PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Dictionary of the Apostolic Church — Volume 2
James Hastings · 991,000 words · 974 reading sections
Section 661
The fiiiscellaneous contents of bk. viii., from which Lactantius has quoted largely, are distin- guished by an unusual antipathy to the tyranny and avarice * of the Koman Empire. The ordinary view is that 1-216 are in the main Jewish, the rest Christi.an. A general blend of woes. Messianic prophecies, incongruous separ…
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Eagan tradition § was that the Sybil had spoken er oracle in acrostic form. W hen sceptics doubted the genuineness of the Christian oracles, it was useful to he able to point to a specimen of the acrostic which told in favour of Christian doctrine. But its inherent popularity led to translations into Latin, even liefor…
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• Mendelssohn happily conjectures xriaiv for the irrelevant icptVtv of the MSS, here and in '2GS». t According to Augustine, the Sibyl and Job are the two pre- Christian personalities who can be reckoned as classical ex- amples of membership in God's City (xviii. 'I'i and 47). ; The earlier Sibylline proofs {e.fj. in…
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While the eleventh book kept the fortunes of the Egyptian Empire in the foreground, the twelfth book chronicles ' the woeful time of the sons of Latiura' (like v. 1-11, from which xii. 1-11 is verbally taken). Our Sibyl sketches rapidly and incoherently the course of the Roman Empire, with repeated indifference to the …
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It is a question, says Gell'cken, whether bk. xi. or bk. xiv. is the worst of the Sibylline oracles. The latter is at any rate later, written by a Jew who probably lived in Egypt. It opens with a lament and warning on the passion for power and tyranny (1-11), and then passes into an enigmatic, confused series of Easter…
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•This goes back to the Sibyllinist of bk. v., where (12f.) Augustus is the man 'who has the first of letters* (A), Nero the man whose initial letter is fifty (N = f)0). and so forth. t The ditliculty raised by the abrupt allusion in 812 to an army of Sicilians is solved, according to Scott, by reading 5'ck K(AiKai»' f…
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Literature. — An ample bibliograph.v will be found in Schiirer's (iJV \l\.^ [Leipzig, 1909] 555-592, though he does not mention some of the English contributions, lilte W. Whiston's A Vindication of SihijUine Oracles (London, 1715) and J. Floyer's similar volume, The Sibylline Oracles, translated from the best Greek Co…
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The terms in which other references to sickness appear are extreraels' indefinite : do-ffec^? (cf. Ac 4"), addivcia (Ac 28"), aadevioi (Ja 5"), dSwaros (Ac 14»), Kd/ii'w (Ja 5'^), cLppwuTo! (1 Co IF"). The meaning here may be only lack of strength, or it may be an infirmity caused by sickness. In all these cases of spe…
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LiTERATURK. — E. Robinson, Biblical Reftearches in PaUatine^, 3 vols., 1860, ii. 478 B. ; O. Hamdy-Bey and T. Reinach, I.a Ni^cropole royale de Sidon^ 1892-90 ; C. Baedeker, J^alestine and Syria'', 1894. JamES StkAHAN. 492 SIGN SILAS OR SILVANUS SIGN. — Tlio word (r7)^«?ov ('sign') is used (l)of the iiutogniphic pa…
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Notwithstanding the corroboration of the notices in the Ejiistles, the identification of Silas with Sil- vanus has not passed without question. On the ground of an alleged tendency in Acts to connect Paul as closely as possible with the Church of Jerusalem, Weizsiicker suggests that, in the ac- count of the second miss…
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2. As silver was the everyday medium of ex- change in the ancient world, the Gr. apyvpLov, like the Heb. 1??, frequently denoted money (cf. Fr. argent). When Simon the Magian offered Peter money (xp^o^a) for the power to work miracles by the Holy Spirit, the Apostle answered, in horror of this ' simony,' or trallickin…
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2. The Simonian legend. — There are two chief sources of this legend, {a) The Clementine Homilies and Recognitions. These are two forms of an early Christian romance, the Homilies in Greek, the Recognitions in Latin. They relate the story of Clement's search for truth until bis reunion with the long-lost members of his…
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SIMON MAGUS SIMON MAGUS 495 how He had heen foretold hy the propliets, and knew that He shouUl be believed on and looked for by every nation, they a;.'ain, as was said before, put forward other men, the Samaritans Simon and ^lenaiuier, wlio did many mighty works l)y ma^ic, anil deceived many, and still keep them dec…
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(h) If the Tiibingen theory be recognized as 'lifeless,' there are three questions of importance bearing on the historical value of the Simonian legend. ( 1 ) Is the Simon of the legends a historical person ? Salmon's answer may be accepted at once : ' It cannot reasonably be doubted tliat Simon of Gitta is a historic…
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(c) Before this iiiodiHcation of the view held so long as to the identification of the two Simons can be accepted, regard must be had to the follow- ing points. (1) Are the references of Justin Martyr histori- cally explicalile on the theory that Simon of Gitta was a 2nd cent. Gnostic? Even if Justin was decidedly ' w…
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It seems beyond question that Luke knew the reputation which Simon acquired, and that he re- garded the subsequent history of Simon as the natural result of what occurred at the beginning of his connexion with the Christians.' But it need not be supposed that when Simon broke with the Christians he renounced all he ha…
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(ii.) This does not deny that the story may be coloured somewhat by being seen through the haze of a considerable interval. Luke was writing about events of which ho knew nothing at first hand. Perhaps he had met the Simonian sect outside Palestine, and there may have been al- ready some magnifying of Simon's success i…
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(6) InKo 16'" the word 'simple,' translating d/c^paioj (lit. 'free from foreign admixture,' as, e.g., wine unmingled with water, unalloyed metal), has no such derogatory significance. St. Paul would have his readers innocent without being ignorant ; dis- cerning the wiles of Satan, yet without sin-craft : in wisdom man…
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Further, in his subjective consciou.sness a man tends to separate himself, both in his merits and in his defects, from his fellow-men ; hut in objective reality men are so closely related to one another as to be involved in moral res]ionsibility for one another. Saints as a whole must bear the blame for many of the con…
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(1) .S'm as a power. — For St. Paul here as throughout chapters 5. 6. 7 sin is personified as dis- tinct from the animal appetites, the physical im- pulses, and even the human will itself as dwelling in men and bringing men into bondage. It enters into the heart {'"■ -"), works on man, using the Law itself for its ends…
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As regards (a), the clause i<j)' <f irdvres ij/j.apToi' cannot mean that all sinned in Adam ('omnes peccarunt, Adanio peccante,' Bengel), either as the physical source or as the moral representa- tive of the race ; for i^' i} most probably means ' because.' As regards (6), while St. Paul affirms that guilt is not ascr…
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That inward change St. Paul describes as dying to sin, being buried with Christ through baptism into death, a crucilixion or dj'ing with Christ, a re- surrection and living with Christ (Ro 6'-", Eph 2'""'). By this he does not mean insensibility to temptation, or cessation from struggle, but a deliverance from the impo…
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(6) What appears at first sight an echo of Rab- binic teaching in 2'°, that stumbling in one point makes a man 'guilty of all the law, proves on closer scrutiny entirely Christian. The law is not the Mosaic Law, but ' the perfect law,' ' the law of liberty ' (1^), and the 'royal law' is, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour …
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In the Second Epistle (and also in Jude) the demonology is still more pronounced. The re- bellion in heaven against God, and the expulsion of the rebels to hell (2 P 2', Jude")— this is the ultimate cause of the sin in the world, on which the Divine judgment by fire will fall (2 P 3'- '=). 6. Apocalyptic teaching. — A…
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LiTERATURB. — The Standard books in NT Theology and ChriS: tian doctrine ; coinmeiiriirifs on the apostolic wrilin^a such as W. Sanday and A. C. Headlam, ICC, ' Koiniins,' Iviinburf;:!!, 1!)02; B. F. Westcott, The Kpislle to the Urijirjci:, London, 1SS9, Tlie EpLslks of A«. John, do., 1883 ; J. B. Mayor, Tlie KpisHe 0/…
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The century in w^hicli he lived is one of the most obscure in Israelitish history ; hence it is not possible to interpret any political allusions with certainty. Some have endeavoured to find a politi- cal programme in 45-''-^°, where the author insists that the high-priesthood belongs for ever to the house of Aaron, …
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The fact that Ben-Sira had before him no Hebrew or national literature which has not been preserved is of great interest ; and, as has been seen, with his grandson the biblical books were classified as they are still. In the book itself certain other names appear. Thus a portion of the projiliecies is called the Remons…
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5. Subject. — The subject of the work belongs to what is called in Arabic Adab, sometimes rendered 506 SIKACH SIKACII ' Miscellanies ' ; it is didactic, devotional, and to a slight extent historical. The last portion is clearly marked oil from tlie rest and occupies the final chapters 44-50, l)oini; a record of tli…
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As compared with the later Jewisli literature, i.e., the Talmudim and Midrashim (of which the general antiquity is certified by the Gospels, though the process of oral tradition through many centuries has introduced great modifications), Ben- Sira's book seems to exhibit few of the same interests. He looks forward to t…
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From the discussion in Bab. Sank. 1006 we can infer that the original had been lost by the time of I!ab Joseph {4tli century). This personage couples it with ' foreign literature,' by the reading of which eternal life is forfeited ; and the first passage cited and interpreted quite certainly does not belong to it. It t…
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In the years 1897-99 considerable fragments were published in Oxford by A. E. Cowley and A. Neubauer, and in Cambridge by S. Scliechter and C. Taylor, of a re-translation made in the 10th or 11th cent., which, doubtless owing to its extreme badness, had been consigned to oblivion in an Egyptian Genizah. This was, indee…
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(5) The appearance of the MS, in which the text is corrected with the greatest licence, resembles an author's brouillon more than a copy of an ancient work. Against this evidence no argument can be ad- duced which deserves to be refuted or even cited. Even if it be true that it sometimes has a text which explains both…
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As in the Greek States at an earlier period the slaves numbered four or five times as many as the citizens proper, so the projiortion in the Roman Empire must h.ave been similarly great. Thus Plin_y [HX xxxiii. 47) mentions a wealthy Roman, n.amed Claudius Isidorus, of the time of Augustus, who left by will 4116 slaves…
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(h) Luxarij and extravagance increased in society as slaves increased in numbers and were more easily acquired. Friedlander points out that in great houses large numbers of slaves were kept merely for ostentatious display. Their service was often limited to ridiculously insignificant functioiLS. Some had only to act a…
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Jesus Himself used the relation of master and slave to illustrate His teaching, without any word condemning slavery as an evil in itself (see, e.rj., Mt IS^^if-)- So, too, St. Paul in his Epistles lias nothing to say against the institution. Indeed, in one important passage (1 Co J^-'-*] he definitely counsels slave co…
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The Church also in the course of time sought to bring about practical ameliorations of the state of servitude. A surprising illustration of this is afforded by Apostolic Constitutions, viii. 33, where it is laid down that slaves are to be exempt from labour at all the great ecclesiastical seasons, on the days of apostl…
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SMOKE SMYRNA 513 against that suspension of s]iiritiial activity whicli is iniplieil in sleep, inasnuK'li as Ciiiistians are llie cliildren of tlie day (I Th o"- ') and not of tlie nij;lit, and he calls upon them to awake out of sleep (Ko 13", Eph 5'*). Slee]) lias always been a profound mystery, and it is still th…
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Smyrna was the emporium for the trade of the fertile Hermus valley, and the terminus of one of the great roads from the interior of Asia Minor. It was noted for its carefully-]ilanned streets — one of them called 'Golden Street' — and splendiil public buildings. Its citizens owed much to their sagacious friendship with…
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Literature. — C. Wilson, in Murray'8 Handbook to Asia Minor, 1895, p. 70 f. ; W. M. Ramsay, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia, 1904, p. 251 f. James Strahan. SOBERNESS, SOBRIETY The object of this article is to determine the meanings of the two word-groups, vrjcpaKio^ (i'^0w) and (rujtppojv (and cog- nates),…
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As Anaxagoras appeared to Aristotle {Met, i. 3) like a sober (k^^wc) man among a crowd of drunk- ards, so in a deeper sense must the Christian appear. Similarly in Ro I3'^"" the night is the sphere of spiritual blindness resulting in all manner of riotous excess, but the day calls for wakefulness, sobriety, and spiritu…
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516 SOBERNESS, SOBRIETY SOBERNESS, SOBRIETY his reason was for the inornent obscured. St. Panl'.s message was utterly novel to him, and he conse- quently attributed liis intense emotion to mental (leranjjement, just as he regarded tlie content of his message as illusion and not reality (dXriSeia). Similarly, Penelop…
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The whole passage Ro 12'-13" has to be con- sidered if one is to grasp the wide scope of iru- tppoavfi) in St. Paul's teaching. It moves in the sphere of a community redeemed by the mercies of God (Ro 12'), renewed in mind (12-), endowed with v.aried graces by God's Spirit (12'), to which love is the fulfilling of the …
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• iriaiitpovi^etv^ ' sopbronize.' The word ifl sometimes used in English ; of. A. P. Stanley, Life of Arnold^, London, 1868, vol. i. p. 30 : * I am confirmed in mv resolution not to do so (t.e. raise the entrance fees) lest I should get the sons of very great people as my pupils whom it is almost impossible to sophroni…
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The absence of the phrase 6 w6stoD avdpuirov from the general body of NT writings cannot, therefore, be explained as entirely due to a reverent or super- stitious disinclination to use a title which Jesus had appropriated to Himself. If the details of the martyrdom of James the Just given by Hegesippus and quoted by Eu…
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SOl'ATEK aoKCEKY i)l'j * Soothsaj-er * is used in Jos 13-2 (AV and RV ; A Vm ' diviner ') to translate Dpip, Qal pt. act. of CCi3. wliinh, with its kiniired terms, is translated ' divine ' in Nu 2'.;' 23-'. Dt 18>o. '*, 1 .s 2,m'', 2 K 1717, Is 44», Kzk 12." 13^ ' 2131- 1" », Mic .■(«• 7, the 1,.\.\ in all these eas…
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In Jer 27^, D'T^'J, the practisers of the art, is translated 'your sorcerers' in AV and RV, while the LXX uses (fiap/xaKon- (Jer 34O). |The noun 1C'3 in Is 47». 12 is translated by 'sorceries (AV and RV), and by (fiap^ajcft'a in the LX.X; but in 2 K 922, llic 511('2), Nab 34 it is translated hy ' witchcrafts,' LXX tfo-…
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P. A. Gordon Clark. SORROW.— See Repentance, Grief. SOSIPATER {XuialnaTpoi, a Greek name). — Sosipater is one of three men, Lucius and Jason being the others, who send salutations in Ro 16-' and are described by St. Paul as ' my kinsmen ' (oi <rir)'7ei'ers /iov), i.e. fellow- Jews (cf. Andronicus and Junia(s), v.', He…
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LiTKRATt'RK.— W. P. Dickson, art. 'Sostheiics' in II DB; W. M. Ramsay, art. * Corintti,' ib. i. 482* ; C. von Weizsacker, Apvsli:li,: Aiie, i.- Il.ondnu, 18B7J 113, SOC-310 ; A. Harnack, Kxpansion of Chrislianilif, i.- [Loruloii, 10(»S] ;>21 ; F. Godet, Connm'niari/ mi 1st Corinthiann (Enc. tr., Ediiihiirtfh. IHhti) ; …
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J. C. Lambert. SPAIN (SiraWa). — Spain was St. Paul's objective during tlie later years of his missionary activity. It was characteristic of him that he was always thinking of ' the parts beyond ' (ra im(piKetva, 2 Co 10'°). Sensitively regardful of 'the [province (ranix) which Goil apportioned ' him, and deter- mined …
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4. It personifies various kinds of influence, as in the phrases 'spirit of bondage' (Ro 8"), ' spirit of stupor' (11*), ' spirit of the world ' (1 Co 2'-), ' spirit of fear ' (2 Ti 1'), ' spirit of truth ' and ' spirit of error' (1 Jn 4*). 5. It is employed in contrast with 'the letter' {■ypdi/.lj.a) to denote inward …
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2. TTi'teiuaTa in the NT generally means 'angels,' and it lias heun held that the fallen angels are iiidicateil by to. TveOfiara iv <pv\aK^. This would agree with the language of Jude* and 2 P '2^, the latter passage (as in 1 P 3") going on to speak of Noah and the Flood. 80 in Eth. Knovh, x. 12, the sons of God who ha…
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Hence the mention of the Descensus would at once suggest to a Jew the abyss, whence the waters of judgment burst forth at the Flood. Of the count- less souls imprisoned there, the writer recalls, naturally and immediately, those who were carried to its depths in that overwhelming visita- tion of God's wrath. To these (…
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Turning to the use of the word 'star' in the Book of llevelation, we (ind in the vision of the Son of Man that ' he had in his right hand seven .stars' (Rev 1'") and that 'the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches ' (v.-"). According to one view, the angels of the churches are their pastors or rulers ; accor…
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STEPHEN. — Of Stephen we know nothing beyond the short notice of him contained in the two chapters (6 and 7) of Acts. He is said by Epiphanius (Hmr. xx. 4) to have been one of the Seventy; but such a statement has little weight. All we can say for certain is that, when elected to be one of the Seven, he was a man of ])…
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LlTER.\TURR. — J. P. Norris, Key to Narrative of the Acts of the Apostles, London, ISSa ; R. B. Rackham, The Acts of the Apostles, do., 1901 ; W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Trarelltr and the Roman Citizen, do., 1395; A. Harnack, The Acts of the Apostles, Eng. tr., do., 1909, Luke the Physician, Eng. tr., do., 1907. W. A. …
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STOICS STUICS The teaching of Plato and Aristotle had waned in populiirily, the Epioiiicuiis sulli-ied from an evil reputation, while Stoicism cliiiiiied to oiiahle men to enihire tho prevailing,' hardships of thoMj;ht and life. Its cultivation of hiyh ideals, thu nobility of its foremost adherents, its repression of…
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(b) Physics. — In this branch of their .sjstem the Stoics derived much from Hcraelitus, as did their cimtemporaries the Epicureans from Democritus. They declared the primary element to be a fiery ether which, after assuming grosser forms such as fire, as we see it, air, water, and earth, finally resumes its original ch…
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(c) Eelatiun to Christianity. — Many facts make this an interesting subject of study. Even the OT, and Apocalyptic books such as Sirach, 4 Mac- cabees, and Wisdom of Solomon had been affected by Stoicism. And, with so many points of contact in their ethical teaching, it is small wonder that Stoicism and Christianity h…
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Two instances of stoning call for special considera- tion— that of the proto-martyr Stejilien (Ac "i^^-^")^ and that of St. Paul at Lystra (14>»f-). 1. The stoning of Stephen. — In connexion with the stoning of the lirst Christian martyr, a much- debated question is whether it was (a) tumultuary, {b) legal, or (c) a b…
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530 STKANGER, ALIEN, FOREIGNER STRANGER, ALIEN, FOREIGNER ably identical Avith the stoninp; to which he was subjected at Lystra duriii!:; his liist visit to Galatia (Ac 14'"-). He had left Iconium not long before to avoid similar treatment, which some of the inhabi- tants of that city, both Jewish and Gentile, were p…
1,024 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.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.