The failure of the fig and vine was a sign of great di.stresa (Jer 5" 8", Jl !'■ '-, llab 3"- '»). Kigs were dried and pressed into cakes for food (I S 25'°). These were used as poultices (2 K 2U', Is 38-'). Fig leaves are thick, palmately lol)ed, and often a span or more across. There is no good reason to doubt the identity of the leaves which Adam and Eve used to make aprons (Gn 3').
G. E. Post.
FIGURE.— 1. Dt 4" ' Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure' {h-Dsrmel, Driver 'statue.' The word is found also 2 Ch 33'-"' EV ' idol,' and Ezk 8»-» EV ' image.' The meaning 'statue' is confirmed by the Phoen. inscriptions. See Driver on Dt 4" and Davidson on Ezk 8^). The Eng. word seems to be used in the obsolete sense of the distinctive shape or appearance of a person or thing. The Gen. version lias ' a OTaven image or representacion of anie figure ' ; the Bishops', ' a graven image and picture of any maner 01 figure.' Cf. Chaucer, Monk's Tale, 232—
• And thanne tiad god of him [Nebucliadnezzar] compossioun, And him restored his regne and his figure '—
i.e. his proper shape as a man. So Shaks. Hamlet, I. i. 41—
' In the same figure, like the king that's dead.*
2. 1 K 6-'*' ' he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubims ' (nivbp? mikliToth occurs only in this ch. and the next: 6'" EV 'was carved,' i.e. 'was carving of; g32 gy 'carvings'; 7^' EV 'gravings'). These 'carved figures' (as the single Heb. word is here tr'') were representations of cherubim cut in relief on the wood of the doors. See CAltviNG. For this use of the Eng. word, cf. Caxton, Cato, A iii. b, ' to adoure the yniages and other fygures humayn ' ; and Milton, Lycidas, 105 —
• Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow. His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge. Inwrought with figures dim.'
3. Is 44" ' The carpenter . . . maketh it [the image] after the figure of a man ' (n'::n tahhnith). The Heb. is frequent for the outward appearance of a person or tiling. It occurs along with semel (above) in Dt 4"' and is tr'' ' likeness.^ The Eng. word is used in the same sense as 1 above. Cf. He P Wye. ' he is the schynynge of glorie, and figure of his substaunce ' ; and Mk 16'- Tind. ' After that, he appered unto two of them in a straunge figure.' 4. Ac 7''' ' figures which ye made to worship them ' ; and Ko 5" ' who is the figure of him that was to come ' (rijiros). Sanday-Headlam's note on the Greek word is as follows —
Tuvot (tutt*) : (1) the ' impression ' left by a sharp blow (t«» rC^oy Tu* »jA*.y, ' the print of the nails,' Jn '^O'-^^), in particular the ' stamp ■ stnick bv a die ; ('2) inasmuch as such a stamp bears the figure on the face of the die, ' copy,' ' figure,' or ' representa- tion ' : (3) by a common transition from effect to cause, ' mould,' ' pattern, ' exemplar ' ; (4) hence in the special sense of the word type which we have adopted from the Greek of NT, ' an event or person in history corresponding in certain character- istic features to another event or person.
In Ac 7*' the meaning is ' representations ' or
• ima''es of gods ' (the second meaning above) ; in Ro 5" it is 'type' (the fourth meaning above). 5. He 9^" ' Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true ; but into heaven itself ' (ivTiTuva twv aK-ndifCiv, RV ' like in pattern to the true ') ; and 1 P 3-' ' The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us' (3 xai i]iJ.ai d.vTlTviTov vOv cTMs'ei ^ainaim, RV ' which also after a true likeness doth now save you [reading iiia^ with edd.], even baptism,' RVm 'in the antitype'). The antitype (t4 avTiTimov) is the event or person in history that corresponds with the type (6 tvttos) — sea Sanday-Headlam above. The one that occurs first
IILL
FINE
in history is the type, the second the antitype. Hence in He 9" heaven is tlie type, the holy place in the tabernacle the antitype ; but in 1 P 3-' the water of the deluge is the type, of which baptism is the antitype. See TvpE, and cf. Cart- wright, Cert. Rdig. (1G51) i. 222, 'The Rock . . . was a Type and a Figure of Christ.' 6. He 9' 'a figure for the time then present,' and 11" 'Ac- counting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead ; from whence also he received him in a figure ' {ira.pa^oS.-q, RV ' parable,' in both). The meaning of 9' is clear, but 11" is much disputed.
There are two favourite interpretations ; (1) * Ab a parable/ tc of the resurrection. Wyclif ('in to a parable ') and the Rhemish ('for a parable') decline to commit themselves. * Tind. in ed. of 1534 translates 'for an ensample,' and is followed by Coverdale ; but in 1526 ed. he had boldly 'as an ensample of the resurrection,' and this was adopted by Cranmer, and very nearly by the Bishops (' in a certaine similitude of the resurrection '). This tr^ gives a well-recognized sen.^e to wotpa^ckn. The objection felt against it is that Isaac was actually not raised from the dead. Hence the favourite inti-rpretation at present is tliat of AV ' in a figure,' i.e. figuratively ; Lsaac was not reall.v dead, but he was as good as dead, and so figuratively waa raised from the dead (see Westcott, ad toe). Cf. Geneva ' in a sort.' The objection is that notpot.iiexii has not elsewhere this meaning.