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BOTTLE.—Although glass was not unknown in Palestine in Bible times, the various words rendered ‘bottle’ in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] denote almost exclusively receptacles of skin. In RV [Note: Revised Version.] the NT revisers have wisely introduced skins and wine-skins in the familiar parable (Mat_9:17 ||), but their OT collaborators have done so only where, as in Jos_9:4; Jos_9:13, the context absolutely required it. These skins of the domestic animals, in particular of the goat, were used not only, as we have seen, for wine, but for water (Gen_21:14), milk (Jdg_4:19), oil, and other liquids. They were doubtless used, as at the present day, both tanned and untanned. In later times (Mishna), the larger skins sometimes received a coating of pitch on the inside, and were furnished at the neck with a reed to serve as a funnel.
The ‘potter’s earthen bottle’ of Jer_19:1; Jer_19:10 was a narrow-necked wine-jar, which might also be used for honey (1Ki_14:3 EV [Note: English Version.] ‘cruse’).
A. R. S. Kennedy.