Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)/Purse

by Matthew George Easton

Purse. (1.) Gr. balantion, a bag (Luke 10:4; 22:35, 36).

(2.) Gr. zōnē, properly a girdle (Matt. 10:9; Mark 6:8), a money-belt. As to our Lord's sending forth his disciples without money in their purses, the remark has been made that in this "there was no departure from the simple manners of the country. At this day the farmer sets out on excursions quite as extensive without a para in his purse; and a modern Moslem prophet of Tarshisha thus sends forth his apostles over this identical region. No traveller in the East would hesitate to throw himself on the hospitality of any village."—Thomson's Land and the Book. (See Scrip.)