1  definition  found 
 
  From  Easton's  1897  Bible  Dictionary  [easton]: 
 
  Meals 
  are  at  the  present  day  "eaten  from  a  round  table  little  higher 
  than  a  stool,  guests  sitting  cross-legged  on  mats  or  small 
  carpets  in  a  circle,  and  dipping  their  fingers  into  one  large 
  dish  heaped  with  a  mixture  of  boiled  rice  and  other  grain  and 
  meat.  But  in  the  time  of  our  Lord,  and  perhaps  even  from  the 
  days  of  Amos  (6:4,  7),  the  foreign  custom  had  been  largely 
  introduced  of  having  broad  couches,  forming  three  sides  of  a 
  small  square,  the  guests  reclining  at  ease  on  their  elbows 
  during  meals,  with  their  faces  to  the  space  within,  up  and  down 
  which  servants  passed  offering  various  dishes,  or  in  the  absence 
  of  servants,  helping  themselves  from  dishes  laid  on  a  table  set 
  between  the  couches."  Geikie's  Life  of  Christ.  (Comp.  Luke 
  7:36-50.)  (See  ABRAHAM'S  {BOSOM};  {BANQUET};  {FEAST}.) 
 

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