Chalab ´ , Slices Of The [curdled] Milk; Sept. Τρυφαλίδες Τοῦ Γάλακτος , Vulg. Formellcm Casei; in  2 Samuel 17:29, שְׁפוֹת shephoth ´ , according to the Rabbins, so called from being filtered from the whey; Sept. Σαφώθ , Vulg. Pingues; in  Job 10:10, גְּבִינָה , Gebinah ´ , Coagulated milk; Sept. Τυρός ) . It is difficult to decide how far these terms correspond with our notion of cheese, for they simply express various degrees of coagulation (see Gesenius, Thes. Hebrews p. 25, 526). It may be observed that cheese is not at the present day common among the Bedouin Arabs, butter being decidedly preferred; but there is a substance, closely corresponding to those mentioned in 1 Samuel 17; 2 Samuel 17, consisting of coagulated buttermilk, which is dried until it becomes quite hard, and is then ground: the Arabs eat it mixed with butter (Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins, 1:60). It is noticeable that the ancients seem generally to have used either butter or cheese, but not both: thus the Greeks had in reality but one expression for the two, for Βούτυρον = Βοῦς , Τυρός , "cheese of kine." The Romans used cheese exclusively (see Beroald, Ad Apulej. Metam. p. 26), while all nomad tribes preferred butter. The distinction between cheese proper and coagulated milk seems to be referred to in Pliny, 11:96. (See Butter).

The most important passage in which this preparation from milk is mentioned in Scripture is that where Job ( Job 10:10), figuratively describing the formation of the foetus in the womb, says:

Is it not like milk thou wouldst pour me out, Even like cheese wouldst curdle me?

This text alludes to that progressive solidification which is common to all cheese, which is always soft when new, though it hardens when it becomes old. Undoubtedly the Orientals do eat curds, or curdled milk, but that, therefore, their cheese consists of curdled milk is not the correct inference. We also eat curds, but do not regard curds as cheese; neither do they. The other passages describe "cheese" in the plural, as parts of military provision, for which the most solid and compact substances are always preferred. Persons on a march eould not like to encumber themselves with curdled milk ( 2 Samuel 17:29). (See Curdle).

There is much reason to conclude that the cheese used by the Jews differed in no respect from that still common in the, East, which is.-usually.- exhibited in small cakes about the size of a tea-saucer, white in color, and excessively salt. It has no rind, and soon becomes exceedingly hard and dry, being, indeed, not made for long keeping. It is best when new and comparatively soft, and in this state large quantities are consumed in lumps or crumbs not made up into cakes. All cheese in the East is of very indifferent quality, and the natives infinitely prefer English or Dutch cheese when they can obtain it. In making cheese the common rennet is either buttermilk or a decoction of the great-headed thistle or wild artichoke. The curds are afterwards put into small baskets made of rushes or palm leaves, which are then tied up close and the necessary pressure applied. (See Kitto, Pict. Bible, note on  1 Samuel 17:19.) (See Milk).

There are several decisions in the Mishna relative to the pressure by which cheese was made (Cholim, 8:2). This -proves that, as observed before, no preparation of milk was regarded as cheese while in a fluid state, or before being subjected to pressure. In another place (Aboda Sara, 2:5) it is decided that cheese made by foreigners could not be eaten, from the fear that it might possibly be derived from the milk of some animal which had been offered in sacrifice to idols. It is therefore certain that cheese was known to the Jews (comp. Philo, Opp. 2:337; Otho, Lex. Rabb. p. 120), and there was even a valley at Jerusalem called the Tyropoeon (q.v.), i.e. cheese-makers' valley ( Φάραγξ Τῶν Τυροποιῶν ) , doubtless from its being occupied by persons of this craft (Josephus, War, 5:5, 1). (See Bazaar). An instrument for cutting firm cheese is even named in the Mishna (Shabb. 17:2). (See generally Ugolini, De Re Rustica Vet. Hebr. [in his Thesaur. 29:], 2:15.) (See Food).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

There is much reason to conclude that the cheese used by the Jews differed in no respect from that still common in the East; which is usually exhibited in small cakes about the size of a tea saucer, white in color, and excessively salt. It has no rind, and soon becomes exceedingly hard and dry—being, indeed, not made for long keeping. It is best when new and comparatively soft; and, in this state, large quantities are consumed in lumps or crumbs not made up into cakes. All cheese in the East is of very indifferent quality; and it is within the writer's own knowledge that the natives infinitely prefer English or Dutch cheese when they can obtain it. In making cheese, the common rennet is either butter-milk or a decoction of the great-headed thistle, or wild artichoke. The curds are afterwards put into small baskets made of rushes or palm leaves, which are then tied up close, and the necessary pressure applied.