Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

PURSE

A small bag or receptacle in which money and often other small objects would be carried. There are basically three Hebrew words and three Greek words referring to such a purse or pouch. The first refers to a purse or bag in which money or stone weights used with the balance scales were carried (Dt 25:13; Prv 1:14; Is 46:6; Mi 6:11). It could be made of leather or stout cotton. Another Hebrew word referring to much the same kind of pouch is found in 2 Kings 5:23. This same word also appears in a list of ladies’ finery in Isaiah 3:22 and may therefore have been a more ornamentally woven pouch than the first described above. The third Hebrew word appears in Genesis 42:35 and refers to a little bag with an open mouth. This was the small bag or purse in which Joseph’s brothers’ money had been placed before it was put into their sacks of grain.

The corresponding Greek word for the Hebrew words discussed above means a money bag or purse. When Jesus sent out his disciples two by two, he prohibited them from taking, among other things, a purse (Lk 10:4; 22:35-36). In Luke 12:33 this same word for purse is used figuratively for treasure in heaven that cannot be exhausted, stolen, or destroyed.

Another Greek word indicates another normal place for the carrying of money, the girdle or the belt, which was an essential part of dress for both men and women in the ancient East. When made of leather, they were made hollow or with slots for the purpose of carrying coins. When made of cloth, they were folded in such a manner that money could be carried in the folds, which served as pockets (Mt 10:9; Mk 6:8).

The Greek word for the “money bag” that Judas is said to have kept for the disciples refers to a case or container for the mouthpiece of a wind instrument. By NT times it had become the Greek word for a money box or possibly a money bag (Jn 12:6; 13:29), and hence another NT word for purse.