Bible Dictionary
Bake
To bake is to prepare bread or cakes by heat. In biblical times bread was commonly baked in an oven, on hot stones, or on heated coals, often by women or household servants.
Definition
To bake is to prepare bread or cakes by applying heat. Biblical bread was made as thin, round, or long cakes and was baked in common ovens, on hot stones, in jars filled with heated pebbles, or on coals.
Biblical Usage
Bread-making appears in accounts of household hospitality, offerings, food preparation, and public baking. In earlier times women or slaves commonly prepared it; later, public bakers are mentioned.
Historical Background
The thin cakes were easily broken. Baking methods included spreading dough over hot stones or pebbles and placing it in an oven.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
The duty of preparing bread was usually, in ancient times, committed to the females or the slaves of the family (Gen. 18:6; Lev. 26:26; 1 Sam. 8:13); but at a later period we find a class of public bakers mentioned (Hos. 7:4, 6; Jer. 37:21). The bread was generally in the form of long or round cakes (Ex. 29:23; 1 Sam. 2:36), of a thinness that rendered them easily broken (Isa. 58:7; Matt. 14:19; 26:26; Acts 20:11). Common ovens were generally used; at other times a jar was half-filled with hot pebbles, and the dough was spread over them. Hence we read of “cakes baken on the coals” (1 Kings 19:6), and “baken in the oven” (Lev. 2:4). (See BREAD.)
Smith's Bible Dictionary
Reference to baking is found in (Leviticus 26:26; 1 Samuel 8:13; 2 Samuel 13:8; Jeremiah 7:18; 37:21; Hosea 7:4-7)