It would be difficult within a short compass to describe the form and arrangements of the table, as the entertainments spoken of in Scripture were not all conducted in a uniform style. In ancient Egypt, as in Persia, the tables were ranged along the sides of the room, and the guests were placed with their faces towards the walls. Persons of high official station were honoured with a table apart for themselves at the head of the room ; and in these particulars every reader of the Bible will trace an exact correspondence to the arrangements of Joseph's entertainment to his brethren. Accord ing to Lightfoot (Exemit. on 7ohn xiii 23), the tables of the Jews were either wholly uncovered, or two-thirds were spread with a cloth, while the remaining third was left bare for the dishes and vegetables. In the days of our Lord the prevail ing form was the triclinium, the mode of reclining at which is described elsewhere [AccusxrioN]. This effeminate practice was not introduced until near the close of the Old Testament history, for amongst all its writers prior to the age of Amos mr, to sit, is the word invariably used to describe the posture at table (I Sam. xvi. margin, and Ps. cxxviii. 3, implying that the ancient Israelites sat round a low table, cross-legged, like the Orientals of the present day), whereas dvaxXivw, signifying a recumbent posture, is the word employed in the Gospel.
The convenience of spoons, knives, and forks being unknown in the East, or, where known, being a modern innovation, the hand is the only instrument used in conveying food to the mouth, and the common practice, their food being chiefly prepared in a liquid form, is to dip their thin wafer like bread in the dish, and folding it between their thumb and two fingers, enclose a portion of contents. It is not uncommon to see several hands plunged into one dish at the same time. But where the party is numerous, the two persons near or opposite are commonly joined in one dish ; and accordingly, at the last Passover, Judas, being close to his master, was pointed out as the traitor by being designated as the person dipping his hand with Jesus in the dish.' The Apostle John, whose advantageous situation enabled him to hem the minutest parts of the conversation, has recorded the fact of our Lord, in reply to the question, Who is it ?' answering it by ' giving a sop to Judas when he had dipped' (John xiii. 26) ; and this leads us to mention it as not the least among the peculiarities of Oriental manners, that a host often dips his hand into a dish, and lifting a handful of what he considers a dainty, offers the ;ivalov or sop to one of his friends. However the fastidious delicacy of a European appetite might revolt at such an act of hospitality, it is one of the greatest courtesies that an Oriental can chew, and to decline it would be a violation of propriety and good manners (see Jowett's Christian Researches). In earlier ages, a double or a more liberal portion, or a choice piece of cookery, was the form in which a host sheaved his respect for the individual he delighted to honour (Gen. xliii. 34 ; I Sam. i. 5 ; ix. 23 ; Prov. xxxi. 15 ; see Voller's Gmc. Antiq. ii. 387 ; Forbes, Orient. Afent. iii. 187).
While the guests reclined in the manner de scribed above, their feet, of course, being stretched out behind, were the most accessible parts of their person, and accordingly the woman with the ala baster-box of ointment could pay her grateful and reverential attentions to Jesus without disturbing him in the business of the table. Nor can the presence of this woman, uninvited and unknown even as she was to the master of the house, appear at all an incredible or strange circumstance, when we consider that entertainments are often given in gardens, or in the outer courts, where strangers are freely admitted, and that Simon's table was in all likelihood as accessible to the same promis cuous visitors as are found hovering about at the banquets and entering into the houses of the most respectable Orientals of the present day (Forbes, Orient. Mein.) In the course of the entertainment servants are frequently employed in sprinkling the head and person of the guests with odoriferous perfumes, which, probably to counteract the effects of too copious perspiration, they use in great pro fusion, and the fragrance of which, though gene rally too strong for Europeans, is deemed an agreeable refreshment (see Ps. xlv. 8; xxiii. 5 ;
cxxxiii. 2).
The various articles of which an Oriental enter tainment consists, bread, flesh, fish, fowls, melted butter, honey, and fruits, are in many places set on the table at once, in defiance of all taste. They. ale brought in upon trays—one, containing several dishes, being assigned to a group of two, or at most three, persons, and the number and quality of the dishes being regulated according to the rank and consideration of the party seated before it. In ordinary cases four or five dishes constitute the portion allotted to a guest ; but if he be a person of consequence, or one to whom the host is de sirous of skewing more than ordinary marks of attention, other viands are successively brought in, until, if every vacant corner of the tray is occupied, the bowls are piled one above another. The object of this rude but liberal hospitality is, not that the individual thus honoured is expected to surfeit him self by an excess of indulgence in order to testify his sense of the entertainer's kindness, but that he may enjoy the means of gratifying his palate with greater variety; and hence we read of Joseph's dis playing his partiality for Benjamin by making his mess five times so much as any of theirs' (Gen. xliii, 34). The shoulder of a lamb, roasted, and plentifully besmeared with butter and milk, is re garded as a great delicacy still (Buckingham's Travels, ii. 136), as it was also in the days of Samuel. But according to the favourite cookery of the Orientals, their animal food is for the most part cut into small pieces, stewed, or prepared in a liquid state, such as seems to have been the broth presented by Gideon to the angel (Judg. vi. 19). The made-up dishes are `savoury meat,' being highly seasoned, and bring to remembrance the marrow and fatness which were esteemed as the most choice morsels in ancient times. As to drink, when particular attention was intended to be shewn to a guest, his cup was filled with wine till it ran over (Ps. xxiii. 5), and it is said that the ancient Persians began their feasts with wine, whence it was called `a banquet of wine' (Esther v. 6).
The hands, for occasionally both were required, besmeared with grease during the process of eating, were anciently cleaned by rubbing them with the soft part of the bread, the crumbs of which, being allowed to fall, became the portion of dogs (Matt. xv. 27 ; Luke xvi. 21). But the most common way now at the conclusion of a feast is for a ser vant to go round to each guest with water to wash, a service which is performed by the menial pour ing a stream over their hands, which is received into a strainer at the bottom of the basin. This humble office Elisha performed to his master •(2 Kings iii. t).
People of rank and opulence in the East fre quently give public entertainments to the poor. The rich man, in the parable, whose guests dis appointed him, despatched his servants on the in stant to invite those that might be found sitting by the hedges and the highways—a measure which, in the circumstances, was absolutely necessary, as the heat of the climate would spoil the meats long before they could be consumed by the members of his own household. But many of the great, from benevolence or ostentation, are in the habit of pro claiming set days for giving feasts to the poor ; and then, at the time appointed, may be seen crowds of the blind, the halt, and the maimed, bending their steps to the scene of entertainment. This species of charity claims a venerable antiquity. Our Lord recommended his wealthy hearers to practise it rather than spend their fortunes, as they did, on luxurious living (Luke xiv. 12) ; and as such invitations to the poor are of necessity given by public proclamation, and female messengers are employed to publish them (Hasselquist saw ten or twelve thus perambulating a town in Egypt), it is probably to the same venerable practice that Solomon alludes in Prov. ix. 3.—R. J.