προσκεφάλαιον

From the study of Mark 4:38

Range of meaning

Built from pros ('toward, at') and kephalē ('head'): something put under or by the head, so a pillow, headrest or cushion. Greek writers also use it for cushions on seats and couches. In a boat it would be a cushion for whoever sat in the stern.

Against the English

KJV 'pillow' makes modern readers picture a bed pillow, as if Jesus had settled in for the night. Most modern versions say 'cushion', which is closer. No English version brings out the definite article ('the cushion'), which marks it as a known piece of the boat's gear.

How it drifted

In 1611 'pillow' could mean any cushion or support. Today it almost always means a soft bed pillow.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Greek Old Testament it appears at Ezekiel 13:18, 20 (the 'pillows' or bands made by false prophetesses) and 1 Esdras 3:8 (notes placed 'under the king's pillow'), both everyday senses of a cushion. It is used only here in the New Testament. Shelley Wachsmann, who studied the first-century 'Galilee Boat' found at Ginosar in 1986, suggested from Mediterranean fishing practice that it may have been a sandbag kept in the stern as ballast, which a tired man could lie against.