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Bible Dictionaries
Loaf
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or LOAF (ἄρτος).—The Eastern loaf is not at all like the bread in use among ourselves. The Passover loaf—a large round thin cake—probably preserves the shape of the loaf in use among the Jews of our Lord’s time. The same shape of loaf is found to-day among the Bedawîn and fellahîn as well as in many villages and towns. The loaves are of considerable size,—18 in. or more in diameter,—and are of an extreme tenuity and of a peculiar but not unpleasant toughness. They are baked usually on a convex girdle, very often on the implement which is used for roasting coffee—hence the name ‘girdle bread.’ They may also be baked on heated stones or on the outside of a jar within which a fire has been kindled. Such without doubt would be the kind of bread baked by the children of Israel in their desert wanderings. And at the present time one may see this loaf in almost every part of Palestine. Even where other kinds of bread are used, this is still highly relished. If there is a guest in a native house, the loaves are often folded up in quarter size and laid beside his plate, and more than one European traveller has mistaken them, when so placed, for table napkins!
In all probability the loaves in Mark 6:38; Mark 8:6, etc., were of this kind, inasmuch as such bread is almost always carried on a journey, and by workmen, because of its keeping properties. The loaf is never cut; it is broken or torn asunder. Small scoops are made of the portions, with which the meat, rice, or leben (curdled milk) is scooped up—spoon and contents being eaten together. A man will eat three or four of these loaves at a meal (Luke 11:5).
Another loaf in common use at the present day is smaller in circumference and considerably thicker, and very much resembles in appearance the ‘scones,’ baked on a girdle, so common in some parts of Scotland. Bread of this kind is found only in towns where there are public ovens. See also art. Bread.
J. Soutar.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Loaf'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/l/loaf.html. 1906-1918.
