Concise Bible Dictionary:
Besides the common use of this word, it is employed symbolically for to “consume, destroy:” they “eat up my people as they eat bread” (Psa. 14:4; compare Prov. 30:14; Hab. 3:14; 2 Tim. 2:17). Also for receiving, digesting, and delighting in God’s words: “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts” (Jer. 15:16). To eat together of the same bread or food is a token of friendship (Josh. 11:14; Psa. 41:9; Song of Sol. 5:1; John 13:18): and such an expression of intimacy is forbidden towards those walking disorderly (1 Cor. 5:11). It is used to express the satisfaction of doing the work that is before the soul: the Lord said, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of” (John 4:32). Also to express appropriation to the eater of the death of Christ: “except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you” (John 6:53). (In John 6:51,53 there is eating for reception, φάγω; and in John 6:54,56-57, eating as a present thing for the maintenance of life, τρώγω.) In the Lord’s Supper the Christian eats that which is a symbol of the body of Christ (Matt. 26:26), and in eating he has communion with Christ’s death (1 Cor. 10:16).
“419. Eating Alone” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Job 31:17. Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof.
It is a part of Oriental etiquette to invite others to partake of food. See note on Genesis 18:2-3 (#9). Dr. Shaw says, referring to his travels in Arabia: “No sooner was our food prepared, whether it was potted flesh boiled with rice, a lentil soup, or unleavened cakes served up with oil or honey, than one of the Arabs, (not to eat his morsel alone,) after having placed himself on the highest spot of ground in the neighborhood, calls out thrice, with a loud voice, to all his brethren, The sons of the faithful, to come and partake of it; though none of them were in view, or perhaps within a hundred miles of us. This custom, however, they maintain to be a token at least of their great benevolence, as indeed it would have been of their hospitality, provided they could have had an opportunity to show it” (Travels, Preface, p. 12).
“746. Mode of Eating” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Mark 14:20. One of the twelve, that dippeth with me in the dish.
See also Matthew 26:23.
The Orientals at their meals make no use of knives, forks, or spoons. The animal food is so thoroughly cooked as to be easily separated by the fingers, and with the fingers the food of all kinds is mainly taken from the dish. When, however, the food is in a semi-fluid state, or so soft that the fingers cannot conveniently hold it, a piece of bread is dipped into the dish and made the vehicle by which soft food is conveyed to the mouth. This bread formed the “sop” mentioned in John 13:26, where see the note (#815).
“825. Time for Eating” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Acts 2:15. For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
It was not usual to eat or drink on any day before the third hour, at which time the mowing sacrifice was performed. Lightfoot, on authority of Baronius, says: “And on these solemn festival-days they used not to eat or drink anything till high-noon” (Horae Hebraicae). This custom furnished a ready answer from Peter to the charge of drunkenness.
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