PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Dictionary of the Apostolic Church — Volume 1
James Hastings · 1,014,604 words · 1012 reading sections
Section 121
The cumulative effect of the facts and probabili- ties stated above is very strong — so strong that we are justified in affirming that in the NT there are persons other than the Twelve and St. Paul who were called apostles, and in conjecturing that they were rather numerous. All who seemed to be called by Christ or the…
1,012 wordsSECTION 122Section 122
For any modern reader a cursory glance will dispose of these claims. The detailed injunctions about ordinations and festivals, the triumphant proof of the possibility of the Resurrection by a reference to the phoenix, do not strike the apostolic note ; and it is easy to remark delinite points such as the reference to t…
923 wordsSECTION 123Section 123
Behind book viii. are various sources. The first two paragraphs are thought by Achelis to be founded on Hippolytus' lost worK ivepl xa/ucryndTaji/. After there treating of the diversity of spiritual gifts, the writer goes on to 24 chapters, in which the apostles, gathered in council, deliver singly, in turn, ' constitu…
901 wordsSECTION 124Section 124
Baptism ritual is elaborate. Before and after immersion there is anointing. Presbyters can baptize, though not ordain (iii. 10, 11). Deacon- esses are useful, especially in the baptism of women {ib. 15). Canon 50 orders trine immersion. The bishop is to be ordained by two or three bishops after he is chosen by the peo…
900 wordsSECTION 125Section 125
AQUILA AXD PRISCILLA 87 tended, parallel Avith the line of road, tluough the Pomptine marshes as far as the neighbourhood of Tarracina. Strabo says that travellers from the South usually sailed up the canal by night, ' em- barking in the evening, and landing in the morning to travel the rest of their journey by road' …
908 wordsSECTION 126Section 126
When St. Paul went to Ephesus, Aquila and Priscilla went with him and remained there to do pioneer work whilst he visited Jerusalem. They shrank from the responsibility, and wanted the Apostle to remain (Ac 18-"). But he urged them to stay, promising to return. So the initial work in Ephesus was done by Aquila and Pris…
1,017 wordsSECTION 127Section 127
ARABIA. — Arabia (Apa^La, from a"y!,), which now denotes the great peninsula lying between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, was in ancient times a singularly elusive term. Originally it meant simply 'desert' or 'desolation,' and when it became an ethnographic proper name it was long in ac- quiring a fixed and generall…
1,033 wordsSECTION 128Section 128
In A.D. 106 the governor of Syria, Aulus Cornelius Palma, broke up the dominion of the Nabatsean kings, and constituted the Roman province of Arabia, while Damascus was added to Syria. For the whole region the change was epoch-making. ' The tendency to acquire these domains for civilisation and specially for Hellenism…
1,002 wordsSECTION 129Section 129
90 AREOPAGITE, AREOPAGUS AEETAS upon the top can still be seen the rough, rock-hewn benches, forming three sides of a square, upon which the court sat in the open air, in order tliat the judges should not be under the same roof as the accused. — (6) The expression was also used of the court itself (Cicero, ad Att. i.…
922 wordsSECTION 130Section 130
Literature. — Besides the authors quoted, see W. M. Ramsay, in Expositor, 5th ser. ii. [1895] 209, 261, also x. [1899] ; E. Renan, St. Paul, Eng. tr. 1890, p. 193 f. ; A. C. McGiffert, History of the Apostolic Age, Edinburgh, 1897, p. 257 ff. ; EBr^, art. 'Areopagus'; R. J. Knowling', in EGT ii. [London, 1900] 368 f. F…
909 wordsSECTION 131Section 131
]\Iore coins and inscriptions date from the time of Aretas IV. than from any Nabatsean reign. While the standing title of Aretas III. was ^i\i\- Xtivos, that which the last chose for himself was Qm -lay, 'Lover of his people.' He set country above culture ; he was a Nabatfean patriot first and a Hellenist afterwards. I…
1,005 wordsSECTION 132Section 132
2. The writer of Hebrews mentions the ark of the covenant (ttjv Ki^dirbv r^s dcaOriKrjs) as the inner- most and most sacred piece of furniture contained in the Tabernacle. His description of it as ' com- pletely overlaid with gold ' (irfpiKeKaXv/xfievTiv iravTodev Xpvclqi) corresponds with the directions given in Ex 25…
1,074 wordsSECTION 133Section 133
In his enumeration of the weapons of spiritual warfare St. Paul omits the spear, and by implica- tion adds girdle and shoes (^warrjp and caligce). The complete equipment consists of six pieces, defensive and ottensive — the girdle of trutn, the breastplate of righteousness, the sandals of readi- ness to carry good tidi…
919 wordsSECTION 134Section 134
As Judsea was a province of the second rank, governed by a procurator, it was not (like Syria) garrisoned by legionaries, but by auxiliaries, who had their headquarters in Ca^sarea. The cohortes and alee were recruited from the Greek cities of Palestine, from which they derived their names, such as ' Cohors Sebastenoru…
1,072 wordsSECTION 135Section 135
We read once of the shambles (fjidKe\\ov = macellum, 1 Co 10'"), which in reality was a meat and provision market, with many booths or shops, such as every great city of the time could boast. The market-place (dyopd, forum, Ac 17'''), although put to many other uses, was not without signifi- cance as a trade centre. S…
926 wordsSECTION 136Section 136
Thus far the crafts have been regarded on a large scale. But iron-work (see Iron) took finer forms (Rev 18'-) : e.g. certain parts of the warrior's equipment ; also the balance, if made of this metal (Rev 6^). This is equally true of working in wood : idols (Rev 9-'") ; thyine wood, most precious wood, in juxtaposition…
1,061 wordsSECTION 137Section 137
The NT is full of references to the Ascension. It is called an 'assumption' (dvd\T]^Ls), in the hymn quoted in 1 Ti 3'^ (' received up [dveXrjcpdT]'] in glory'), in the Appendix to Mk. (16'", dveX-^cpdi]) and Lk 9*^ (' the days of his assumption, 'dvaXiji/'ews), as in Ac P- "• '^'-^ (cf. vireXa^ev, v."). The same verb …
924 wordsSECTION 138Section 138
by an apparently upward movement. In the statements about the ascended life of our Lord symbolism has to be still more freely employed, as no human language can adequately describe the new conditions. Just as symbol was neces- sary to describe the Temptation of our Lord, or the overthrow of Satan by the efibrts of the …
1,085 wordsSECTION 139Section 139
3. The work of the ascended Christ. — (a) Jesus has ascended to make intercession for us as our Priest, Ro 8^*, He V^ (a perpetual intercession). The High-Priesthood of Christ is one of the great themes of Hebrews, and Ps 110''* is quoted in He 56. 10 717. 2i_ Jesus is High Priest for ever after the order of Melchizede…
922 wordsSECTION 140Section 140
(c) The office of the Ascended Jesus as Prophet is not so explicitly mentioned in the NT as His Priesthood and Kingship. Yet it is clearly im- plied. His prophetic or teaching office did not cease at the Ascension ; on the contrary. He there- after teaches more plainly ; not, as formerly, in pro- verbs (Jn 16-*) ; the …
917 wordsSECTION 141Section 141
5. Modern objections to the Ascension. — The present article is mainly concerned with the facts, and the reader may be referred for an answer to objections from a philosophical point of view to A. S. Martin's article in DCG i., which is very full on this head. Here it is enough to say (a) that the objection that it is …
1,031 wordsSECTION 142Section 142
1. Composite character. — The title ' Ascension of Isaiah ' is strictly appropriate only to the latter part of the work, chs. 6-11, in which Isaiah is success- ively led through the firmament and six lower heavens to the seventh heaven, and receives dis- closures regarding the descent, birth, works, cruci- fixion, and …
991 wordsSECTION 143Section 143
The date cannot be later than A.D. 100, for 4^^ 100 ASCEKSIOJS^ OF ISAIAII AbUi:X«lU^' OF ISAIAK presupposes that there were a few still alive wlio had seen the Lord in the flesh. The fusion of the three originally distinct conceptions of the Anti- christ, of Beliar, and of Aero Eedirivus cannot well be put earlier …
984 wordsSECTION 144Section 144
iii. The Third Person is spoken of as an angel, the angel of the Spirit (4^1 g^a- ^o 10^ 11*) or the angel of the Holy Spirit (3'" 7-=* 9^6 IP^). In com- munion with Him, Isaiaii endures his martyrdom, and also is carried in spirit to the third heaven. The Holy Spirit stands (9^^), and after the Ascen- sion sits (IP*) …
957 wordsSECTION 145Section 145
(e) Angels. — While there is no reference to the functions of good angels as mediators or inter- cessors, spiritual powers are conceived of as the true cause of all action. Manasseh and Belchira are only agents of Beliar and Sammael and Satan. Nero Redivivus is only an embodiment of Beliar (4-). Angels, authorities, an…
916 wordsSECTION 146Section 146
In all these authorities two recensions may be traced. The Greek Papyri, the Ethiopic, the Slavonic, and the fuller Latin Version follow the second recension of the Greek ; the Greek Legend and the Latin fragments support the first Greek recension. Charles in his edition of the Asc. Is. (1900) has produced a critical t…
1,038 wordsSECTION 147Section 147
1 P 1^ is a clear instance of the use of geograph- ical terms in the Roman administrative sense. The four provinces named — Bitliynia and Pontus, though here separated, being really one — sum up the whole of Asia Minor north of Taurus, The Seven Churches of Revelation were all in pro- consular Asia (Rev P*"), and it is…
1,040 wordsSECTION 148Section 148
Tlie serpent referred to is without doubt the Naja haje, or small hooded Egyptian cobra, which, though not found in the cultivated parts of Palestine, is well known in the downs and plains S. of Beersheba (cf. Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, p. 270), and frequents old walls and holes in the rocks (cf. Is IP : '…
1,121 wordsSECTION 149Section 149
2. Ac 23^ : ' The assembly [RV ; AV the multi- tude] was divided ' (iaxladrj to ir\rjdo$). The refer- ence is to the council (ttcij' t6 aw^dpiof, 22^") summoned by Lysias the tribune of the Roman garrison in the tower of Antonia, consequent upon the tumult in the Temple, and St. Paul's arrest. We are not to understand …
951 wordsSECTION 150Section 150
On a Sunday afternoon, probably in the spring of A.D. 56, St. Paul, having torn himself away from the Christians of Troas, walked or rode the 20 miles of Roman highway which connected that city with Assos, first ])assing along the western side of Mt. Ida, then through the rich Valley of the Tuzla, and finally reaching …
1,189 wordsSECTION 151Section 151
At the end of ch. vii. and again at the end of ch. xii. the MS breaks oH' in the middle of a sentence. Chapters viii. and ix. are read between v. and vi., as Charles sugge.sts in his edition (pp. 2J--30). They obviously refer to the Antiochian persecution, and are quite out of place after ch. vii., which describes the …
944 wordsSECTION 152Section 152
Cmo et xxmo.' Throughout the work Moses is to die an ordinary death (e.g. V^ 3^^ lO'^-i*). In a Catena quoted in Fabricius (Cod. Pseud. Vet. Test. ii. 121, 122), and again in Section xiii. of Vassiliev'a Anecdota Grceco-Byzantina (pp. 257-258), we find references to a natural death of Moses, which may be derived from t…
1,285 wordsSECTION 153Section 153
(b) Justification and good works. — The Rabbinic doctrine of man's merit is entirely absent. Cf. 12'' ' Not for any virtue or strength of mine, but in His compassion and long-suttering, was He pleased to call me.' Cf. Tit 3', 2 Ti P. (c) Dai/ of rejyentance. — Jerusalem is to be the place of worship till ' the day of …
890 wordsSECTION 154Section 154
•jeneral, where the word is not found at all till a late period. The word ir\-qpo(popelv , however, has been found in papyri signifying ' to settle fully an account,' ' to give satisfaction as to a doubtful matter,' 'to be completely satisfied with regard to something that was owing' (A. Deissmann, Light from the Ancie…
925 wordsSECTION 155Section 155
(1) .S'^. Peter's teaching is given in Acts and in the Epistles that bear his name. St. Peter s speeches, on the day of Pentecost and afterwards, set forth the grounds of the assurance of the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus which possessed the apostles and their believing hearers. These grounds are («) the propheti…
1,026 wordsSECTION 156Section 156
But, although St. Paul cherishes this assurance and has no doubt or misgiving as to his personal salvation, this assurance does not cause him to slacken in the fulfilment of service and the pursuit of the eternal prize. Even he is moved by the wholesome fear lest he who had preached to others should yet himself become …
943 wordsSECTION 157Section 157
110 ATHENS atone:\ient ings, and gave the name of Hadrianopolis to a new quarter. But, though Athens was outwardly as splendid as ever, she was inwardly decadent, being, in philo- sophy, letters, and art, a city Uving upon tradi- tions. Her first-rate statesmen and orators, poets and thinkers, did not outlive the n…
1,116 wordsSECTION 158Section 158
The Athenian synagogue (Ac 17^^), in which St. Paul met some 'devout persons' — ffejSofievoi, Gen- tiles more or less influenced by Judaism — was pro- bably small, for the university city did not attract his compatriots like Corinth, the seat of commerce. His reasoning 'in the Agora every day with those who met him' na…
956 wordsSECTION 159Section 159
atonement, as to its substance. For the forms into which it was cast we must look to the rehgious conceptions^— legal, sacrificial, ethical, and eschato- logical — which constituted their world of theologi- cal ideas, and the background against which was set the teaching of Jesus. I. Sources.—!. In theSynoptic Gospels…
930 wordsSECTION 160Section 160
(G) The awful isolation of the cry of Jesus on the cross, 'My God, my God, why hast thou for- saken me ? ' (iVIk 15^"*) cannot easily be separated in the experience of the sinless Son of God from some mysterious connexion with the sin He clearly came to deal with by His death. It is at least capable of the suggestion t…
959 wordsSECTION 161Section 161
i'.i) Pentecost. — The coming to abide with them of the Holy Spirit, 'the promise of the Father' (Ac 1''), ' the Spirit of Christ,' was for the Apostolic C'hurch the ultimate certainty of guidance into all the truth, and the supreme authority for its adequate utterance. The work of the Spirit as Jesus had defined it wa…
1,296 wordsSECTION 162Section 162
HI.' The doctrine developed. — 1. The Pauline type. — It will he obvious to any reader of the literature of the Apostolic Church that its floctrine of atonement was the subject of consider- able development in form. In tracing this the PauUne writings must be our main source. Of all NT writers, St. Paul goes into the g…
983 wordsSECTION 163Section 163
(a) Atonement and Law. — This is the form in which St. Paul construes his doctrine' in the Galatian Epistle, which deals more exclusively than any other NT document with the significance of the death of Christ. 'Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for (vv^p) us; for it is ■UTitten, Curse…
1,086 wordsSECTION 164Section 164
Righteousness is the starting-point of hia discus- sion ; it is seen in 'the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteous- ness of men' (Ro 1^*). God can never be at peace with sin. Law brings no righteousness ; 'by the law is the knowledge of sin' (3^°). All have sinned ; not one is righte…
1,090 wordsSECTION 165Section 165
Denney, who discusses these views at length, f maintains that the righteousness of God has not the same meaning throughout this passage (3^'*^) ; it has ' in one place — say in v.-- — the half-technical sense which belongs to it as a summary of St. Paul's gospel ; and in another — say in v.-® — the larger and more gene…
997 wordsSECTION 166Section 166
(c) Atonement and Personality. — Love, the perfect expression of the Divine Personality, constrained God to identify Himself in Christ with us, and con- strains us to identify ourselves in Christ with God. Personality finds its perfection in fellowship ; self- identification with others is the ultimate of fellow- ship.…
965 wordsSECTION 167Section 167
{d) Atonement and Newness of Life. — The work of redemption was not whoUy a matter of juridical substitution and imputation. Another fine of thought of great importance is pursued, besides the freeing from the curse and the dehverance from -RTath. The relation of men to the salvation of Christ is not purely passive. * …
933 wordsSECTION 168Section 168
(e) Atonement and the Universe. — In two of the Epistles of the Imprisonment — those to Eph. and Col. (Phil, repeats the same circle of ideas as Rom. and Gal.) — St. Paul extends the reconciliation wrought by the death of Christ from the human race to the universe as it sustains moral relations to God ; it is the cosmi…
1,001 wordsSECTION 169Section 169
ATONEMENT ATONEIMENT 119 for the sins of His people (He 2^'). This is possible in only one way — sacrifice. The OT conception, upon the analogy of which this NT structure is built, is that propitiation must be made for sin, if sinful men are to have fellowship with God at all ; the only propitiation known is the she…
1,234 wordsSECTION 170Section 170
3. The Johannine type. — This is a sufficiently definite term to stand for a characteristic view of the atonement in the Apostolic Church found in the Fourth (iospel, in the three Cntholic Epistles bearing the name of John, and in the Apocalypse. Criticism still leaves the problem of authorship in much uncertainty, but…
1,319 wordsSECTION 171Section 171
(2) References in Epistle. — In passing from the Gospel, where the Johannine writer has emphasized the fact of the self-sm-render in the death of Christ, obviously bringing it in wherever possible without attempting a definition of its relations, to the Epistle, we find a closer definition of these realities awaiting u…
947 wordsSECTION 172Section 172
love, in that he {iK€?vos) for us (v-rrkp ■f)ixG)v) laid down his life.' The contrast such love implies is the ultimate of the apostoUc doctrine of the atonement — it is the perfect expression of what the writer means when he declares that 'God is love.'* 4. The sub-apostolic period. — In the age im- mediately succeedi…
1,100 wordsSECTION 173Section 173
2. General character of the apostolic doctrine. — This, as presented in the literature of the Apostolic Age, is a unity in diversity. The diversity is aji- parent ; it emerges as the stress of the interpreta- tion of the death of Christ falls upon that which is accompUshed by it objectively to man's inner ex- perience …
936 wordsSECTION 174Section 174
ATONEMENT AUGUSTAN BAND 123 of reconciliation, made real by God in Christ, which these thought-forms sought to express. This ex- perience in the Apostohc Age, as in every other, was something more than a composite of the terms used in its interpretation, even when these terms were the coinage of the apostohc mind. T…
1,162 wordsSECTION 175Section 175
1907, u. 713 ff. Frederic Platt. ATTALIA {'ATToXela, Tisch. and ^YH -/a).— This maritime city of Pamphilia was founded by, and named after. Attains II. Philadelphus, king of Persamos (159-138 B.C.), who desired a more con- venient haven than Perga (15 miles N.E.) for the commerce of Egypt and S>Tia. It was pictur- esq…
900 wordsSECTION 176Section 176
Literature. — On the one side, Th. Mommsen, Sitzungs- berichte d. Bed. A had., 1895, p. 495 f. ; W. M. Ramsay, loc. cit. <apra\ F. Rendall, Acts, London, 1897, p. 340. On the other ■ii<le, Sehiirer, loc. cit. ; Th. Zahn, Introd. to NT, Eng. tr., K<linburs-h, 1909, i. 60, 551 ff. ; A. C. Headlam, art. 'Julius' in II DB …
1,018 wordsSECTION 177Section 177
i. AchicYements. — This bare enumeration marks the steps by which the poAver of Augustus was gradually consolidated, and with it the Empire itself. The achievements of Augustus which led to this result can only be briefly enumerated. Amongst the most important, because without them nothing further could have been attai…
936 wordsSECTION 178Section 178
The reference in He 12^ is to the previous chapter. The writer, in summing up the list of heroes of faith, bids us look unto Jesus, who is pre-eminently the Leader in that great company, and the Perfect Example of that virtue of which to a certain extent they have been witnesses. The insertion of the word ' our ' in th…
1,109 wordsSECTION 179Section 179
James Strahan. B BAAL. — Baal (Ro 11*, in a quotation from 1 K 19'^) was a generic name for a god among Semitic peoples, the literal meaning being 'owner 'or 'lord.' Attempts have been made to show that this was the original name of the Sun-god, or that it represents the Supreme Being worshipped by the Canaan- ites. …
947 wordsSECTION 180Section 180
To use unreal words, to be constantly dealing with the greatest things, and yet to be too shallow or flippant to realize their majesty, was, in the Apostolic Age, and ever since has been, the peculiar snare and peril of religious speakers, and gives point to the taunt of Carlyle : ' When a man takes to tongue-work, it …
1,386 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical reference work (1915–1916); OCR text from Internet Archive. Historical scholarship and terminology reflect its era; OCR may contain errors. Verify quotations and current scholarly claims independently.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.