Purse

Purse. A bag for money. The Hebrews, when on a journey, were provided with a bag, in which they carried their money, Gen 42:35; Pro 1:14; Pro 7:20; Isa 46:6, and, if they were merchants, also their weights. Deu 25:13; Mic 6:11.

This bag is described, in the New Testament, by the terms, balantion, (bag), Luk 10:4; Luk 12:33; Luk 22:35; Luk 22:38, and glossokomon, (originally, the bag in which musicians carried the mouth-pieces of their Instruments). Joh 12:6; Joh 13:29. The girdle also served as a purse. Mat 10:9; Mar 6:8. Ladies wore ornamental purses. Isa 3:24.

Often "the girdle" (zoonee): Mat 10:9; Mar 6:8. Or "a bag for money", and "for merchants’ weights". (Gen 42:35; Pro 1:14; Isa 46:6; Joh 12:6, glossokomon, literally, a bag for carrying mouthpieces of musical instruments.)

Purse. A fold in the girdle, such, as is often found at the present day in eastern countries. But Hebrews also had a bag which was used to hold money. The first fold in a girdle had an opening, closed with a leathern strap, where the money was carried. Mat 10:9; Mar 6:8.

A bag for money or weights. Pro 1:14; Isa 46:6; Luk 10:4; Luk 22:35-36; Joh 12:6. In Mat 10:9; Mar 6:8, the ’girdle’ is alluded to, a portion of which was used as a purse.

PURSE.—1. βαλλάντιον, peculiar to St. Luke, which occurs in LXX Septuagint as the translation of צְרוֹר (Job 14:17) and כִּיס (Pro 1:14). ‘The purse of the modern Syrian peasant is a little bag, sometimes of woven silk thread, but usually of yellow cotton. The open mouth is not drawn close by a string, but is gathered up by one hand, and then by the other the neck of the bag is carefully whipped round’ (Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible , art. ‘Bag’); it, no doubt, corresponds to βαλλάντιον. The ‘Seventy’ were directed not to carry a purse (Luk 10:4); in Luk 22:35 f. Christ asked the Apostles, ‘When I sent you forth without purse, lacked ye anything?’ and gave the new direction, ‘He that hath a purse, let him take it.’ In Luk 22:36 Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 gives ‘and he that hath none,’ i.e. no purse (so Cov. [Note: Coverdale’s Bible 1535.] , Rhem. [Note: Rhemish NT 1582.] , Gen. [Note: Geneva NT 1557, Bible 1560.] , Meyer, etc.; on the other hand, Tind. [Note: Tindale’s NT 1526 and 1534, Pent. 1530.] , Cran. [Note: Cranmer’s ‘Great’ Bible 1539.] , Beza, Ewald, Godet prefer to supply μάχαιρα as Authorized Version (‘he that hath no sword’). The passage, says Wendt, is to be explained from foresight of an impending period of persecution for the disciples: Jesus sets the necessity of buying a sword in contrast to the freedom from all want hitherto enjoyed by His disciples in their work as His messengers, and bases His exhortation on a reference to the doom about to fall on Himself; a period would begin when the disciples would no longer be unharmed, but would be in the midst of conflicts and persecutions (see Wendt, Teaching of Jesus, ii. p. 358). In Luk 12:33 βαλλάντια is used in a figurative sense, ‘make for yourselves purses (Authorized Version after Tind. [Note: Tindale’s NT 1526 and 1534, Pent. 1530.] ‘bags’) which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not’ (‘continens pro contento,’ de Wette).

2. ζώνη (Mat 10:9 = Mar 6:8 in the directions to the Twelve), properly the girdle, which is still in Syria made ‘double for a foot and a half from the buckle, thus making a safe and well-guarded purse’ (Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible , art. ‘Bag’). (Revised Version margin) translation ‘girdle.’

‘There was no extraordinary self-denial in the matter or mode of their mission. We may expound the instructions given to these primitive evangelists somewhat after the following manner—“Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses. You are going to your brethren in the neighbouring villages, and the best way to get to their hearts and their confidence is to throw yourselves upon their hospitality.…” At this day the farmer sets out on excursions quite as extensive without a para in his purse’ (Thomson, LB [Note: The Land and the Book.] p. 345 f.).

See also Bag.

Literature.—The Lexicons of Liddell and Scott, and Grimm-Thayer, s.v. βαλλάντιον; ExpT [Note: xpT Expository Times.] iv. [1893] 153 ff.; Expositor, i. vi. [1877] 312ff.

W. H. Dundas.

PURSE.—See Bag.

Emblem in art associated with

• Saint Bavo, indicative of his great largesse to the poor

• Saint Briec due to his patronage of purse makers

• Saint Charles the Good, due to his great support of the poor

• Saint Felix of Valois, a symbol of his giving away a great fortune to the poor

• Saint John of Matha, represented as receiving a purse from the Blessed Virgin for the redemption of captives

• Saint Lawrence, in token of the riches he was ordered to bring to the empire

• Saint Matilda, a symbol of her largesse to the poor and sick

• Saint Matthew the Apostle, because he was a tax-collector

• Saint Nicholas of Myra, represented with three balls which are taken to mean the three purses of gold which he threw in at a window

New Catholic Dictionary

pûrs. See BAG.