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"Nor do men light a lamp, and put it under a peck-measure..." (Matthew.5:15) |
"Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel... |
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This verse is about hiding a light source under an object.
We suspect that Jesus used the term "bushel," because it
was commonly used by the people of that day to carry stuff.
A bushel basket in those days was a tightly woven vessel as in our
own times, we may be sure, and could be used to hide a light source, such as a
candle or a lamp. A "bushel" is a unit of dry measure for grain, etcetera, equal to 32
dry quarts. But if you only want to hide a light source, then the exact measurement
is not important; it just needs to be big enough to cover the light source
in question. I think that the term "bushel" was the shortened version of "bushel basket."
But what on earth is a "peck-measure?" We might suppose that it is a basket similar to a "bushel basket," tightly woven and so forth, but only one fourth the size. But there is not an example of the word anywhere in the Bible. Now if the NASV is a correction of the KJV, as modern scholars keep telling us, and they specify a "peck-measure," then the exact size of the basket must have been important. Was it because their light was too small to be covered by a "bushel?" I seriously doubt that, although, in the case of modern Bible scholars, a peck-sized light may be all they can produce, thus a "peck-measure" would suffice for them. |
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