PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
A Dictionary of the Bible — Volume 4
James Hastings · 1,396,759 words · 1386 reading sections
Section 1261
In the NT wealthy men like Joseph of Arima- tha?a and the young ruler appear upon the scene ; such, too, figure in parables (e.g. Lk IG'"*-), and in the teaching ; but none of them play any im])ortant part in the history of our Lord or the early Church. Ijoth in the Gospels (Mk 10^"") and elsewhere {e.g. Ja 5'"*) wealt…
1,141 wordsSECTION 1262Section 1262
WEDDING.— See Marriage. WEEDS, as tr. of I'o suph, Jon 2" W, refers to sea weeds. Tlie Red Sea was called "i'D'c:, because of the numbers of them in its waters (see SUPH). Tlie weeds (xop'^oi) of .Sir 40"' mean the same as our indefinite English term weeds. WEEK.— See Time. WEEKS (FEAST OF).— See Pentecost. WEIGHTS…
1,043 wordsSECTION 1263Section 1263
The Hebrew Weight - System. —ii. (a) The Babijloniitn or 252-grain unit. — Just as the natural proportions of the human body furnished the earliest measures of length (see "below, § vi.), so man in all probability ' made his earliest es.says in weighing by means of the seeds of plants, which nature had placed ready to …
922 wordsSECTION 1264Section 1264
Cone-shaped stone, with long inscription in Babylonian. '1 mina, true weight. — copy of weight or standard of Dunt^'i ... by Nebuchad- nezi-ir . . , king of Babylon' [about 18 grains lost by fracture of the stone, oriijinally 15,105 grains 244-8 81-87 164-8 0783 489-6 491-22 492-9 979-5 Shekel Mina = 60 …
1,015 wordsSECTION 1265Section 1265
The persistence, side by side, of the two stand- ards, the heavj^ and the light, exidains how the heavj' mina might by one writer be taken as con- taining 50 heavy sliekels, by another a» containing loo light shekels. Thus it is that the weight of Solomon's smaller shields is given in 1 K 10" aa three (heavy) nuna.s,* …
933 wordsSECTION 1266Section 1266
Early inscribed Hebrew 'Weights. UICI2ST HEBREW WEiaHT (a) EBOM SAMAR11. spring of 1890 Dr. Chaplin purchased at Nablus a small shuttle-.shaped stone weight, here reproduced, * Literally, 'after (the standard of) the kind's stnnf-.' That the Hebrew, like the early Babylonian, weights were of stone, is shown by the f…
958 wordsSECTION 1267Section 1267
the Syrian standard ; and certainly the unit must be raised, in deference to the unequivocal testimony of the Chaplin weight, to 160 or 320 grains. The result, then, of the recent discoveries is to show that from the 16th to the 6th cent. li.C. a light shekel was in use in .Syria and Egypt of the value of 160 grains, w…
1,288 wordsSECTION 1268Section 1268
Thb LiTKST Jewjsu Wkiout-Svsteu. m Denarius-drachm 1 62) gn. '>p^;y Shekel* 2 1 106 „ Slho Tctradrachm 4*1 210 „ njc Mina 100 60 25 1 62501 „ nrj Talent 6000 3000 1500 60 1 816,0002 „ Notes.— 1 i.e. 12 oz. avoir. 2 i.e. 45 lb. • The old term ' shekel * was henceforth confined to the true half-shekel, formerly 11…
1,077 wordsSECTION 1269Section 1269
When we look for further light on this point to the ancient home of all scientific metrology, the result is disappointing. As early as B.C. 3000, the era of Gudca, the Babylonians bad discarded the more primitive or natural system of lineal measures for a rigidly scientific system, constructed, like the rest of their m…
949 wordsSECTION 1270Section 1270
which he holds to be identical with the length of the socondj itendulum in the latitude of the astronomer prients of Baby- Ionia I The unit of volume was a cubic vessel, tno side of which was a handbreoiltb, or ^ of the double cubit (c. a-fl in.); the weight of water it contained constituted the unit of weight, \ iz. t…
994 wordsSECTION 1271Section 1271
The latest valuation of the cubit by the distin- guished metrologist Flinders Petrie (PEFSt, 1892, 28 t}'., the tomb-cutters' cubit at Jerusalem) cannot be so easily dbj)0.<ed of. The dimensions contem- plated in the Mishna are evidently the use-and- wont dimensions that would satisfy a contract in which no more precis…
926 wordsSECTION 1272Section 1272
vii. Subdivisions and multiples of the cubit in OT and NT. — It now remains to glance briefly at the subdivisions and multiples of the cubit to be found in the canonical literature. At the bottom of the scale stands the /loyds or iiirpov aiuKpltTaTov of the Gr. metrologists, the digit or fingcrbreadth (v;sn only Jei 52…
947 wordsSECTION 1273Section 1273
810 WEIGHTS AJ^D MEASURES WEIGHTS AND MEASURES probably served to mark the Sabbath 'limit' for that city (PEFSt, 1899, 118 tf.). (For details as to the mathematical precision with which the Sabbath day's journey was calculated for each town, see Baneth's edition of Erubin, also Surenhusius' edition witli plates. An E…
952 wordsSECTION 1274Section 1274
The whole series of dry measures, to be dis- cussed in the following sections, were used by the Jews of NT times in tliis way, from the frequently mentioned hcth-ruba or J kab plot (104 sq. cubits, Pcah i. 6, Baba bathra ii. 5, etc. ) up to the beth- kCir (B. bathra, vii. 1) of 75,000 sq. cubits, and its multiples. The…
1,076 wordsSECTION 1275Section 1275
\t is scarcely to be expected, however, that the measures of OT times can have been so precisely the equivalent of the Gr;eco-lli)inan denominations as this identification presupposes, and there are not wanting indications of this in Josephus' own writings and in those of later authors, especially as regards the large…
943 wordsSECTION 1276Section 1276
Table of Hebrew Dry Measures. Earlier values Later values Log. Kab. Omer. Seah. Ephah. in in Approximate values. Litres. Pints. Litres. Pints. Kai : : : 1 •51 •90 •56 ■99 1 pint 4 1 >•* ... ... 2 05 3-6 225 3-96 4 pints [Omer* '1} 1* 1 ... 3-7 6 5 4-05 7-13 7i ,, ] Seah . 24 …
950 wordsSECTION 1277Section 1277
The sixth part of the ephnh-bath for liquids was the hin (i-.i, LXX lv or etv [B], but x°"^, Lv ig^"), a term apparently of Egyp. origin, the henu (Coptic eiiic) of Egjpt, however, being a much smaller measure (see preceding §). With the exception of Ezk 4" (J hin of water), the hin occurs exclusively in the Priests' C…
911 wordsSECTION 1278Section 1278
medicine glasses, and which certainly bore this name. Mention is made, last of all, in Scripture of the small Gr. measure the chosnix (xof<"s, licv 6') of two sexlarii or pints as a ' measure ' (AV) of wheat.* LiTKRATURK. — A . General works on metrology : A. Boeckh, .Mftrotoijisc/ie U nlersudiuiujen, 1638; J. Brundis…
905 wordsSECTION 1279Section 1279
WENCH.— The translators of AV accepted this word from the Bishdps' Bible as the tr. of shiphhah in 2 S 17". Wyclif has (1382) ' bondwomman ' and (1388) 'handmaide,' Cov. 'damsell,' Geneva Bible ' maid.' The oldest form of the word is weiuhel (from Anglo-Sax. wendo, plu. ' children '), which signilied a child of either …
918 wordsSECTION 1280Section 1280
WHEEL AVHIRLWIXD 915 offered in sacrifice (Ex 34^), as were all cereals (Nii 18" ddghan = ' com,' as in KV, not ' wlio.it ,' as in AV). It was of different oualities (Ps 81'" 147"). Some produced 10<i grains (Mt 13'). Tliis is not an e.\aggeration in the case of the Egyptian nlieat (Gn 4F-), the panicle of which is …
1,270 wordsSECTION 1281Section 1281
During the storms that precede the rain at the end of summer (September and October), the wind hustles along in front of it, to the depth of some three feet above the ground, a vast col- lection of thistle-tops and various seed-vessels. They hasten along so that before the rain comes they may find each in its little ho…
903 wordsSECTION 1282Section 1282
i. OT and Apocrypha. — The position of the widow varied according to her family. A young, childless widow might return to her father's house and remarry after an interval (Tamar, Gn 38" ; Knth and Orpah, Ru 1*- '). She miglit also be claimed in marriage by her late husband's brother (Gn 38', Mk 12>»f-, iRu 1'-') or nea…
1,023 wordsSECTION 1283Section 1283
1 Ti 6, mainly occupied aa it is with the subject of poor relief, makes us wonder what was to become of destitute, frieiullebs widows who were under sixty, or who had not reached the requisite standard of piety and beneficence. Did the Churrh leave them to stan'e, or allow them to be dependent on casual alms>,nvin(f, i…
990 wordsSECTION 1284Section 1284
Midbdr is used figuratively in Hob 2* ('lest I 918 WILDERNESS OK DESEKT WILL, WOULD make her [Israel] as a wilderness' || 'a dryland' n;!i p,N), and Jer 2" (' Have I [Jahweli] been a wilderness to Israel ? '). 2. njTi' '0.rahdh (prob. from a root meaning to he arid ; L^X often Ipvi^oi, but also such renderings as a…
1,049 wordsSECTION 1285Section 1285
On Oriental superstitions about the wilderness as the haunt of demons see art. DEMON, vol. i. p. 590. T A Ski rip WILDERNESS OF JUD^IA. — See JudJea (Wilderness of). WILDERNESS OF THE WANDERINGS. — See Exodus and Journey to Canaan. WILL, WOULD.— 1. These Eng. words are often used in AV with a significance that is …
1,009 wordsSECTION 1286Section 1286
3. There are passages in AV in which ' will ' Would now he considered redundant, as Gn 32" 'I fear him, lest he will come, and smite me ' (RV ' lest he come ') ; Lv 2' ' When any will oUer a oniillini; where we should now insert, and sometimes Insert- inir where we should omit. Cf. Othello, ll. Hi. 190, ' You were won…
934 wordsSECTION 1287Section 1287
Tlie fact, however, which is perliaps of most significance for us is that all words of this class, without material exception, even those which have the most decidedly phj-sical associa- tions, or which are used frequently in a bad sense, are applied to God no less than to men in the Hebrew OT. Thus pan to cleave in lo…
915 wordsSECTION 1288Section 1288
2. Nevertheless, Christian theologians of all schools have ever deduced from Scripture that man, originally at least, possessed free will in the common sense of the term, whether they admit that he stUl retains it to any extent or not. And, indeed, even apart from what is im- plied in the narrative of the Fall and all …
1,117 wordsSECTION 1289Section 1289
the belief — justified, as we contend, by particular declarations of Scripture, and still more l>y a com- ]ireliensive view of the Divine training of man, which finds its clearest interpretation in the Bible — tliat no human spirit is left destitute of the life- giving visitations of the Divine Spirit, and that, rudime…
938 wordsSECTION 1290Section 1290
On the other hand, men in general, and that common-sense philosophy which has aimed only at formulating common opinion and at making it self-consistent, show far too little sense of the mystery attaching to the freedom of the will, or of the binding power of character, which, though not so fixed as to be beyond all pos…
902 wordsSECTION 1291Section 1291
generations of Israelites were indeed taught that rod's goodness to them was not due to any merit of theirs. But other reasons for it are given : it was part of the ptirpose which He had been pursu- ing from the days of their fathers, men of vei7 <lifferent worth from themselves, and which He, in whom constancy is so n…
1,071 wordsSECTION 1292Section 1292
WIMPLES is AV tr. in Is S^^ (only) of mn??p (RV •shawls'). See art. DliESS, vol. i. p. 627", and Mantle, vol. iii. p. 24U^ The word 'winijile' means a covering for the neck (.-Vnglo Sax. «-(7i/;ii;/. Old High Ger. wimpal). Skeat guesses ' a cover- ing from the wind, taking An^lo-Sax. win-pel as from ' wind ' and pell (…
955 wordsSECTION 1293Section 1293
WINEFAT (i.e. Winevat).— See Fat. WINE-PRESS.— See Vine, p. 868. WINK.— In Ac 11^ the verb to • wink at' is used fig;uratively of God's longsuHering, ' The times of this ignorance God winked at' (uirep^Sui', KV 'over- looked'). The same use (also of God) occurs in Wis 1123 <Xhou . . . winkest at the sins of men' (ffa…
1,067 wordsSECTION 1294Section 1294
The notion of the Divine ffokhma as a separate E.xistence outside of and over against Jahweh, is, how ever, as un - Israelitish as possible and abso- lutely opposed to the monotheism of the inx nirr (Dt 6^) that had become firmly established since the time of Deuteronoiuy. It can be e.vplained only as due to the influe…
1,061 wordsSECTION 1295Section 1295
(4) The Booh of Job. — The finest exhibition of the problem of the doctrine of retribution on all its sides and in all its depth is afl'orded by the poem of Job. We have here three [or four] speakers, who state their case from the standpoint of the traditional doctrine ; and also in the speeches of their opjionent. Job…
1,151 wordsSECTION 1296Section 1296
Flach sei der Hoffnung I Finch dem Glaul)en I TJnd Fluch vor alien der Goduld I Geister-Chor : Weh ! Weh 1 Du hast sie zerstort. Die schone Welt, Mit miichtiger Faust , Sie stiirzt, sie zerfallt : £in Halbgott bat sie zerschla^n J Wir tragen Die Trummern ins Nicbts hinubflr, Pnd klagen ijber die verlome Schone…
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and wage a special conflict with the Deuterononiic doctrine of retribution. Laws of nature, according to li', not moral laws, rule eveiything. There is no Divine government of the world. This is proved by the world's course. Man's lot is a continual vain struggle. Pleasures cannot compensate him for this, for they rest…
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In this intellectual movement wliich defended the Jewish religion with the weapons of Greek philosophy, and embellished it with the grace acquired from Greek education, the Book OF Wisdom took its place as an important factor. See the following article. C. Siegfried. WISDOM, BOOK OF.— i. Title.— The title (roipia SaXw…
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iii. General Character of the Book.— In spite of our author's familiarity with Greek culture, and the profundity of his studies, especially in the Platonic and the Stoic philosophy, which may be detected both in his language (Farrar, 407') and his world of ideas (Grimm, 19 f.), he was far from feeling, like Josephus an…
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V. Contents of the Book. — (a) The first section (chs. 1-5) describes the contlict which the Divine Wisdom has constantly to carry on with the godless wisdom of the world, and tlie victory to wliich she leads those who surrender tlicmselves to her. In the first place (ch. 1) the author addresses himself apparently, in …
1,048 wordsSECTION 1301Section 1301
(6) In his anthropoloqy the author Insists pre- eminently upon individual immortality. Of this the canonical 01' knew nothing, its point of interest lying merely in the continuance of the Seople of Israel and the consummating of the king- om of (iod amongst them. Hut the Book of Wisdom recognizes that man, i.i:. tlie …
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X. Text. — The Text is best preserved in cod. Vaticanus (B) ; it is very good also in cod. Siuaiticus (s or S), as well as in the fragments of cod. Ephra?mi rescriptus (C) ; it is less satis- factory in cod. Alexandrinus (A) and, with the exception of the excellent cod. 68, in 10 cursives. Swete (OT in Greek, vol. ii.,…
944 wordsSECTION 1303Section 1303
• For, yf mj'n bertes wille wist were and preved How, yow to love, it stercd is and meved. Ye shulde knowe I your honour and welthe Thurste and desire, and eke your soules betthe.' Infln. wit — Malory, Boly Grail (in Morley's Eng. Bel. 38), ' And so they looked upon him, and felt his pulse, to wit whether there were a…
943 wordsSECTION 1304Section 1304
' O thou most Almightie Spright, From whom all guifts of wit and knowledge flow.' Wittingly is found in Gn 48" : of. Tind. Expos. Ill, ' When they espied that tlie truth could not stand with the lionours which they sought in the world, they wittingly and willingly persecuted it.' Witty occurs in Pr 8'-, Jth 11^, Wis …
973 wordsSECTION 1305Section 1305
The verb [TV], denom. from ly, means In Hiphil [the only instance of Qal is in KethUth of La 21^] — (1) ' testif\- or witness,' in favour of (Job 29", La 2is [A'ct-C]), or against (1 K 211" '3) one, or between two parties (Mal'yi'i) ; (2) ' cause to testify,' i.e. •take as witness' (Is 82, Jer 3'2'»-25. "), with ^ 'aga…
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Gr. yu>r„ which also stands for * wife,' as does the Heb. equi- valent. In Ro 1-6-27 AY is followed by UV in using the Eng. word 'woman' for the Gr. Oy.ki,ai ('female'). The diminutive yvettxxpiet occurs in the plural in 2 Ti 3<*, and ia rendered 'silly women ' both in AV and in KV. For information on the social and l…
1,267 wordsSECTION 1307Section 1307
2. Official and other leading Pusitiotis in Religion held by Women. — (a) Witchcraft. The lowest form of female influence in this direction is seen in the idea of witclicraft, according to which certain occult powers in dealing with the unseen world were ascribed to women. The witch of Endor was bupposed to be holding …
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' And this common holy place to which they all come together on the seventh day is a twofold circuit, being separated partly into the apartment of the men, and partly into a chamber for the women ; for women also, in accordance with the usual fashion there, form a part of the audience, having the same feelings of admir…
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2. 2'he Gifts of Wome7i and the Exercise of them. — There were no women among the Twehe Apostles, to whom special gifts of healing were given by our Lord. There is no jnoof that women disciples were not included among the Seventy ( Lk lO'"**), but there is no evidence that there were any, and the nature of the mission …
967 wordsSECTION 1310Section 1310
husband that his wife should ' meet any one of th« brethren to exchange a kiss ' (ad Uxor. ii. 4). Accordingly the custom was altered, the earliest instance oi the new regulations appearing in tha Apostolical Constitutions : ' Let the clergy salute the bishop, the men of the laity salute the men, the women the women' (…
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The Israelites were forbidden to wear clothing made of interwoven wool and linen, called iipv* sha'atnez. The context, Lv 19" Dt 22", seems to indicate that the objection was to the mixture as such. The matter is the subject of discussion in the Mislina (Kilaim i.\. 1), and Josephus briefly states that the reason was b…
939 wordsSECTION 1312Section 1312
There is no single word in OT which describes the material universe, even as it was conceived by the Hebrews. The phrase ' heaven and earth' is used to convey that notion (Gn 1', Ps 89", Jer 10" 51" etc.). Both ["IN and Vsg are also distinguished from the seas or the sea (Gn 1", Ps 98"). Heaven and earth by their vast…
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constitute a type of character. This is an interest" ing anticipation of NT thought. Another point of interest is the analogy between the use of i^n, s word denoting tinie, and the subsequent use of ai'iii'. Another word oViy, to the meaning of which aiijn still more closely approximates, is also translated ' world ' a…
1,333 wordsSECTION 1314Section 1314
We have seen what range of meaning px and Sja have in OT, and have observed that yjj and oiKovniyr) are used in LXX to render them. In connexion with the meanings of ic4<r^o5 it is not uniiniKirtant to notice that there are in NT l)ariiliel or closely flimihir pa-ssages in one of which yij or oIkov/jJi'ti is found, and…
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(c) The scope appointed for the work of the missionaries of the ffospcl ; it 18 to be preached throu<jhout the world ; Mt 5H 1333, Mt 26i3=.Mk 149, Mk W\ Uo l*. Col 16, Ph 215. 1 Ti 3i'"', 3. Idiomatic and peculiar uses — (a) A rhettjriral expression for the great majority of people In a particular place, as in Fren…
1,016 wordsSECTION 1316Section 1316
One (2 Co 4"*). This use of «<dtfv with an ethical signification is not dithcult to understand, easier indeed than the oorresix)nd- ing and commoner one of Karfi^t. It is otherwise with the expression at He 1^ itrA<*;«-i* tm ttiaivoit. Here «/ «/wyir seems to mean ' the sum of the " periods of time," including all that…
964 wordsSECTION 1317Section 1317
WORSHIP, both as subst. and verb, was formerly used of reverence or honour done to men as well as to God, and so occurs in Lk 14'° ' then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee' (o6Ja, KV 'glory'). The word is a contraction of worthship (from Anglo-Sax. weorth ' worth,' with the suff…
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iL Apostolic Teaching and Custom.— As the Church giadually emerged from the synagogue specific Christian worship, as distinguished from tlie customary Jewish worship, came to bo shaped on lines indicated by the principles of the new faith. (a) Times. — The NT contains no regulations concerning stated days and hours fo…
1,059 wordsSECTION 1319Section 1319
(c) Persons. — The apostles naturally took the lead in conducting public worship when they were present. It would appear that, at Troas, St. Paul conducted the Lord's Supper, himself breaking the bread (Ac 20"). This is the only passage in the NT in which the distribution of the elements by any person, other than our L…
1,048 wordsSECTION 1320Section 1320
(c) Ohject. — Christian worship in NT times is usually oH'cred to God as Father through Jesus Christ as His Son (see Ko 1", Eph 1> 3"). The Aramaic 'Ablia' appears to have been adopted by Greek - speaking Christians as the peculiar title for God in the Churches (see Ro 8'°). Hut, while this was the normal type, worship…
920 wordsSource & rights
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.