A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK

A Dictionary of the Bible — Volume 4

James Hastings · 1,396,759 words · 1386 reading sections

SECTION 61

Section 61

(3) Finally, the Gospels aiiord us teaching on prayer given in an entirely' ditlcrent way. Under ( 1 ) the Lord's example w;is considered on its human side, teaching about prayer bj- His own prayer. But even during His ministry the Divine nature, though in a certain sense hidden, began to show itself, and He is the rec…

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SECTION 62

Section 62

(4) The passages in which prayer accompanies the appointment to ministries naturally raise another question. In Ac 13^ 14^ fasting accompanies praj-er, cf. Lk 2". The connexion between fasting and prayer has already been observed in OT, but was It continued in the Apostolic Church ? These two passages "o in that direct…

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SECTION 63

Section 63

(5) The Apocalypse. — Here the prayer for ven- geance (Rev 6'°) is an echo of Lk IS'"", but it is the jirayer of the dead (ef. Bar 'i*). In Rev 5" and 8' the prayers of the saints are ottered to God, but this is tlie prayer of the living which ascends from the earth. Tliis prayer is mediated, being ottered in one case …

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SECTION 64

Section 64

II. Christian Prkaching.— John the Baptist was acknowledged as a prophet, and he revived the prophet's mission of preaching to the people apart from the normal religious services. His work consisted chiefly in preaching and baptizing, though with tlie necessary a<ldition of private con- tersation with inquirers (Lk 3'"…

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SECTION 65

Section 65

In the churches of NT times great freedom of utterance was allowed. The rij;ht to preach depended on jrffts, not on ollices. At Corinth, in particular, the gift of prophecy, to which St. Paul assigns the (inst place (1 Co 14'), was found among the private members, and wa,s freely e.\ercised in the assembly (v.^'). Neve…

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SECTION 66

Section 66

That neither word occurs in the English OT is due to the genius of the Hebrew language, which does not admit of such compound terms. Their place is taken in the OT, therefore, by simple words expressive of purposing, determining, ordaining, with more or less contextual indication of previuusnoss of action. These repres…

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SECTION 67

Section 67

to the nature and implications of such form.Ttiva elements in the OT sj'stem as its doctrines of God, Providence, Faith, and the King;dom of God. I. Fundnmcntal OT ideas unphjing Predesti- nation.— Whencesoever Israel obtained it, it is quite certain that Israel entered upon its national existence with the most vivid …

1,191 words
SECTION 68

Section 68

It is abundantly clear on the face of it, of course, that this whole mode of thought ia the natural expression of the deep religious conseiousnesa of the OT writers, thoupli surely it is not therefore to be set aside as 'merely' the religious view of things, or ns having no other rooting save in the imagination of reli…

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SECTION 69

Section 69

2. Co.f7nicnl Predestination in OT. — The specific teaching of OT as to prcdestin.ation naturally re- volves around the two foci ot that idea which may be designated general and special, or, more properly, cosniieal and soteriological predestina- tion ; or, in other words, around the doctrines of the Divine Decree and …

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SECTION 70

Section 70

ture, that the idea of the all-inclusive Divine pur- pose (.1^1! and ni3V'"7) in which lies predetermined the whole course of events — including every par- ticular in the life of the world (\m 3') and in the life of every individual as well (Ps 139'''''*, Jg P)— is speculatively wrought out. According to this developed…

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SECTION 71

Section 71

Nor may they be thought to have been indiUcrcnt to the relations of thchigli doctrine o( the Divine purpose they were teaching. There v. no scholastic determination here cither; but ceruinly thev write without embarrassment as men who have attained a linn grasp upon their fundaiiienul thought and have pursued it with c…

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SECTION 72

Section 72

sented aspurelvpa-ssive: the details of the doctrine of ctmatrgru were left, no doubt, to later ages speculatively to work out, but its assumption underlies the entire OT representation of the Divine modes of working. That anything— good or evil--- occurs in God's universe finds its account, according to the OT concept…

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SECTION 73

Section 73

r>2 PREDESTIXATIOX PREDESTIXATION the impression in reading it that the core of God's general decree is His decree of salvation, and that His whole plan for the government of the universe is subordinated to His purpose to recover sinful man to Himself. Of course there is some slight illusion of perspective here, the…

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SECTION 74

Section 74

It is useless to seek to escape the profound meaning of thia fundamental OT teaching: by recalliiiff the undeveloped state o^ the doctrine of a future life in Israel, and the national scope of its election,— as if the sovereign choice which is so insisted on could thus be confined to the choice of a people aa a whole t…

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SECTION 75

Section 75

iii. Predestination among the Jews.— The profound religious conception of the relation of God to the works of His hands that pervades the wliole OT was too deeply engraved on the Jewish consciousness to be easDy erased, even after growing legalism had measurably corroded the religion of the people. As, however, the ide…

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SECTION 76

Section 76

54 PREDESTINATION PREDESTINATION not {Ant. XIII. v. 9). The distribution of the several views amon^ the parties follows the general lines of what might have been anticipated — the Essenic system being pre-eminently supianatural- istic, and the Sadducean rationalistic, while there was retained among the Pharisees a d…

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SECTION 77

Section 77

In this divinely-led movement of ' this worM ' towards ' the world that is to come,' in whii b every element of the world's life has part, tha central place is naturally taken by the spiritua." preparation, or, in other words, by the develop PEEDESTIXATION PREDESTINATION 55 ment of the Kingdom of God which reaches …

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SECTION 78

Section 78

that lie represents the wicked world as incapable of coming to Him that it might have life (8" '-' 14'" lU^j, and as requirin" first of all a 'drawing' from the Father to enable it to come (6"- ") ; so that only those hear or believe on Him who are ' of God'(S", cf. 15" 17"), who are 'of his sheep' (IG-''). There is un…

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SECTION 79

Section 79

From the two 9et« of data provided by the Synoptista and St. John, it is possible to attain c^aite* a clear insif^'ht into the conception oi predestination as it lay in our Lord's teach- ini;. It is quit( certain, for example, that there is no place in this teachiin; for a ' predestination ' that is carefully adjusted …

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SECTION 80

Section 80

perhaps wliich might command consideration, but the poor and miserable (2'). So little does this Divine choice rest on even faith, that it is rather in order to faith (2''>), and introduces its recipients into the Kingdom as firstfiuits of a great harvest to be reaped oy God in the world (1'*). Similarly, in the Book …

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SECTION 81

Section 81

The teaching of St. John in Gospel ami Epistle is not distinguisnable from that which he reports from his Master's lips, and need aot here be re- verted to afresh. Ihe same fundamental view- points meet us also in the Aijocalj-pse. The emj-hti'i.a there placed on the omnipotence of God rises Indeed to a climax. There o…

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SECTION 82

Section 82

3. The Teaching of St. Paul. — It was reserved, however, to the Apostle Paul to give to the fact of predestination its fullest NT presentation. This was not because St. Paul exceeded his fellows in the strength or clearness of his convictions, but because, in the prosecution of the special task which was committed to h…

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SECTION 83

Section 83

to the Divine activity : God is the potter, and the whole world with all its contents but as the plastic clay which He moulds to His own ends ; so that whatsoever comes into being, and whatsoever uses are served by the things that exist, are all alike of Him. In accordance with this world - view St. Paul's doctrine of …

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SECTION 84

Section 84

We arc exhorted, indeed, not to read this lan^^of e in isolation. but to remember tbat the ninth chapter must be interpreted in the lipht of the eleventh. Not to ilweil on the equally im- portant coiisidL-raiion that the eleventh chapter must hKcwise be inttrj^i'eted only in the light of the ninth, thcru ^ecnis heie t…

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SECTION 85

Section 85

Neither, with this key in our hand, will it be possible to raise a (question whether the election here expounded is to eternal hfe or not rather merely to prior privilege or higher service. These too, no doubt, are included. Hut l>y what right is this long section intruded liere as a substantive part of tliis Epistle, …

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SECTION 86

Section 86

&' leasure of His wUl, to the praise of the glory ot 'is grace. It is therefore, he further explains, that to them in the abundance of God's grace there has been brought the knowledge of the salvation in Christ, describeii here as the know- ledge of the mystery of the Divine will, according to His "ood-pleasure, which…

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SECTION 87

Section 87

tions to high moral effort with which the closing chapters of this Kpistle arc fllled,-niay justly be taken as the normal illation of his whole ethical teaching. His Epistles, in fact, are sown (as indeed is the whole NT) with particular instances ol the sJinie appeal («.o. 1 Th 2>2, 2 Th 2i3-i=. Ito 0, 2 Co 6", Col 11…

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SECTION 88

Section 88

The sithjctt of tlie DECREE is uniformly conceived as God in the fulness of His moral personality. It is not to chance, nor to necessity, nor yet to an abstract or arbitrary will,— to God acting inad- vertently, inconsiderately, or by any necessity of nature,— but specifically to the almighty, all-wise, all-holy, all-r…

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SECTION 89

Section 89

he owes it to this Divine choice alone that he ig a member of the class of the chosen ones, that he is able to fuUil the conditions oi salvation, that he can hope to attain the character on which iiluiie God can look with complacency, that he can look forward to an eternity of bliss as his own posses- sion. It is the v…

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SECTION 90

Section 90

LiTERATimB. — The Biblical material can best be surveyed with the help of the Lexicons on the terms einijloyed (esp. Crcnier), the commentaries on the passages, antl the sections in the several treatises on Biblical Theology dealin[f \v\th this and connate themes ; amon^ Ihetie last, tlte works of Dillmann on the OT, a…

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SECTION 91

Section 91

S re-existence is not in the line of Revelation, most ivines are reluctant to admit that it is taught in these [lassages. Dr. Davidson on Job 1'-" says, 'The words " my mother's womb" must be taken literally ; and " return thither " somewhat in- exactly, to ilescribe a coiulition similar to that which iircci'iled eiitn…

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SECTION 92

Section 92

In teaching, of course, the presbyters would have acted separately according to their individual gifts and opportunities. It would be in government and discipline that the corporate presbytery discharged its principal functions. These appear to have been the chief functions of the presbyters, as they are the most frequ…

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SECTION 93

Section 93

J. Hastings. VOL. IV. — 5 PRESS, PRESSFAT.— See Fat and WiNE. PREVENT.— This word is more frequently used in AV than in any previous version. It does not occur in Wyclif, and in Tindale but rarely The AV was translated at the time of its greatest popularity. Its meaning is, after the Lat. prce- venirc and the Fr. pr…

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SECTION 94

Section 94

Illustrations of this meaning are : Pr. Bk. (1549J End o/ Communion, • Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings with thy most p-acious favour'; Art. X. 'We have no power to do good workea pleasaunt and acceptable to God, without the irrace of God by Christ* preventyng us ' ; Archbishop Hamilton's Catechism, fol. x\Ti, * …

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SECTION 95

Section 95

For prey meaning booty of. Merlin (in Early Eng. Text. Soc), ii. 152, 'So thei entred in to the londe, and toke many prayes, and brent townes and vilages, and distroyed all the contreea'i Chapman, Iliads, ii. 205 — 'Come, fly Home with our ships ; leave this man here to perish with his preys' ; PRICE PRIESTS AND LEV…

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SECTION 96

Section 96

The word kdnurim (a""!C^) is used in the OT only of heathen priests. It answers to the word idd found in Aramaic inscriptions, Sj-r. kiimrd ' jiriest,' and hence in the OT is manifestly a word bor- rowed along with their idolatr}' trom the Ara- ma-ans. In Deuteronomy the priests are called ' Levite priests ' (c"ij-ci …

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SECTION 97

Section 97

It is not impossible that the tribal name Lei-i is connected with the name Leah (■"in'?) which is given as that of the niotlier of Levi (Wellhausen, Geschichte I.traels [Prolegomena •], 1878, p. 149 , Stade, ZATW, 1881, p. 115f.), in which case it may remain an open question whether in Leah we are to find, with Staue (…

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SECTION 98

Section 98

If li'uH actually stood origirtally for the retinue of the sacred ark, only individuals from this body would have been priests proper. Ajiart from this, it is in any ca.se not incredible that Moses shouhl have destined his own fiimily in ibe narrower sense to be priests, but that he should have chosen precisely the fam…

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SECTION 99

Section 99

Sacrificing was, then, manifestly, in early times not the exclusive function of a priestly class. The latter was certainly in existence. Yet even for admittance to this no special descent was requisite. Samuel, by birth an Ephraimite, yet, according to the representation contained in tlie history of his childhood, beco…

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SECTION 100

Section 100

PRIESTS A^'D LEVITES PEIESTS AND LEVITES 71 Is used of the ofi'ering which was presented at the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the priestly office. This oU'ering has the characteristic rite that Moses places certain portions of the sacrificial animal upon the hands of^ Aaron and his sons — in other words, fil…

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SECTION 101

Section 101

When they settled in Canaan, the Israelites had taken over the sacred places of the Canaanites and set up the worship of Jahweh at them. These sanctuaries did not all enjoy the services of a Levitical priest, as we see from the fact that a son of Micah the Ephraimite acted as priest. The numbers of the Le\'ites were pr…

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SECTION 102

Section 102

At least the earliest kings looked upon the * Among the Assyrians as well the kin^ was at the same time the chief priest (see Alf. Jeremias, Die bau.-axnj/r. VoretfUuiigen vom Ltben nach dem Tode^ Leipzig, 1887, p. 07, note 1). Jerusalemite priests as subordinate officials whom they could appoint and depose. From the…

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SECTION 103

Section 103

The descendants of Ebiathar, when expelled from the priesthood at Jerusalem, are hardly likely to have all remained settled at Anathoth. Prob- ably a portion of thorn found employment at the sanituaries of the Northern kingdom, where they took part in the otticial worship of Jalnveh under the figure of a bull. In this …

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SECTION 104

Section 104

namely ha-kOhin Itfigadul, which is once apjilied to Jehoiada (2 K 12") and thrice to Hilkiah (22'- » ^'i*), is due to antedating of this title on the part of the redactor of Kings wiio wrote during the Exile, or it niiiy even be a later insertion. The Deutero- nomic law uses the simple title ' the kOhcn ' to designate…

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SECTION 105

Section 105

Levites. In Kings there is only a single mention of Levites, namely in 1 K S^'-. Here they are clearly thrust into the text by means cf a later interpolation (the close of v.* is found in the LXX only in A), for it is said first of all that priests took up the ark, the tent of meeting and its vessels, and only afterwar…

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SECTION 106

Section 106

Id Dt '21* it is prescribed that the ' priests, the sons of Levi,' are to a.ssist in the atoning ceremony for a murder that has been committed in the neighbourhood of a city of Israel ; those meant then are apparently priests from this particular city. In like manner in 24", where the treatment of lepiosy is entrusted…

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SECTION 107

Section 107

The tribe of Levi has, according to Dt, no in- heritance in the land ; Jahweh is their inheritance, i.e. the Levite priests are to live by their holy sei-vice (18"- id., also in the introduction 10°). Personal ownershiij of land on the part of a Levite is not therebj' excluded (18*). As he discharges his holy office, c…

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SECTION 108

Section 108

PRIESTS AND LEVITES PRIESTS AND LEVITES 77 Hie .lerusalemite priesthood. Further, we have no reason to think of Hilkiah as prejudiced in favour of this special interest. 5. The Priesthood from Josiah's REFOiiM to THK Exile. — The requirements of Dt on lielialf of the Leviles were not carried out to their full exten…

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SECTION 109

Section 109

The Bk. of Jeremiah calls the prophet's rela- tives at Anathoth kuhdnim (!') ; they would have been called in Dt Levites. IJesides this, in a passage which it is difficult to assign to Jeremiah himself, the Deuteronomic expression ' Levite priests ' is emplo3'ed (33'*), and in the same place there is mention of ' the L…

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SECTION 110

Section 110

frading of the idolatrous Levites is spoken of — a istinction is made between ' the priests, the keepers of the charge of the house, and ' the priests, the keepers of the charge of the altar, which are the sons of Zadok, who from among the sons of Levi draw near to Jahweh to minister to him ' (Gesrh. p. 106). Smend (ad…

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SECTION 111

Section 111

Ezekiel gives special injunctions to the priests. They are to perform the lioly service, clothed in linen, not in wool, in order to avoid sweat (44"'). This official dress they are to put otl' when they go or.t to the outer court, that they may not sanctity the people with their holy garments (v."). In like manner, in …

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SECTION 112

Section 112

BO PRIESTS AND LEVITES PRIESTS AND LEVITES of the cultus, the mediator between the community and God. The high priest is manifestly conceived of by Zechariah as anointed (as in the Priests' Code), for the 'two sons of oil' of Zee 4''' can hardly stand for anything else than the Davidic- ally descended Zerubbabel and…

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SECTION 113

Section 113

In a statistical account of the Astarte temple, inscribed on stone, found on the site of the ancient Kition, and belonging perhaps to the 4th cent. B.C. (CIS, I. 86a and c), there is mention of a whole series of difi'erent servants of the temple, who correspond in part to the Jerusalem temple- servants : those who had …

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SECTION 114

Section 114

In ail probability the publication of the Law was vou IV. — 6 preceded by the appearance of tlie short jirophetiial writing which has come down to us under the name Malachi, which is derived from one of its catch-words, or may even be a title of honour given to its author. It was probably WTitten after the arrival of …

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SECTION 115

Section 115

To what date these oldest components of the Priests' Code should be attributed it is hard to de- citle. At present they are usually assigned to the Exile, near the time of E/ckiel. So much is un- questionably right, that the Law of Holineiis still existed as a collection by itself during the Exile, and that it received…

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SECTION 116

Section 116

(spoken with special reference to Aaron) tlie altar of incense (Ex 30"). Only an Aaronite, and 'no stranger' may offer incense at all (Nu 17° [Eng. IB*"]). The Aaronites alone have charge of the table of shewbread (Lv 24', siioken specially of Aaron) and the candlestick (Ex 27*'). From Ex 30"-, Lv 24', Nu 8^- it does n…

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SECTION 117

Section 117

c. The hirfh priest. — At the head of the priestly liody stands, in the time of Moses, his orother Aaron, and in later times always one of the descendants of the latter (E.\ 29'^'- etc.). After the death of Aanm the functions of chief priest are undertaken by his eldest son Eleazar, who in turn is succeeded by his son …

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SECTION 118

Section 118

upon the high priest, which are stricter than those for the rest of the priests. Like the latter, they are found in the Law of Holiness. According to them, ' the priest who is greater than his brethren ' may marry only a virgin of his people, and not, .as is permitted to the other priests, a widow (Lv 21'^*-). He is no…

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SECTION 119

Section 119

When the host of Israel is upon the march, the Levitical family of the Kohathites has charge of carrj'ing the tabernacle and its vessels, after these have been covered by the jiriests from the view of the Levites, who may not look upon them (Nu 4"). None but Levites may attend to the carry- ing and the setting-up of th…

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SECTION 120

Section 120

f. Tlie revenues of the priests and Levites. — The ]iriests, like the Levites, have a fixed revenue assigned them in return for their services. It is presuiiposed in this that they are without posses- sions, I.e. they have not, like the other tribes, a tribal territory (Nu IS"-"'- 26"^). The priests dues from the offe…

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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.