tented ' Sir 29'. 2. To grip. Job 41" ' The sword of him that layeth at him [leviathan] cannot hold ' (KV 'avail'; Davidson, 'Tlie sword does not hold or bite, but glances oil his adamantine armour ') ; or restrain, keep under restraint, Lk 24'" ' But tlieir eyes were holden that they should not know him ' {cKpaToOi'To) ; Ro 7' ' But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held' • {KarcixiiieOa, RV ' we were holden ') ; or retain, keen hold of. Job 23" ' My foot hath held his steps' (RV 'hehl f.ast to his steps'); Col 2'" 'And not holding the Head' {KfiaTiv, RV 'holding fast') ; or arrest (lig.) Ca 7° 'The king is held in the galleries' (RV 'held captive;). Cf. Mk 3=' Tind. 'They went out to holde him. For they thought he had bene beside himselfe' {KparTjaai, Cran. 'to laye handes ui)on liim,'AV'to lay hold on him'). 3. To support, maintain, Ps 139'" 'thy right hand sh.all hold me'; 1 Mac 6°- ' Whereupon they also made engines against their engines, and held them battle a long season' (eVoXe/iijo'ai' iiiMjiai TToWds, RV 'fought for many days'). Cf. Defoe, Crusoe, p. 300, ' The battle, they said, held two Hours, before they could guess which Partj' would be beaten.' 4. Some phrases deserve attention : (1) Hold forth, Ph 2'» ' Holding forth the word of life' ((Vf'x'»"'f5, Tind. ' lioldinge fast,' Gen. [1557] 'putting forth,' Lightfoot 'holding out"). (2) Hold in, Jer 6" ' I am weary with holding in.' (3) Hold of. Wis 2-^ ' Nevertheless througli envy of the devil came death into tlie world : and they that do hold of his side do lind it ' (ol t7(! (Keivov iieplSos dvTcs, RV ' they that are of his portion '). Cf. Tindale, Pent., Prologue to Numbers, ' He will hold of them and be sworne unto them to be their servaunte.' (i)Huld to. Sir 30" 'Chastise thy son and hold him to labour' {Ipyaaai ey aiiTif, RV 'take pains with him') ; Mt 6-' ( = Lk 16") 'either he will hate the one, and love the other ; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the otlier ' {avdc^- erat). Cf. Dt 17'" Tind. ' But in ani wyse let him not holde to many horsses, that he bringe not the people agayne to Egipte thorow the nmltitude of horsses' (quoted also by Latimer, Hernions, Arbor's ed. p. 25). (5) Hold (ins support, Ps 119'" 'Hold thou me up, and I shall be sate ' ; 17" ' Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not (-:i? ;i-niSjiC3 •■)-^-it, RV ' My steps have held fast to thy paths'; Wellhausen-Furness, 'My steps — they have followed close in thy footprints'); and the phrase ' hold up my face to,' 2 S 2^ ' Wherefore should I smite thee to the ground? how then should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother ? ' (6) Hold with, Dn 10-' ' And there is none that holdcth with me in these things but Michael your prince'; 1 Mac 3- 'And all his brethien helped Iiim, and so did all they that held with his father' (RV ' that clave unto ') ; Ac 14< ' But the multitude of the city was divided : and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles.' So Hos 11'= Cov. ' But Ephraim goeth aboute me with lies, and the house of Israel dyssembleth. Only Juda holdeth him with God, and with the true holy thinges.' J. HASTINGS.
HOLINESS.— In the Old Testament.— The notion of holiness is expressed in Heb., as in the Semitic lan''uages generall3", by the two roots a~p and onn. Of these the latter was most widely difl'used amongst the Semitic peoples, but in Heb. usage it was restricted to certain extreme kinds of consecration, usually involving the total destruc- tion of the devoted thing (see CuESE). The dis- tinctively OT developments of the idea are connected with ri^, which is the root commonly employed by the Northern Semites ; and in this
• Cf. Lk 488 Rhem. • And Simons wives mother wm holdea with a great fever.'
HOLIIS^ESS
HOLINESS
395
article the various applications of this root will alone be considered.*
The original iilea convej-ed by the words is altogether uncertain, neither etymology nor the analogy of the cognate dialects having as yet thrown much light on the subject.t The truth is, that the words are nowhere found save in a religious sense, and the attempt to ascertain the physical conception on Avhich this use is based is generally abandoned by modern scliolars as hopeless. There is, however, a certain probability that tlie primary idea is that of 'separation' or 'cutting 011'.'+ Although this view is not capable of demonstration, it may be adopted provisionally as one tliat litu in remark- ably well with OT usage. Thus the technical antithesis to vy is Vn, a word which means simply 'open to common use,' 'profane' (see IS 'Jl', Ezk 22='' etc.). At all events, it is correct to say that a holy object is one ' separated ' from common use and contact by supernatural sanctions ; and if we start from this negative delinition of what the OT means by holiness, Ave shall probably not be far from the fundamental meaning of the root. It only neiMJs to be remarked that in hardly any case does the 'separation' denoted by cip amount to absolute removal from human use or contact (as is thecii.-e with cin). All tliat is usually involved is that I he use of the 'holy' is rcntricted by cere- moni.il rules, or confined to privileged persons or to particular times — a ])rinciple of which abundant ilhi>tration will be fo\md in what follows. The holiness of places, things, seasons, even of persons, is thus safeguarded by a .sot of recognized religious usages, which sometimes, as in the Levitical ritual of OT, attain a higli degree of complexity.