Oven (Hastings' Dictionary)

The Arab. name is the same as the Heb., and the use of the tanniir to-day indicates, no doubt, the kind of oven in use formerly. It is commonly made by sinking a hole in the ground, 3 or 34 ft. deep, and 24 to 3 ft. in diameter, somewhat in the form of a large jar; the walls are plastered with cement that will resist the action of fire, which is kindled in the oven when it is tobe heated for use.

The fuel is grass, thorns, or dry twigs (Mt 6”), which heat the oven rapidly, and of course blacken it with smoke and soot. This explains the allusion in La 5". The inner surface is wiped when it becomes ἘΠ ΟΙΘΗΕΙΥ heated, and the dough is moulded into broad thin loaves, hardly thicker than parchment, and placed, one at a time, on the wall of the oven by means of a large cushion, with a convex surface to fit the concave inner surface of the oven. The baking process is over in a few seconds.

See BREAD, FURNACE. This form of oven is sometimes built above ground, and in Arabia sometimes on a movable base (Niebuhr, Deser. de Ar. pp. 45, 46). These ovens are usually outside the house, as the smoke would fill the dwelling if within. Often the same oven serves for several families (Lv 2055). This kind of oven is doubtless referred to in Ex 88, though the Egyptians had various kinds. Large ovens, 6 to 8 ft.

square, are used in bakeries at the present day, of brick or stone, raised 2 or 8 ft. from the ground, with an arched roof and chimney, to allow the escape of the smoke. The bottom is paved, and the fire burns at one side while the bread is being baked on the other. The loaves are introduced on a narrow wooden shovel, which will take several at a time, and by which they are turned and removed when baked. A kind of portable oven, called in Arabic adj, is much used by the nomads of Syria.

It consists merely of a circular piece of sheet- iron, hemispherical in form, and is used by raising it on stones, concave side down, the fire being kindled under it, and the thin loaf placed on the convex surface. The oven is figuratively employed in Scripture to indicate fieree heat and quick destruction, the materiais used in heating it being soon consumed (cf. Ps 21", Hos 77, Mal 4%). H. PorTEr.