'Disputation' occurs in AV, Ac 15' (TR o-ufiirTjffis, edd. ^rrnjcyis, RV ' questioning '), and Ro 14^ ' Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations ' (eis SioKp/ffcu SiaKor/iijfjLuii' ; lit. ' unto discussions of doubts ' ; RVm ' for de- cisions of doubts'; see Sanday-Headlam in loc). Bp. Bonner's injunction for the reading of the Bible (1541) ends thus : ' he is not to expound, nor to reaxle with a lowde voyce, and witliout dis- putacion,' where, as elsewhere, d. means ' discus- sion ' : the reader is neither to expound the mean- ing himself, nor to discuss it with others.
J. Hastings.
DISTAFF (11^5).— This term occurs in AV only in Pr 31'". 'The Hebrew word is found repeatedly in Neh 3, where it means ' part ' or ' district ' of the city, something ' cut on ' or ' divided ' from the rest. It is found also in 2 S 3"*, where it is rendered 'statt',' but \>xoh. = distaff (see Driver's note). RV renders the word in Pr 31" ' spindle,' for which it may no doubt be used ; but if we may judge from the cognate Arab, word (falk(tt),ii means the ufiAjrl of the spindle, a piece of wood or cJlher material, of hemispherical form, through which the spindle-pin passes, and above which is the hook holding the thread. The design of this piece is to give steadiness to the circular motion 01 the spindle. This form of spindle is in common use among the women of Syria to-day.
H. PoRTF.n.
DIVERS, DIVERSE.—' Divers' has now drojiped out of use, or, if used archaically, is restricted to the sense of 'several.' But formerly 'divers' and 'diverse' were indilferent spellings of the same adj., which expressed either 'varied,' ' diUerent ' (Lat. diversus) i or 'various,' 'several.' Thus Ridley, A Brefe Declaration (Moule's ed. p. 106) : ' in the matter of thys Sacrament tlier be diverse [ = several] ])oyntes, wherein menne (counted to be learned) can not agree ' ; Grindal, Letter to Q. Eliz. (1577): 'divers [ = dilTerent] men make divers senses of one sentence of Scripture.' In AV 1611 'diverse' occurs Lv 19", Est 3'', Dn 7>»-"-", Mt4"; elsewhere 'divers.' The conjunction of 'divers' with 'sundry,' as in He 1', is common in old Eng., as in tne Act authorizing Matthew's Bible (Hen. VIII. 1543) : 'divers and sundrye his subjects of this his realme.' J. Hastings.
DIVES.— See LaZARDS.
DIVINATION has many dilTerent modes amongM
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DIVINATION
DIVINATION
the different peoples of the earth, but all are in their ori(,'in either natural or supernatural. Methods which orij^inally were supernatural may come to lose their supernatural character ; methods which were at first natural may come to be regarded as supernatural ; and, from lack of evidence, it may be difficult or impossible to say with regard to any given method whether in its origin it was a natural or a supernatural method.
We sLiiU begin with the supernatural methods as being those first suggested by the word ' divina- tion,' and we shall define them as those by which man gains foreknowledge ef the future from a supernatural source, e.g. by inspiration, posses- sion, or direct interrogation of the divine wUl. These methods, the supernatural, again fall into two classes, the licit and the illicit, according as the supernatural source is or is not a god of the community. We may think what we will of the honesty of the priests of Apollo, and entertain what idea we like aa to the way in which the oracle of Delphi or of Baal-zebub (2 K I'"') was worked, but the worshipper of Apollo who consulted the oracle was doing what was approved of by the religious consciousness of his age and race (however low we rank it in the scale of religion) : his action was licit. On the other hand, we may pity both the witch and the witch-fijider of the time of James I. of England, but we cannot deny that witchcraft was considered, both by those who practised and those who persecuted it, to be irreligious : it was illicit. And the same distinction has prevailed over the world : savages, however low, distinguish in their way between the worship of their tribal gods and commerce with supernatural spirits who are no gods of theirs.
But before proceeding to inquire more closely into the licit modes of divination, i.e. those which are religious, we must notice that these, again, fall into two classes, viz. those which are objectively religious and those which are only subjectively religious. That is objectively right, true, or religious which is so, whether a man thinks it so or not ; that is subjectively right, true, or religi- ous which is honestly believed to be so, whether it really is so or not. All peoples of the earth have honestly believed that their gods communicated supernatural foresight to certain favoured men, and so divine inspiration or possession is a sub- jectively religious method of divination. When and where the belief is not merely subjectively but also objectively true, the divine inspiration takes the form, not of 'divination,' but of PRO- PHECY (which see). In this article the only side of inspiration we have to deal with is the sub- jectively religious — without prejudice to the question whether any given example is or is not, as it is honestly believed to be, really divine.