POTSHERD

A shard or broken piece of pottery; a fragment of earthenware. The Hebrew word hheʹres, though sometimes applying to an earthenware vessel or earthenware flask that is unbroken (Num. 5:17; Jer. 19:1), is from a root word meaning “to scrape” or “scratch” and can thus denote something rough, as a potsherd. When Satan struck Job with “a malignant boil” from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, Job “proceeded to take for himself a fragment of earthenware with which to scrape himself.” (Job 2:7, 8) And concerning Leviathan it is stated: “As pointed earthenware fragments are its under parts.”—Job 41:1, 30.

The Greek word oʹstra·kon (appearing in LXX at Job 2:8) means “shell” or “tile,” though the Greeks also applied the term to potsherds on which they recorded votes. The English words “ostraca,” “ostracism,” and so forth, have this derivation. According to ancient Athenian law an unpopular citizen or one considered dangerous could be banished if a sufficient number of votes against him were cast in the popular assembly and senate. The votes were written on shells, pieces of tile or potsherds.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES

Potsherds or pieces of pottery are the most numerous items found by archaeologists during excavations of ancient sites. In the past, a broken piece of pottery might be used for such things as raking ashes or dipping water. (Isa. 30:14) But especially were potsherds employed as inexpensive writing materials in Egypt, Mesopotamia and elsewhere in the ancient Middle East. For instance, earthenware fragments were used for the well-known Lachish Letters, which repeatedly contain the divine name, Jehovah, in Tetragrammaton form (YHWH). In Egypt, archaeologists have found numerous pieces of limestone and earthenware fragments on which there appear drawings and inscriptions written in ink (generally in cursive hieroglyphic script), many said to date from about the sixteenth to the eleventh centuries B.C.E. and some thus possibly reaching back to the days of Moses and of Israel’s bondage in Egypt. Certain of these inscribed fragments consist of stories, poems, hymns, and the like, some of which were probably written as school lessons. Earthenware fragments apparently were used as writing material by people generally much as memo pads and other pieces of paper are today, to record accounts, sales, marriage contracts, lawsuits and many other matters.

More than sixty ostraca inscribed with ink in palaeo-Hebrew script were discovered in the ruins of the royal palace in Samaria. They seem to be records of vineyard production, many possibly dating from the time of Jeroboam II. They give names of places and persons, the latter including some compound forms involving the use of the names Baal, El and Yahweh. Greek ostraca found in Egypt include various types of documents, but principally tax receipts. They give some insight into the Greek language as spoken by the common people of that land during Ptolemaic, Roman and Byzantine times and so they are of some use in studies of the koi·neʹ Greek used by writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures. Twenty Greek ostraca found in Upper Egypt were inscribed with portions of the four Gospels, these probably dating from the seventh century C.E.

USED IN FIGURATIVE WAY

Potsherds are also used with figurative associations in the Scriptures. David, distressed and surrounded by enemies, said in a psalm prophetic of the Messiah’s sufferings: “My power has dried up just like a fragment of earthenware.” (Ps. 22:11-15) As articles made of clay were baked they would harden and become very dry.

Glazing methods were evidently common in King Solomon’s day, for Proverbs 26:23 states: “As a silver glazing overlaid upon a fragment of earthenware are fervent lips along with a bad heart.” Like “silver glazing” that would hide the earthenware it covered, “fervent lips” could conceal “a bad heart” when there was only a pretense of friendship.

Oholibah, Jerusalem, was warned by Jehovah that she would be filled with drunkenness and grief, drinking the cup her sister Oholah, or Samaria, had drunk. Judah would drink this figurative cup to the limit, God’s judgments being fully executed upon her. Thus, through Ezekiel, God said: “You will have to drink it and drain it out, and its earthenware fragments you will gnaw.”—Ezek. 23:4, 32-34.

The utter folly of man’s complaining about God and finding fault with the divine way of doing things is shown in the words: “Woe to the one that has contended with his Former, as an earthenware fragment with the other earthenware fragments of the ground! Should the clay say to its former: ‘What do you make?’ And your achievement say: ‘He has no hands’?”—Isa. 45:9, 13; see POTTER.

POTTER

The maker of earthenware pots, dishes and other vessels has been a well-known artisan from very early times. A potter’s workshop discovered at Lachish is thought to be of the period dating from about 1200 to 1500 B.C.E. Even before that time, however, potters fashioned clay into vessels, baking these, and thus producing hardened utensils that would not soften when wet. The potter might work alone, but he sometimes had assistants, frequently apprentices. Among the Hebrews a group of royal potters seems to have existed at one time.—1 Chron. 4:21-23.

A typical method of making pottery began with such steps as washing and purifying the clay of foreign matter, weathering it, and trampling the moistened clay by foot to make it pasty and malleable. (Isa. 41:25) Next the clay was kneaded by hand and then placed on the potter’s wheel.

The early potter’s wheel was generally made of stone (though sometimes of wood) and was, basically, a flat disk centered on a vertical axle and made to rotate horizontally. Heavy material at its edge gave the disk stability and momentum as it was turned by hand. The later addition of a larger, heavier lower wheel (on the same shaft as the top wheel and also revolving horizontally) enabled the seated potter to rotate the wheels by foot.

Having “thrown” or placed the shapeless clay on the wheel, the potter used his hands to form a vessel as the wheel was turned. (Jer. 18:3, 4) The utensil might next be dried somewhat in the sun and again put on the wheel, where the potter might employ pebbles, shells or some implement to smooth and burnish it and to impart a design to its surface. Methods varied, but he could give it a rope pattern, for instance, by pressing a twisted cord against the still-moist article. Vessels were often painted decoratively. Others were glazed (Prov. 26:23) and then fired or baked in the nearby pottery kiln. Or, colored “slip” (potter’s clay in a semiliquid state) might be applied for decorative purposes, after which the article was again fired in the kiln.

The potter made articles ranging from large jars (Lam. 4:2) to lamps, ovens and toys, such as dolls and animal figures. Bowls, cups, flasks and other vessels were among his products. (Lev. 15:12; 2 Sam. 17:28; Jer. 19:1; Luke 22:10) He also produced cooking pots and some griddles. Earthenware items were sometimes stamped to show where they were made. The potter frequently stamped his own “trademark” on a pot handle.

Sometimes the potter used an open mold, into which the clay was pressed to pick up details. In later times lamps were often made in that way, in two pieces that were joined when the clay had dried to about a leathery hardness. Occasionally things were molded by hand without using the wheel, as when making toys and household ovens. Usually, however, the potter used the wheel.

Broken pieces of pottery are often discovered at archaeological sites, sometimes in great numbers. (See POTSHERD.) The kinds of pottery found are aids in identifying different cultures, or in dating occupation layers at such sites, as are inscriptions sometimes appearing on these items. Estimates of population density of a particular place in ancient times have also been based on the quantity of such fragments discovered there.

The potter’s authority over the clay is used illustratively to show Jehovah’s sovereignty over individuals and nations. (Isa. 29:15, 16; 64:8) To God the house of Israel was “as the clay in the hand of the potter,” He being the Great Potter. (Jer. 18:1-10) Man is in no position to contend with God, just as clay would not be expected to challenge the one shaping it. (Isa. 45:9) As an earthenware vessel can be smashed, so Jehovah can bring devastating calamity upon a people in punishment for wrongdoing.—Jer. 19:1-11.

Concerning the Messianic king’s exercise of God-given authority against the nations, it was foretold: “You will break them with an iron scepter, as though a potter’s vessel you will dash them to pieces.”—Ps. 2:9; compare Daniel 2:44; Revelation 2:26, 27; 12:5.

From a single lump of clay the potter could make a vessel for an honorable use and another for a dishonorable, a common or ordinary use. Similarly, Jehovah has authority to mold individuals as he pleases, and has tolerated wicked ones, “vessels of wrath made fit for destruction,” but this has worked to the benefit of “vessels of mercy,” persons comprising spiritual Israel.—Rom. 9:14-26.

POTTER’S FIELD

After remorseful Judas threw into the temple the betrayal price of thirty pieces of silver, the chief priests used the money to buy “the potter’s field to bury strangers.” (Matt. 27:3-10) The field came to be known as Akeldama or “Field of Blood.” (Acts 1:18, 19; see AKELDAMA.) Since the fourth century C.E. this field has been identified with a location on the S slope of the Hinnom valley, just before it joins the Kidron valley.

The expression “the potter’s field” does not specifically indicate whether the field was one simply owned by a potter, or was called that because, at some point in its history, it was an area where potters pursued their craft. The latter, though, seems probable if the traditional site is correct. It would be near the Gate of the Potsherds (or “Gate of the Potters,” according to Dr. J. Simons in Jerusalem in the Old Testament), mentioned in Jeremiah 19:1, 2. (Compare Jeremiah 18:2.) Even in recent times the necessary raw material, clay, has been available in the vicinity. Also, making pottery required a good water supply, and the site was close to the spring at En-rogel and the pool of Siloam as well as near such water as might be in the Hinnom valley in the winter.

POUND

[Gr., liʹtra].

A weight mentioned only at John 12:3 and 19:39. The Greek term is usually equated with the Roman pound (Latin, libra, from. which the English abbreviation “lb” for pound is drawn). Thus it was a little less than twelve ounces avoirdupois or about 327 grams. Some versions render the Greek word mna as “pound” (Luke 19:18, AV, Dy, JB, WY), but it is more appropriately rendered “mina.” (Da, Fn, Ro, NW) Whereas “pound” is used in the Bible just as a weight or measurement, “mina” is a monetary weight indicating a specific value of gold or silver.

POWER, POWERFUL WORKS

[Heb., koʹahh, power; g^evu·rahʹ, mightiness; ʽoz, strength; Gr., dyʹna·mis, power, powerful works, ability (from this term come the English words dynamo, dynamite, dynamic)] .

Power means the ability to perform acts, the capacity to accomplish things, to do work. At the close of the sixth creative “day” God began “resting from all his work that [he had] created for the purpose of making.” (Gen. 2:2, 3) He rested from these creative works, but his power has since not become dormant or remained quiescent. Over 4,000 years after the completion of earthly creation his Son stated: “My Father has kept working until how, and I keep working.” (John 5:17) Not only as regards the spirit realm has Jehovah been active; the Bible record pulsates with his expressions of power and his mighty acts toward humankind. Though at times he has “kept quiet . . . exercising self-control,” whenever his due time came to act he has taken vigorous action with “full might.”—Isa. 42:13, 14; compare Psalm 80:2; Isaiah 63:15.

“Work” indicates purposeful activity. Jehovah’s acts are not isolated, unrelated or erratic expressions of energy but coordinated, purposeful acts with a definite end in view. Although his power sustains the universe and the living creatures in it (Ps. 136:25; 148:2-6; Matt. 5:45), Jehovah is not like an impersonal power plant; his acts prove he is a personal and purposeful God. He is also a historical God, as he has perceptively intervened in human affairs at definite dates of history, at specified places, and with regard to particular persons or peoples. As the “living and true God” (1 Thess. 1:9; Josh. 3:10; Jer. 10:10), he has shown himself aware of all that is taking place in universal time and space, reacting according to what has occurred as well as taking the initiative in furthering his purpose.

In every case, his varied expressions of power have been in harmony with his righteousness (Ps. 98:1, 2; 111:2, 3, 7; Isa. 5:16); they all bring enlightenment to his creatures. They show on the one hand that fear of him “is fitting,” for he is a God “exacting exclusive devotion” and a “consuming fire” against those practicing wickedness, making it a “fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Jer. 10:6, 7; Ex. 20:5; Heb. 10:26-31; 12:28, 29) He is not to be trifled with.—Ex. 8:29.

On the other hand, his use of power is even more wonderfully manifest in rewarding righteous-hearted persons sincerely seeking him, strengthening them to do assigned tasks and needful work (Ps. 84:5-7; Isa. 40:29-31), to endure under stress (Ps. 46:1; Isa. 25:4), providing for and sustaining them (Ps. 145:14-16), protecting, saving and liberating them in times of danger and aggression. (Ps. 20:6, 7) “His eyes are roving about through all the earth to show his strength in behalf of those whose heart is complete toward him.” (2 Chron. 16:9) Those who come to know him find his name to be a “strong tower” to which they can turn. (Prov. 18:10; Ps. 91:1-8) Knowledge of his mighty acts gives assurance that he hears the prayers of his trusting servants and is able to answer, if necessary, with “fear-inspiring things in righteousness.” (Ps. 65:2, 5) In a figurative sense, he is “near,” and hence can be swift in responding.—Ps. 145:18, 19; Jude 24, 25.

POWER MANIFEST IN CREATION

Humans see evidence of power in all physical creation, in the immense and countless stellar bodies (compare Job 38:31-33), as well as all earthly things. The very soil has power (Gen. 4:12), producing food that gives strength (1 Sam. 28:22), and power is seen in all living things, plants, animals and man. In modern times the tremendous power potential in even the minute atomic elements forming all matter has also become well known. Scientists sometimes call matter “organized energy.”

Throughout the Scriptures God’s power and “dynamic energy” as the Maker of heaven and earth are repeatedly highlighted. (Isa. 40:25, 26; Jer. 10:12; 32:17) The very term for “God” in Hebrew (‘El) is believed to have the root meaning of “mighty” or “powerful.” (Compare the use of the term at Genesis 31:29 in the expression the “power [ʼel] of my hand.”)

NEED ARISES FOR SPECIAL DEMONSTRATIONS OF POWER

The first man knew Jehovah God as his Creator, his only Parent and Life-giver. God endowed man with a measure of power, intellectual and physical, and gave him work to perform. (Gen. 1:26-28; 2:15) Such exercise