(1.) Gr. balantion, a bag (Luke 10:4; 22:35, 36).

(2.) Gr. zone, properly a girdle (Matthew 10:9; Mark 6:8), a money-belt. As to our Lord's sending forth his disciples without money in their purses, the remark has been made that in this "there was no departure from the simple manners of the country. At this day the farmer sets out on excursions quite as extensive without a para in his purse; and a modern Moslem prophet of Tarshisha thus sends forth his apostles over this identical region. No traveller in the East would hestitate to throw himself on the hospitality of any village." Thomson's Land and the Book. (see SCRIP.)

Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (n.) A small bag or pouch, the opening of which is made to draw together closely, used to carry money in; by extension, any receptacle for money carried on the person; a wallet; a pocketbook; a portemonnaie.

2. (n.) Hence, a treasury; finances; as, the public purse.

3. (n.) A sum of money offered as a prize, or collected as a present; as, to win the purse; to make up a purse.

4. (n.) A specific sum of money

5. (n.) In Turkey, the sum of 500 piasters.

6. (n.) In Persia, the sum of 50 tomans.

7. (v. t.) To put into a purse.

8. (v. t.) To draw up or contract into folds or wrinkles, like the mouth of a purse; to pucker; to knit.

9. (v. i.) To steal purses; to rob.