Greek word · G5276

ὑπολήνιον

hypolēnion

trough

Literally 'the under-press': the vat or basin below a winepress, usually cut into rock. Grapes were trodden on an upper floor (lēnos) and the juice ran down a channel into this lower vat.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ὑπολήνιον, -ου, τό

(ὑπό, ληνός), [in LXX: Joel 3:13 (4:13), Haggai 2:17, (16), Zechariah 14:10, Isaiah 16:10 (יֶקֶב) * ;]

a vessel or trough beneath a winepress to receive the juice (RV, a pit for the winepress): Mark 12:1 (see Swete, in l, and cf. ληνός).†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Mark 12:1

Range of meaning

Literally 'the under-press': the vat or basin below a winepress, usually cut into rock. Grapes were trodden on an upper floor (lēnos) and the juice ran down a channel into this lower vat.

Against the English

'Wine vat' (BSB), 'winefat' (KJV, an old spelling of 'vat'), 'a pit for the wine press' (WEB), 'under-wine-vat' (YLT, the most literal). Modern versions differ mainly in whether they make clear that this is the lower basin, not the pressing floor.

Used elsewhere in the period

The word is rare. The Greek of Isaiah 5:2 has prolēnion ('fore-vat'), and Mark's hypolēnion is a close variation. The Targum (the Aramaic paraphrase) of Isaiah 5:2 and the Tosefta (t. Sukkah 3:15) interpret the wine vat as the altar, and the Tosefta links it to the drains under the temple altar. The Dead Sea fragment 4Q500 joins a winepress to the 'holy height', the temple mount.

Where it appears

Mark · 1

  1. Mark 12:1 ὑπολήνιον a wine vat

    Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.

    Here: The lower basin, usually cut into rock, that caught the juice running down from the treading floor above. Building it meant the owner expected a harvest and wine.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.