Banquet

BANQUET ban'-kwet.

1. The Ancient Hebrew Customs:

(1) "Banquet" and "banqueting" in the King James Version always include and stand for wine-drinking, not simply "feast" or "feasting" in our sense. Thus (Song of Solomon 2:4), "He brought me to the banqueting-house" is literally, "the house of wine," and

Esther 7:2 has in the Hebrew "a banquet of wine." In the New Testament we see a reflection of the same fact in 1 Peter 4:3 the King James Version, "We walked in .... excess of wine, banquetings" (Greek "drinkings"; the Revised Version (British and American) "carousings"). Compare Amos 6:7 the King James Version, "The banquet of them that stretched themselves," where the reference seems to be to reclining at wine-drinkings.

See MEALS.

The Hebrew of Job 1:4, "make a banquet," may refer to a social feast of a less objectionable sort (compare Job 41:6 the King James Version), though the Hebrew for "to drink" yayin "wine," was used as synonymous with "banquet."

Music, dancing and merriment usually attended all such festivities. Certainly the ancient Hebrews, like other peoples of the ancient East, were very fond of social feasting, and in Christ's day had acquired, from contact with Greeks and Romans, luxurious and bibulous habits, that often carried them to excess in their social feasts.

2. In Christ's Teaching and Practice:

Among the Greeks the word for "feast" (doche) is from dechomai "to receive" (compare our English usage, "to receive" and "reception"). This word doche is used with poiein "to make," to signify "to make" or "give a feast." Compare Luke 5:29 where Levi "made a feast."

(1) In view of existing customs and abuses, Christ taught His followers when they gave a banquet to invite the poor, etc. (Luke 14:13), rather than, as the fashion of the day called for, to bid the rich and influential. Much in the New Testament that has to do with banquets and banquetings will be obscure to us of the West if we do not keep in mind the many marked differences of custom between the East and the West.

(2) "Banquets" were usually given in the house of the host to specially invited guests (Luke 14:15; John 2:2), but much more freedom was accorded to the uninvited than we of the West are accustomed to, as one finds to be true everywhere in the East today. The custom of reclining at meals (see MEALS; TRICLINIUM, etc.) was everywhere in vogue among the well-to-do in Christ's day, even in the case of the ordinary meals, the guest leaning upon the left arm and eating with the aid of the right (compare Matthew 26:20 m "reclining," and 1 Corinthians 11:20, "the Lord's supper").

(3) "Banquets" were considered normal parts of weddings as they are now throughout the East. Jesus and His disciples were bidden to one at Cana in Galilee, and accepted the invitation (John 2:2), and wine-drinking was a part of the feast. The "banquet" Levi gave was in Christ's honor (Luke 5:29). There were numbers present and marked gradations in the places at table (Matthew 23:6; Mark 12:39; Luke 14:7; 20:46). Guests were invited in advance, and then, as time-pieces were scarce, specially notified when the feast was ready, which helps to explain Christ's words (Matthew 22:4), "All things are ready:

come to the marriage" (compare Luke 14:17; Esther 5:8; 6:14).

(4) Matthew tells us (Matthew 23:6) that the Pharisees "love the chief place ("uppermost rooms" the King James Version) at feasts."

In Matthew 22:3,4 "made a marriage feast," is rendered by some simply "a feast," because Greek gamos, "marriage," was used by Septuagint to translate the Hebrew for "feast" in Esther 1:5. But, as this is the only known example of such a use compare gamos, it is better to take it here in the literal sense of "marriage feast," as would seem to be required by the words "for his son" (Messiah). The Greek is plural (gamous) to indicate the several parts or stages of the feast (Button, 23; compare English "nuptials").

wine was provided, superintend the drinking, etc. (compare Luke 22:27).

3. A Distinction Giving Rise to a Question:

(1) In Matthew 22:4, "I have made ready my dinner," "dinner" in Greek is ariston (compare Luke 11:38). "Supper" (Greek deipnon) is found in Matthew 23:6 and often in the New Testament. Both words are found in Luke 14:12. The question arises, What was the distinction? Thus much may be said in answer:

The ariston (English Versions "dinner") was a meal usually taken about the middle of the forenoon, with variations of earlier or later; the deipnon (English Versions "supper"), the one taken at the close of the day, often after dark. In Ant, V, iv, 2 Josephus supposes Eglon's guards (Judges 3:24) were negligent about noon, "both because of the heat and because their attention was turned to dinner" (ariston). So the "dinner" (ariston) was sometimes as late as noon. Yet John 21:12,15 shows, on the other hand, that the ariston was on some occasions taken shortly after dawn.

(2) Another question raised is this, Were the ancient Jews accustomed to have two or three meals a day? Vambery, quoted by Morison, gives a saying of the Turks that is in point:

"There are only two meals a day, the smaller at 10 or 11 o'clock in the morning, the second and larger after sunset." There seems no evidence to sustain the view, maintained by Grimm and entertained by others, that the Jews of Christ's day were accustomed to take a separate and slight meal on rising, as the later Greeks and some of the later Romans did. There is certainly no clear evidence that the Jews of that day had more than two meals a day (see DB, article "Meals").

(3) The marriage feast of Matthew 22:3 f was an ariston, somewhat like an English "wedding-breakfast"; but that in Luke 14:16 f was a deipnon, which was as usual delayed till after dark (Luke 14:17). Perhaps the ariston in this case was preliminary, while the marriage with its accompanying deipnon was after dark; such things are not unheard of today (compare Matthew 26:20 and 1 Corinthians 11:20, "the Lord's deipnon").

George B. Eager

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Bibliography Information

Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'BANQUET'".  "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia".  1915.