Bible dictionaries

Sop

What Bible dictionaries say about “Sop”, one article after the other.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Sop - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

A morsel of bread (John 13:26; comp. Ruth 2:14). Our Lord took a piece of unleavened bread, and dipping it into the broth of bitter herbs at the Paschal meal, gave it to Judas. (Comp. Ruth 2:14.)

Sop - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

SOP, n.

1. Anything steeped or dipped and softened in liquor, but chiefly something thus dipped in broth or liquid food, and intended to be eaten. Sops in win, quantity for quantity, inebriate more than win itself.

2. Any thing given to pacify; so called from the sop given to Cerberus, in mythology. Hence the phrase, to give a sop to Cerberus.

Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

The article in Easton + Webster 1828

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)

sop (psomion): A thin, wafer-like piece of bread dipped into the common dish as a sort of improvised spoon, is thus designated in Joh 13:26 ff.

See MORSEL.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2

The article in ISBE 1915

Smith’s Bible Dictionary

In eastern lands where our table utensils are unknown, the meat, with the broth, is brought upon the table in a large dish, and is eaten usually by means of pieces of bread clipped into the common dish. The bread so dipped is called. "It was such a piece of bread a sop dipped in broth that Jesus gave to Judas, (John 13:26) and again, in Matt 26:23 It is said "he that dippeth his hand with me in the dish," i.e. to make a sop by dipping a piece of bread into the central dish.

William Smith; revised by F. N. Peloubet and M. A. Peloubet; CrossWire SWORD module Smith 1.3

The article in Smith