C. is in the Bible a Di\ine as well as a human quality. But its attribution to God has raised certain questions among theologians.
The relation between pity and ^raa {iKtot and x*m) 'B one of these. In the Divine mind, it is said, and in the order of our salvation pity precedes grace, but in the order of the mani- festation of Goa's purposes of salvation the grace must go before the pity (Trench, N.T. Synonymi, p. 205).
Another point was raised by the ilanichseans. who objected that to call God compassionate was to make Him capable of suffering The Latin miar ricnrs lent itself to such a perversion of truth. and Augustine brushes it aside as a mere pretence of logomacbT {De Civ. Dei, ix. b; De Div. Qucest. ii. 2 ; Lib. de mar. EccL Cath. 27). See the question also discussed in Aquinas (.^umrntf QucESt. xxi. art. iii.). It is not God, but only Nature, that is pitiless ; only the stars that ' would as soon look down on a Gethsemane as an Eden.' We may be thankful that the OT exulted in speaking of the compassion of God for human misery and human sin, and that the NT tells how the Divine pity went forth in the fulness of time, incarnate in the Son, to seek and to save that which was lost.
With their sense of the pity that was in the heart of God, the prophets could not do other than impress on the Heorews the duty of pity for each other. Religion without kindness was unmeanin" (Hos 6'). It became a proverb that he who pitied the poor lent to the Lord (Pr 19"). 'To him that is afflicted,' said Job, ' pity should be showed from his friend' (6"). The fatherless and widow were to be to man, as they were to God, special objects of compassion (Ps 146°, cf. Ja 1^),
But in regard to foreigners Heb. morality was that common to all the ancients. There is no trace in OT of compassion towards a beaten foe. The solitary stranger who might be ' in their gates' was respected, but for aliens generally pity did not exist. 'Thine eye shall have no pity on them' (Dt 7") was the law of Israel in regard to enemies. It needed the revelation of NT, the parable of the good Samaritan, and the example of Christ's ' com- passion for the multitude' to create the modem idea of general benevolence. The OT religiom and ethical standard on the subject is presented in the verse ' Execute true judgment, ana show mercy and compassion every man to his brother' (Zee 7').
A. S. Aglen.
COMPEL. — This verb was sometimes used with- out any threatening or thought of force, simply in the sense of ' urge successfully.' It is doubtful if it is so used now. Hence we may misunderstand 1 S 28-*, where it is said that Saul's sen-ants, to- gether with the woman of Endor, 'c''' him to eat' (uii-ir', in 2 S 13^-'''' tr'' 'pressed him ') ; and esp. Lk 14'^ ' c. them to come in, that my house may
COMPOUND
CONDUIT
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be filled ' {drayKdi'u, RV ' constrain ') ; cf. Earl Rivers (1477), ' Wliiehe grace . . . hath compelled me to sette a parte alle ini^atitude.' Kohertson {Charles V. III. xi. 335) saj-s, 'As they could not persuade they tried to compel men to believe' — and this passage in St. Luke was quoted as their Bulhority ; but neither the Gr. nor the Eng. sanc- tions more than 'urging' : cf. RV even of Ac 20" ' I strove to make them blaspheme,' where Gr. and AV are the same as in Lk 14^.
In Mt 6*1 ' \niosoever shall c. thee to ^ a mile,' 273^ 'him thev c**! to bear his cross,' and ilk l.V-i ' thev c. one Sunoii a Cyrenian ... to bear his cross,* the Gr. vh. {ayyafuCu) has the technical meaninfi: of iiressinp into the kinp's service (RVm always 'impreM"). The word is of Pers. ori^^in, the iyyotpet beiii^' the puMic couhera of the kint^s of Persia, who had authority to press into their service in any emert,'ency whatever honies or men they met. The word was adopted also into *«tin anffariarv, and is used by Vultf. in pass.npe~ named above.
J. Hastings.
COMPOUND.— Ex 3(P 'an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary ' = ' compounded,' as RV. Compound is the orig. and only accurate form of the ptcp., the verb being compunen in middle Eng., from Lat. componere.
J. Ha.sting.s.
COMPREHEND. — C. is used lit. = hold together, contain, in Is 40'- 'and c''' the dust of the earth in a measure' ; an<I in the same sense, but fig., in Ro 13' ' it is briefly C^ in the saying' (RV ' summed up in this word '). See APPREHEND.
OONANIAH ().-t:j;S;).— 1. A Levite who had charge of the tithes and offerings in the time of Hezekiah ('2 Cli 31'»- '», AV Cononiah). 2. A chief of the I.evites in .Jotiali's reign (2 Ch 35'). On the form of the word see Kittel, ad loc. in Haupt.
J. A. Selbie.
CONCEIT. — A c. is something conceived, a thought, as Sir 27' ' The fruit declareth if the tree hate been dres.sed ; so is the utterance of a c. in the heart of man ' (d'OvuL-q^a, RV 'thought') ; 20" AVm 'pleasant conceits' (x^p'Tts, AV 'graces,' RV 'pleasantries'); I'r 18" (RV 'imagination'); Ro 11^ 12" 'wise in your own conceits' (irap faiTois, TR). Though c. is found very early in the sense of self-conceit, that is not its meaning in anj- of the foregoing pa.ssages. In Ro 1 1™ 12" ' con- ceits' is due to Tindale and Coverdale ('con.saytes'), but they probably meant simply ' opinions,' the word used in 12" by Tindale, Cranmer, and Geneva. (The phi. 'conceits 'is used of more than one person). liut in Pr 26'- "-"28" ('wise in his own c' ; Heb. pv 'ayin, 'eye') the meaning is no doubt the same as in mod. us.age. In Wis 8" c. is used in the ob.sol. sense of ' power of conceiving,' ' mental capacity,' ' I shall be found of a quick c. in judgment' ; cf. Shaks. As You Like It, v. ii. 48, 'I know you are a gentleman of good conceit'; and Ltu:rcce, 701 —