The meaning of Pan in the Bible
(From International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
Name of a utensil used in the preparation or the serving of food, and representing several words in the original. Passing over the use of the word in connections like I Chronicles 9:31, "things baked in pans," where the Hebrew word chabhittim refers, not to the pan itself, but to the cakes baked in the flat pan or griddle which was called machabhath (see below), and the "firepans" (machtah) (Exodus 27:3; I Kings 7:50, etc.) which seem to have been used to carry burning coals, we note the following words:
(1) machabhath, "pan" the King James Version, "baking-pan" the Revised Version (British and American), a dish of uncertain shape and size which was used in the preparation of the minchah or vegetable offering. See Leviticus 2:5; Leviticus 6:21; Leviticus 7:9; I Chronicles 23:29. On the basis of Ezekiel 4:3 it might be assumed that the pan was rectangular in shape and of good size.
(2) kiyyor, rendered "pan" in I Samuel 2:14. The same word is used in the phrase, "pan of fire" the Revised Version (British and American), "hearth of fire" the King James Version (Zechariah 12:6); and it is also translated "laver" in the descriptions of the furnishing of tabernacle and temple (Exodus 30:18; I Kings 7:30, etc.). As it held water and was used for boiling meat and the like, it must have been a kind of pot or kettle.
(3) masreth, (II Samuel 15:9). The connection gives no clue as to shape or size except that it must have been small enough to serve food in, and of the proper shape to hold a substance which could be poured out. Some authorities suggest a connection with the root se'or, "leaven," and think that this pan was like the kneading-trough in shape.
(4) sir, rendered "pan" in Exodus 27:3 the King James Version, "pot" the Revised Version (British and American).
See POT.
(5) parur, "pan" in Numbers 11:8 the King James Version, "pot" the Revised Version (British and American).
See POT.
(6) celachah (II Chronicles 35:13). Some kind of dish or pot. Slightly different forms of the same root are rendered "cruse" (II Kings 2:20 (tselochith), "dish" (II Kings 21:13 (tsallachath); and also in the Revised Version (British and American) in Proverbs 19:24; Proverbs 26:15, instead of the probably incorrect "bosom" of the King James Version.
(7) lebes translated "pan" in 1 Esdras 1:12 the King James Version (the Revised Version (British and American) "cauldron").
(8) teganon, 2 Macc 7:3,5, with the verb teganizo, 7:5, is the usual Greek word for "frying-pan," but here a large sheet of metal must be meant (compare 4 Macc 8:13; 12:10,20).
LITERATURE.
Whitehouse, Primer of Hebrew Antiquities, 76, 77; Benzinger, Hebraische Archaologie, 70, 71; Nowack, Hebraische Archdologie, I, 144.
Walter R. Betteridge
See more on the meaning of Pan in the Bible:
Pan {Easton's Bible Dictionary}
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