Bottle
“Skin (nod) or earthen vessel (nebel)”
Summary
Various containers used in biblical times for storing water, wine, milk, and other liquids, made from animal skins or earthenware.
☩Types of Bottles
Several Hebrew and Greek words are translated 'bottle,' referring to different types of containers. The most common was the skin bottle (nod), made from goat or sheep skin, used for carrying water, wine, or milk. Earthenware bottles (nebel) were larger vessels, and the narrow-necked pottery bottle (baqbuq) was named for the gurgling sound it made when emptied.
☩New Wine in New Wineskins
Jesus used the familiar image of wineskins to teach that His new covenant message could not be contained in the old forms of Pharisaic Judaism. New wine, still fermenting, would burst old, brittle wineskins that had lost their elasticity. Both wine and skins would be ruined. New wine required new wineskins that could expand with the fermentation process.
☩Symbolic Uses
The psalmist describes himself as 'like a wineskin in the smoke'—shriveled and blackened by affliction yet still remembering God's statutes. In a tender image of divine compassion, David asks God to put his tears in His bottle, suggesting God's intimate awareness of human sorrow.
Related Verses26 mentions
See Also
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Bottle," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. I (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Bottle," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. I (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Bottle," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).