Potsherd
also in Authorized Version “sherd,” a broken piece of earthenware. (Proverbs 26:23)
Pottage
[Lentils]
Potters Field, The
a piece of ground which, according to the statement of St. Matthew, (Matthew 27:7) was
purchased by the Priests with the thirty pieces of silver rejected by Judas, and converted into a
burial-place for Jews not belonging to the city. [Aceldama]
Pottery
The art of pottery is one of the most common and most ancient of all manufactures. It is
abundantly evident, both that the Hebrews used earthenware vessels in the wilderness and that the
potter’s trade was afterward carried on in Palestine. They had themselves been concerned in the
potter’s trade in Egypt, (Psalms 81:6) and the wall-paintings minutely illustrate the Egyptian process.
The clay, when dug, was trodden by men’s feet so as to form a paste, (Isaiah 41:25) Wisd. 15:7;
then placed by the potter on the wheel beside which he sat, and shaped by him with his hands. How
early the wheel came into use in Palestine is not known, but it seems likely that it was adopted from
Egypt. (Isaiah 45:9; Jeremiah 15:3) The vessel was then smoothed and coated with a glaze, and
finally burnt in a furnace. There was at Jerusalem a royal establishment of potters, (1 Chronicles
4:23) from whose employment, and from the fragments cast away in the process, the Potter’s Field
perhaps received its name. (Isaiah 30:11)
Pound
- A weight. [See Weights And Measures AND Measures]
•A sum of money put in the Old Testament, (1 Kings 10:17; Ezra 2:69; Nehemiah 7:71) for the
Hebrew maneh, worth in silver about. In the parable of the ten pounds, (Luke 19:12-27) the
reference appears to be to a Greek pound, a weight used as a money of account, of which sixty
went to the talent. It was worth to.
Praetorium
(in the Revised Version translated palace,) (Matthew 27:27; John 18:28,33; 19:3) the headquarters
of the Roman military governor, wherever he happened to be. In time of peace some one of the
best buildings of the city which, was the residence of the proconsul or praetor, was selected for this
purpose. Thus at Caesarea that of Herod the Great was occupied by Felix, (Acts 23:35) and at
Jerusalem the new palace erected by the same prince was the residence of Pilate. After the Roman
power was established in Judea, a Roman guard was always maintained in the Antonia. The
praetorian camp at Rome, to which St. Paul refers, (Philemon 1:13) was erected by the emperor
Tiberius, acting under the advice of Sejanus. It stood outside the walls, at some distance short of
the fourth milestone. St. Paul appears to have been permitted, for the space of two years, to lodge,
so to speak, “within the rules” of the praetorium, (Acts 28:30) Although still under the custody of
a soldier.
Praltite, The
Helez “the Paltite” is named in (2 Samuel 23:26) among David’s mighty men. (B.C. 1015.)
Prayer
The object of this article will be to touch briefly on—
•The doctrine of Scripture as to the nature and efficacy of prayer;
•Its directions as to time, place and manner of prayer;