A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK

A Dictionary of the Bible — Volume 3

James Hastings · 1,187,003 words · 1191 reading sections

SECTION 241

Section 241

Under Claudius and Nero, when St. Paul visited the churches of South Galatia, Lycaonia included the two parts, the Roman and the Antiochian. The former contained two cities, Lystra and Derbe, and a number of villages and small towns, chiefly towards the north-east, and it is correctly de- scribed (Ac 14°) as ‘the citie…

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SECTION 242

Section 242

* Myra is mentioned also in the Bezan text of Ac 211. Λυκιακὸν Σύστημα. Nearly 100 places in Lycia are known to have struck coins, and Pliny, Nat. Hist. v. 28, says there were formerly 70 cities, and in his time only 36; but only 23 had votes in the Assembly, called τὸ κοινὸν συνέδριον (six cities of the first rank ha…

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SECTION 243

Section 243

The avoidance of the name Lydia in the NT to designate the country, though the action often lies in its cities, is due to the fact that the early Church accepted from the first the Roman political divisions (i.e. the provinces), and classified accord- ingly. St. Paul, St. John, and St. Peter always speak of the Roman p…

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SECTION 244

Section 244

i tits is much the same ag ἡ κάτω ‘Acie (Paousan. 1. iv. 6; Irenwus, ap. Euseb. HE vy. xx. 5), t.¢. lower Asin as distinguished from upper Asia (compare ἡ ἐντὸς τοῦ Ταύρου ‘Aria, Cis-Tauran Asia, as distinguished from Trans-Tauran, a common phrase); | but such expressions imply one part taken out of the whole. t See …

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SECTION 245

Section 245

2. See CLAUDIUS LYSIAS. LYSIMACHUS (Avoluaxos).—1. L., the son of Ptolemy, of Jerus., is named in the subscription to the Greek edition of Esther (Ad. Est 11") as the translator of that book into Greek. This state- ment may imply that the additional sections, for which no Heb. original existed, are also to be ascribed…

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SECTION 246

Section 246

* Good ΡΝ are found jn inscriptions of Pessinus (Korte in Athen, Mittheil. 1897, pp. 16, 89) and of the Milyadic Zeus- a (Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, pt. i. p. ful influence in the Seleucid and Pergamenian cities of Asia Minor. A town doubtless existed there before the Roman colony was founded ; but it …

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SECTION 247

Section 247

N. J, Ὁ. WHITE. MAACAH.—A small Aramzan kingdom in Gaulanitis, the modern Jau/ién, east of the Sea of Galilee (G. A. Smith, HGHTL p. 553; Ewald, HI ii. 302). In Dt 3%, Jos 12° the territory in Bashan assigned to Manasseh extends ‘unto the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites.’ But in Jos 13" ‘the border’ of th…

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SECTION 248

Section 248

MAASMAS (Μαασμᾶς, AV Masman), 1 Es 88%,— Corresponds to SHEMAIAH, Ezr 8". But the text is corrupt, Σαμαίας the Gr. equivalent of Shemaiah being inserted later in the verse. MAATH (Madé@).—An ancestor of Jesus, Lk 335, MAAZ (γυφῷ, Mads).—A Jewish family name, 1 Ch Qn, MAAZIAH (πριν, Ὑπ|0}}}}}.-- τ ὴθ name of a priestl…

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SECTION 249

Section 249

li, THE NAME MACCABEE.—As already indicated, Maccabeus (Gr. Μακκαβαῖος, ? Heb. *27>) is properly the distinctive surname of Judas, third son of Mattathias, and after him leader of the heroic struggle against the Seleucid (1 Mac 2® 31 etc.). For long it was held that Maccabee was formed from the initials of the opening …

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SECTION 250

Section 250

MACCABEES, THE MACCABEES, THE 183 the courts were cleared away ; the idol-altar was destroyed, and a new altar erected ; and in general the sacred furniture which had been removed by Antiochus Epiphanes was replaced. On the 25t Chislev (Dec.) 165, just three years after its first defilement, the temple was purified …

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SECTION 251

Section 251

is little band were overcome by sheer weight of numbers. ‘Judas fell, and the rest fled’ (1 Mac 918), His body was carried off by his brothers and laid in the sepulchre of his fathers at Modin (161). In the long roll of Israelitish worthies we meet with no more striking personality than that of Judas Maccabeus. His pi…

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SECTION 252

Section 252

At this juncture Jonuthan boldly laid siege te the Acra, and as boldly appeared to answer for himself before the king at Ptolemais. The result was a triumph of ἘΠῚ πεν He carried costly gifts to the king; and the latter, instead of treat- ing him as a rebel, ‘gave him pre-eminence among his Chief Friends’ (1 Mac 11”), …

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SECTION 253

Section 253

Now that the war was over, Simon applied him- self with increased vigour to the task of strength- ening the defences of Judea. Having made Joppa a Jewish port, he laid siege to the fortress of Gazara, and expelled the heathen inhabitants. Shortly afterwards he appointed his son John commander-in-chief of his forces, wi…

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SECTION 254

Section 254

whose name was inscribed on the coins. Men liked to flatter themselves that the prophetic gift had been restored in his person (Jos. An¢, XII. xX. 7). Outwardly brilliant, however, as his reign was, it was marked by a strong development of internal discord. It was at this time that the sects of the Pharisees and Saddu…

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SECTION 255

Section 255

ates and make a money payment; but wher Gasincs was sent for the money, the gates were MACCABEES, THE closed against him, and Pompey advanced against Jerusalem. The party of Hyrcanus, to which fear of the Romans brought many accessions, opened the city gates, but the supporters of Aristobulus entrenched themselves in…

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SECTION 256

Section 256

A. I MAccABEES, . Contents and Style. ἐς ΘΑ th ginal boo! nguage of the ori ik. Author. Date. Sources. . Historicity. Religious character. . Use in the Christian Church, . The MSS. 11. Versions, B. II Maccasres. 1. Contents and Historicity. 2. Author. 8. Language. 4. Sources and Date. δ. Relation to 1 Mac. 6. Religious…

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SECTION 257

Section 257

eb. idioms and OT phrases (1% 2* etc.), as well as the whole structure of the sentences, precludes the idea of its having been written originally in Greek. There are also in the Greek text many obscurities, due in all probability to mistaken renderings from the Hebrew (28 6! 118 145). More- over, at this period no Pale…

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SECTION 258

Section 258

8. Religious Character.—The religious character of the book corresponds to its trustworthiness as history. It breathes a spirit of genuine piety. The standpoint of the author is that of οὐ Πραὲς devotion to ‘the law and the ordinances’ (2*), and unqualified abhorrence of heathen presump- tion (135), blasphemies (7%), a…

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SECTION 259

Section 259

1. Contents and Historicity.—In its present form 2 Mac begins with two letters in which the Pales- tinian Jews urgently invite their kinsmen in Egypt to take part in the Feast of the Dedication (1-2"), whether in Egypt or in Jerusalem is not quite clear, although the latter supposition has the greater probability. Then…

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SECTION 260

Section 260

joints, perhaps, to his having been no longer resi- ent at Cyrene when his work was written. 2. Author.—The personality of the epitomizer is unknown. He was perhaps an Alexandrian Jew, although his work bears no trace of the Jewish- Alexandrian philosophy of religion, and contains nothing alien to the orthodox Palesti…

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SECTION 261

Section 261

references to the Romans. If 2 Mac was known to Philo (see below), this would fix the inferior limit of its composition at about A.D. 40. 5. Relation to 1 Mac.—2 Mac contains much that is special to itself, but where it evidently covers the same ground as 1 Mac it does so with many divergences of detail. It is not, of…

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SECTION 262

Section 262

Israel is ‘God’s people’ (136), His ‘portion’ (ἡ μερὶς αὐτοῦ, 14%); their calamities are His loving chastisement for their sins (5'8 6”) ; and from them He will never withdraw His mercy (618). The heathen, on the other hand, are allowed to fill up their cup of iniquity prior to their destruction (61), Foreign kings and…

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SECTION 263

Section 263

MACCABEES, BOOKS OF tnat 500 elephants should be intoxicated with wine and incense and let loose upon the Jews in the racecourse. Although all was in readiness for it, the execution of the order was delayed for another day because the king had slept until it was past the hour fixed for his principal daily meal (5'-*).…

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SECTION 264

Section 264

3. Integrity.—In its present form 3 Mac appears to be incomplete. It begins abruptly (ὁ δὲ Φιλο- adrwp); in 13 there is a reference to ‘the plot’ (τὴν ἐπιβουλήν) of which no previous mention has been made; and in 2” allusion is made to the king’s ‘before-mentioned’ companions, although the fore- roing part of the work …

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SECTION 265

Section 265

ave been more in place in the first part of his work. In 17-18? the author sets down his final impressions regarding the character and signifi- cance of the martyrdoms described by him. The closing section (18***) ap beats to be an appendix by a Jater hand, but the nature of it indicates that it must have been added at…

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SECTION 266

Section 266

MACCABEES, BOOKS OF 195 and seeks to show that only through obedience ta its precepts can the Stoic ideal of humanity be realized. In the concrete examples of endurance unto death furnished by the Maccabean martyrs he sees the perfection of piety (12 1517), and a conclusive proof that in virtue’s cause the Hebrews alo…

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SECTION 267

Section 267

MACEDONIA (Maxedovla=the land of the Maxe- δόνες, who, themselves akin to the Doric branch of the Greeks, formed the core of a mixed nationality, to which Illyrian, Pzonian, and Thracian elements contributed along with numerous Greek colonies) was in antiquity the common name for a region in the centre of the Balkan pe…

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SECTION 268

Section 268

* Ramsay (St. Paul the Trav. p. 203) suggests that the ‘man of Macedonia’ who was seen by Paul in a vision (Ac 169) is to be identified with Luke himself, who meets the apostle at Troas. MACHBANNAI became the property of Antipas, being situated in nis tetrarchy. When Awtipas divorced his wife, the daughter of Aretas…

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SECTION 269

Section 269

. F. STENNING. MACHNADEBAI (‘37222 ; B Μαχαδναβού, Maxva- δααβού, τὰ ᾿Αχαδναβού, Luc. καὶ Nadafov).—One of the sons of Bani, who had married a foreign wife, Ezr 10%. G. Buchanan Gray (Expos. Times, Feb. 1899, p. 232f.), partly upon the strength of the above readings in B and δὲ, argues that the latter element in the w…

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SECTION 270

Section 270

MACHPELAH are to this very time shown in this small city: the fabric of which monuments is of the most excellent marble, and wrought after the most excellent manner.’ He makes Hebron, and not Gibeon, the site of the ‘high place’ where Solomon yrayed for wisdom (2 Ch 1°; Ané. vill. 11. 1); and erome appears to suggest…

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SECTION 271

Section 271

Benjamin of Tudela (1163) states of Hebron: ‘Here is the large place of worship called St. Abraham, which during the time of the Moham- medans was a synagogue. The Gentiles have erected six sepulchres in this place, which they retend to be those of Abraham and Sarah, of saac and Rebekah, and of Jacob and Leah ; the pi…

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SECTION 272

Section 272

Jichus ha-Aboth (1537, a tract) describes the Haram area: ‘An admirable and magnificent edifice, attributed to king David on whom be peace. Near the door is a little window in the wall ; they pretend that it extends to the cavern : it is here that the Jews pray, as they are not allowed to go into the interior’ (PE£/ St…

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SECTION 273

Section 273

eat cave is said to exist, must be a detached <noll ; since on all sides there is lower ground, and a retaining wall 40 ft. high’ (ΡῈ FSt, 1881, p. 267). But Robinson (BRP ii. 76) says, ‘The buildings stand on the slope of the eastern hill; the rocks having been excavated along the upper side, in order to lay the found…

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SECTION 274

Section 274

Within the church, adjoining its northern wall, in a line between the tombs of Abraham and Isaac, is a perforated stone (at point E on plan) which rises above the floor of the church. The perforation is 2 circular hole, a little more than 12in. in diameter, leading by a shaft into a chamber below, the bottom of which i…

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SECTION 275

Section 275

LITERATURE.—Ritter, Erdkunde, Paldstina, 209; Robinson, BRP ii. 75; SWP iii. 333; Stanley, S. and P., and Lectures on the Jewish Church; Archives de (Orient Latin, ii. 411; Pal. Pilgrim Text Soc. Publications ; Palestine wnder the Moslems, p. 218; PEFSt (1882) 197, (1897) 53. C. WARREN. MACRON (Μάκρων), the surname of…

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SECTION 276

Section 276

Li-Mejdel, with a confidence by no means justi- fied by known facts, is often pointed out as the birthplace of Mary Magdalene. This hamlet, and a handful of squalid hovels at Abu Shusheh above the stream of er-Rubadiyeh, with a few tents of the humbler Arabs, are all the dwellings of men now found in this once densely …

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SECTION 277

Section 277

It is partly owing to this vagueness in the meaning of the word that so little certainty can be arrived at in regard to the most important allusion to the Magi in the Bible—that in Mt 2. We are told that certain μάγοι came from the east to pay their homage to the king of the Jews, whose star they had seen at its rising…

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SECTION 278

Section 278

(2) Various attempts have been made to discover unusual astronomical phenomena at this time, which might have aroused the attention of the Magi. Kepler (De vero anno, ete. 1614) calculated that a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn took place in B.C. 7 ; Ideler (Handb. d. Chronol. ii. 399), and more recently Pritchard, h…

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SECTION 279

Section 279

The attempt to discredit Mt 2 by producing close arallels is not successful. The scene at Plato’s eath in Sen. Zp. 58 is more remarkable for its differences than its resemblances; the story of Moses, as given in Jos. Ant. Il. ix. 2, though more like Mt 2 than the parallel section in Ex, does not deserve the importanc…

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SECTION 280

Section 280

MAGIC, MAGICIAN LiTERATURE.—The most important works ere cited in the course of the article, while further references can be found from them. On traditions as to the Magi and Epiphany see also Smith, DB, art. ‘Magi’; Bingham, Origines, vol. ix. p. 66; Hone, Everyday Book, Jan. 6. V. M. BENECKE. MAGIC, MAGICIAN.—Magie…

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SECTION 281

Section 281

In the definition, or rather description, above iven we have had chiefly in view the usages and liefs of the Christian era and the ages that pre- ceded it. In other words, magic is regarded as the outgrowth of demonology, the necessary accom- iment of a belief in demons. To quote once more from Blau’s treatise: ‘These…

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SECTION 282

Section 282

208 guarded the hair, RA the face, Hathor took the eyes under her protection, Anubis the lips, while Thoth took oversight over all the limbs. Further interesting details on this subject may be obtained MAGIC, MAGICIAN from Dr. A. Wiedemann’s Religion der alten | Egypter, p. 146 f. n Babylonia demonology and magie w…

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SECTION 283

Section 283

The demons which are mentioned in the incanta- tion texts amount to hundreds. They are of various classes: those which inhabit the field, those which haunt the resting-places of the dead, and the evil demons which inflict physical suffer- ing. It is with the last we are now speciall concerned ; and the means by which t…

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SECTION 284

Section 284

In the lines repeated by the exorcizer above noted we notice as significant the appeal to farduk. The invocation of the greater deities was the leading characteristic of these counter- spells. Demons were related to the gods as in- feriors to superiors. Doubtless, in some cases, the dividing line was slight, but that t…

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SECTION 285

Section 285

- Ε ΞΞ---- “10 MAGIC, MAGICIAN Here, as in the case of 4's (Dn 1° 277 47 5), ef. Assyr. asipu), we have probably Babylonian loan words. We have already indicated (art. DEMON) that the Heb. ww (with its Aramaic equivalent) was of like origin. In earlier days than the Exile, especially in the 15th and previous centurie…

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SECTION 286

Section 286

An obscure reference in the Bk. of Job (3°), in which the speaker, cursing the night of his birth, exclaims— ‘May those who curse the day, curse it, Who understand how to stir up Leviathan,’ t— has been considered to refer to the mythical dragon who was believed to seize upon the sun or moon when eclipsed. ‘The magici…

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SECTION 287

Section 287

Most potent of all names in these spells was that of ἄρά, expressed in every conceivable form, sometimes as ov'n, sometimes as the tetragrammaton itself. This subject, as well as the great variety of modes in which the sacred Hebrew name appears in Egyptian magic papyri, will be found fully set forth in Blau’s instruct…

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SECTION 288

Section 288

‘Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.’” LirerATURE.—The literature of this subject is very copious, and a full list will be found in the pages of Schiirer, pp. 300- 804. In addition to the catalogue there given, Morris Jastrow’s chapter on Babylonian Magic and Blau’s treatise should be con- sulted. To these w…

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SECTION 289

Section 289

A. H. SAYCE. MAGOR-MISSABIB (2255 32>; LXX, Theod. μέτοικον (-xov A*); according to Jerome (ap. Field), Aq. Ist ed. circumspicientem (περιορῶντα), 2nd ed. peregrinum (πάροικον, προσήλυτον, μέτοικον ΟΥ ξένον) ; Symm. ablatum (ἀφῃρημένον), or congregatum et couctum (συνηθροισμένον) ; according to Q™, oa Symm., and Theod…

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SECTION 290

Section 290

From the above sketch of the history of Maha- naim it will be seen that the biblical narrative affords but little assistance in identifying its exact site. From Gn 32 it seems clear that it lay some- where near the Jordan to the N. of the Jabbok and of the great gorge (or Bithron,2S 2”). Accord- ing to Jos 13 it was si…

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SECTION 291

Section 291

MAHER-SHALAL-HASH-BAZ (13 oy Shy πὰρ ‘spoil speedeth, prey hasteth’; LXX, v.1 τοῦ ὀξέως προνομὴν ποιῆσαι σκύλων, ν.3 ταχέως σκύλευσον ὀξέως προνόμευσον ; 15 81" 5).---Α symbolical name given to one of Isaiah’s sons to signify the speedy destruc- tion of the power of the allied kings Rezin and Pekah by the king of Assyr…

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SECTION 292

Section 292

and means ‘dance.’ St. Jerome’s rendering chorus (Lag. Onom. Sac.* p. 73) should be interpreted in chia way, and not in its musical acceptation. The intimate connexion of the temple ritual with the names Ethan and Heman permits a conjecture that the expression ‘sons of dance’ was originally a note applying to Ethan an…

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SECTION 293

Section 293

* See more fully Oraik, Eng. of Shak. p. 63 ff. 216 MAKE doms of the earth’; and Dn 7* ‘it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man’ (RV ‘made to stand’). Cf. Shaks. Comedy of Errors, τι. i. 26, ‘This servitude makes you to keep unwed’; Hamlet, Ill. iii. 186, ‘Make you to ravel all this mat…

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SECTION 294

Section 294

‘Sent before my time Into this breathing world, scarce half made And that so lamely and unfashionable That dogs bark at me as I halt by them’, Timon, V. i. 101— taprigwot). up, ‘Remain assured That he’s a made-up [=perfect) villain’; and in a slightly different sense, Knox, Hist. 177, ‘oppress the inhabitants ther…

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SECTION 295

Section 295

A. T. CHAPMAN. MAKKEDAH (39>; Maxnéd [in Jos 1055. 9 154 B has Μακηδάν]; Syr. Mokor; Vulg. Maceda),— A royal city of the Canaanites, situated in the MAKKEDAI 217 Shephélah or lowland of Judah, mentioned (Jos 15*} with Gederoth, Beth-dagon, and Naamah in the list of cities allotted to Judah. The last three are perhap…

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SECTION 296

Section 296

In the PEF survey of Western Palestine the present village of el-Mughdr (‘the caves’) was adopted by the surveyors, who found that at this site alone, of all the possible sites for Makkedah in the Philistine plain, do caves still exist. The following points are in favour of this site. It is on the northern border-lin…

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SECTION 297

Section 297

* For the contraction it is possible and customary to appeal to the fact that the name of the mother of Hezekiah is given as ‘2 Abi in 2K 183, and as ™3x Abijah in 20h 291. But, since Abjijah must be translated ‘J” is father,’ this Ly Arrears would require that Malachi should be rendered, not ‘ the messenger of J”, but…

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SECTION 298

Section 298

content of repentance consisted in the due pay- ment of Levitical tithes (37), and so makes the return to J” shallow, one must join with that his idea of the priesthood in itself and in its work. The glory of the priests of olden time was in his eyes their moral dignity. His representation of that past may be very far…

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SECTION 299

Section 299

etc., are really offered to the one and only God. According to another, it refers to the already widely scattered Jews of the dis- persion, who, in the many lands of their exile, are offering to J” i are pure though beyond the holy land. Sacrifices, which MALACHI with the ideas in which he had been educated, and the…

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SECTION 300

Section 300

It is only the beginning and the first causes of such a state of things which are to be found in Malachi. The conflicting ideas seem to struggle in his mind. He can write of J" as receiving an accept- able worship beyond the limits of the holy land, and so can forecast the worship ‘in spirit and in truth.’ But already …

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Public-domain historical reference work (1898–1905); OCR text from Internet Archive. Historical scholarship and terminology reflect its era; OCR may contain errors. Verify quotations and current scholarly claims independently.

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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.