Bible Dictionary
TASTE
Taste may refer literally to sampling food or perceiving flavor. Figuratively, it means to experience or perceive, as when Scripture speaks of tasting that the Lord is good, tasting death, or tasting the heavenly gift.
Definition
Taste is the bodily perception of flavor by the tongue or palate, and may also mean sampling or eating a small amount. In biblical language, the term extends beyond physical gustation to denote experiencing or perceiving something. Thus it can describe the flavor of manna, a little honey, or wine, as well as the inward apprehension of goodness, words, heavenly gifts, and other realities.
Biblical Usage
Scripture uses taste literally of food and drink and figuratively of experience and perception. The Lord’s goodness may be tasted and seen, God’s words may be sweet to the palate, and Christ is said to taste death for everyone. Those once enlightened are also described as tasting the heavenly gift, the good word of God, and the powers of the coming age.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>tast (Hebrew Ta`am, "the sense of taste," "perception," from Ta`am, "to taste," "to perceive"; Aramaic Te`em, "flavor," "taste" (of a thing); Hebrew chekh, "palate," "roof of the mouth" = "taste"; geuomai; noun geusis; in 2 Macc 7:1 the verb is ephaptomai):</p><p>(1) Literal:</p><p>(a) Gustation, to try by the tongue: "The taste (ta`am) of it manna was like wafers made with honey" (Ex 16:31); "Doth not the ear try words, even as the palate (chekh) tasteth (Ta`am) its food?" (Job 12:11); "Belshazzar, while he tasted (literally, "at the taste of," Te`em) the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, might drink therefrom" (Da 5:2).</p><p>(b) "To sample," "to eat but a small morsel": "I did certainly taste (Ta`am) a little honey with the end of the rod that was in my hand; and, lo, I must die" (1Sa 14:43).</p><p>(2) Figurative:</p><p>"To experience," "to perceive": "Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good" (Ps 34:8; compare 1Pe 2:3); "How sweet are thy words unto my taste!" (margin "palate," chekh) (Ps 119:103); "That by the grace of God he should taste of death for every man" (Heb 2:9); "For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come .... " (Heb 6:4,5).</p><p>H. L. E. Luering</p>