Bible Dictionaries
Bag

　　BAG (John 12:6; John 13:29 Γλωσσόκομον (in NT peculiar to St. John) meant originally a case for keeping the mouth-pieces of wind instruments (γλωσσοκομεῖον as the proper form, rejecting that of NT, which, however, is found in an old Doric inscription, in later Comic writers and in LXX Septuagint (see Liddell and Scott). The (Revised Version margin) ‘box’ seems the better rendering. Field (ONσορὸς ξυλίνη τῶν λειψανων); Arrian mentions σοροπηγόν], and consider for what purpose he makes these wooden boxes [אָרוֹן in 2 Chronicles 24:8 f. by γλ. for ὁουρατεην χηλὀν, ligneam arculam. In favour of Authorized and Revised Versions it may be urged that something small and easily carried is required by the context, whereas the above instances are chiefly larger boxes (but note use of γλωσσὁκομον by Josephus, and is from a root ‘to tremble, wag, move to and fro,’ whence in Arabic there is a similar word meaning a bag filled with stones hung at the sides of camels to preserve equilibrium (see Gesenius, Lex.). In modern Greek also