Description and usage
The bowl was a concave dish used for holding or cooking food or liquids. Bowls varied widely in diameter and depth. Such bowls would normally have been made of fired clay, but the reference in REV 5:8 specifically states that the bowls there were of gold. Because of the variety in size and depth, and because cups frequently had no handles, there was essentially no physical difference between cups and smaller bowls. The first illustration under 5.20.3 “Cup” also pictures bowls.
Translation
In ZEC 4:2 the purpose of the bowl (gulah in Hebrew) may not be immediately clear to the reader. It is recommended that the translator follow the example of GNT by saying “At the top is a bowl for the oil.”
The bowls mentioned in AMO 6:6 are specifically said to be for drinking (see Cup). Some kind of cultural adaptation may be necessary. In some cultures, for example, it is possible to use a word for a particular kind of large calabash, or a general word for calabash which is qualified as “big” and “filled.”
The Hebrew word mish’ereth refers to a large bowl in which bread dough was kneaded and allowed to rise before baking. Most translations have “kneading bowls” (RSV, NJPSV) or “kneading troughs” (NIV, REB). “Baking pans” in GNT is misleading. Where a special word for such a bowl does not exist or is not well known, translators may follow the example of CEV with “bowls of bread dough.”
In MAT 26:23 and MRK 14:20 the Greek word trublion can be understood as part of an idiom, which is literally “to dip one’s hands into a bowl with someone.” Most translations render the idiom more or less literally, which can give the reader the wrong impression that a person is putting his fingers in the bowl rather than dipping food that he holds in his hand. If the translator chooses to translate the idiom somewhat literally, it is important to render it “to dip food into a bowl together with someone” or “to dip food jointly into a sauce.” It is probably preferable to interpret the idiom as “sharing a meal with someone” or “eating together with someone.” For the last half of MRK 14:20CEV has “one ... who is eating from this dish with me,” and NLT says “one who is eating with me now.”
1MA 15:32: The Greek word chrusōma is literally “golden object.” However, here it is used to refer to gold or gold-plated eating utensils. GNT and NRSV say “gold[en] bowls.”