Tables

(Mark 7:4) means banqueting-couches or benches, on which the Jews reclined when at meals. This custom, along with the use of raised tables like ours, was introduced among the Jews after the Captivity. Before this they had, properly speaking, no table. That which served the purpose was a skin or piece of leather spread out on the carpeted floor. Sometimes a stool was placed in the middle of this skin. (See ABRAHAM’S BOSOM; BANQUET; MEALS.)

TA'BLES, TO SERVE. Acts 6:2. This expression may denote either actual attendance upon the gathering and distribution of food for the poor, or attention to the pecuniary affairs of the church. The word is used for the "tables" of money-changers. Matt 21:12; John 2:15.