Largely, in the sense of freely, occurs in 1 Mae 16° ‘ when Simon and his sons had drunk largely’ (ἐμεθύσθη, RV ‘had drunk freely’; Ball and Bissell, ‘were drunk,’ which is the only possible meaning). Cf. North’s Plutarch, ‘ Alexander,’ p. 687, ‘Then did Alexander offer great preene unto the god, and gave money largely to the priests and ministers of the temple.’
Largeness occurs only 1 K 45 ‘And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart’ (2? 294), where the meaning is not, as now understood, a charitable disposition, but breadth of intellectual interest,
4
LASCIVIOUSNESS
the difference being due, however, to the differ- ence between the Heb. and Eng. uses of ‘heart.’ Thus the marg. of the Geneva Bible (copied into the Bishops’ Bible) explains the phrase, ‘able to comprehend all things,’ where the tr. is ‘a large heart.’ But it is probable that as first used by Wyclif the Eng. phrase meant liberality in giving, as the marg. note to the 1388 ed. has ‘largenesse of herte, to spende in greet worschip.’ Cf. Elyot,
uvernour, i. 104, ‘Croesus, the riche king of Lidia . . . saide on a tyme to Cyrus, when he behelde his liberalitie, that suche largenesse as he used shulde bringe hym in ἜΝΘΕΝ where, if he lysted, he mought accumulate up treasure incomparable.’ J. HASTINGS.
LASCIVIOUSNESS is the tr. in AV and RV of ἀσέλγεια in Mk 73, 2 Co 12", Gal δ)», Eph 4°, 1 P 45, Jude*. The Gr. word is found also in Ro 13%, where both versions have ‘ wantonness,’ and three times in 2 P, viz. 2? TR πολλοὶ ἑἐξακολουθήσουσιν αὐτῶν ταῖς ἀπωλείαις, AV ‘many shall follow their pernicious ways,” but edd. ἀσελγείαις, whence RV ‘their lascivious doings’ ; 27 ἐν ἀσελγείᾳ ἀναστροφή, AV ‘filthy conversation,’ RV ‘lascivious life’; and 218 ἀσελγείαις AV ‘throngh much wantonness,’ RV ‘by lasciviousness.’ In LXX ἀσέλγεια occurs only twice, Wis 14% AV ‘shameless unclean- ness,’ RV ‘wantonness’; and 3 Mac 2” ‘acts of ca
The etymology of dcé\yea has had a curious history. The derivation from a priv. and Σέλγη, a Pisidian city, is still mentioned by lexicographers, though it is doubtful if it was for morality or immorality that that city was famous: Thayer- Grimm, ‘whose citizens excelled in strictness of morals’; Trench, ‘whose inhabitants were in- famous for their vices.’ The favourite derivation is, however, a and σέλγω, i.e. θέλγω to charm. But the use of the word in NT alone is sufficient to fix its meaning and to show that ‘lasciviousness’ is too restricted and definite to cover it all. The ae is absence of restraint, indecency; and alitiong that is generally regarded as shown in sensuality, there are passages, as Mk 7” and 1 P 48, where sensuality is not yet in sight. In the latter passage, as Salmond points out, the writer begins with a general term (‘excesses’) sufficient to include unbridled conduct of all kinds, and then passes to particulars. Trench thinks ‘wantonness’ the best rendering, ‘standing as it does in a remarkable ethical connexion with ἀσέλγεια, and having the same duplicity of mean- ing,’ i.e. indecency in general and sensuality in particular. See Trench, NZ Synonyms’, p. 54 ff, and Thayer, NT Greek Lex.,s.v. The leading idea in the word is probably conduct that is shameless. It is thus Ny with πορνεία and ἀκαθαρσία in 2 Co 127 and Gal δ᾽", where πορνεία is a special form of impurity ; ἀκαθαρσία uncleanness of any kind that may, however, be unseen; ἀσέλγεια uncleanness that shocks publie decency. See Lightfoot on Gal 5” and 1 Th 28 (the latter in Notes on Epp. of St. Paul, p. 21). It is remarkable that in at te places in which ‘lasciviousness’ is found it has been introduced by the AV translators. The earlier word is nearly always ‘ wantonness’ (except in Wye. and Rhem. following the Vulg. too closely and giving ‘lechery’ or ‘impurity’ mostly). R has carried the mistake still further by changing ‘wantonness’ of 2 P 218 into ‘ lasciviousness.’
J. HASTINGS.
LASEA (Adcaa) is never mentioned by any ancient author except St. Luke; but in the ‘hundred-citied’ Crete it is not strange that an unimportant town should be only once mentioned. Lasaia was near Fair Havens (Ac 278); and as St. Paul's ship ley for some considerable time in
LASTHENES
a “΄ τσ η6 Ἐς.--.:.-.--Ὁ.---:Ἤ. -----. -
the Havens, it would be necessary to purchase stores from the city, on which account it comes to * be mentioned by the historian. The ruins of the city were examined in 1856 by the Rev. G. Brown. They are about 5 miles east from the Havens, and 1 mile east from Cape Leonda or Leona; and according to Mr. Brown are still called Λάσαια by the Cretan peasantry. This may probably be the Lisia mentioned in the Peutinger Tables as 16 miles south from Gortyna. In an air line the distance on the map seems hardly more than 12 miles; but in mountainous Crete the road may be 16 miles. Mr. E. Falkener has published an old Venetian description of the island of Crete, which mentions in this neighbourhood a place Lapsea, with a ruined temple (Mr. Brown mentions two temples).
LiTeraTuRE.—Smith, Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, 8rd ed. p. 205f.; Falkener in Museum of Class. Antig. (1852), p. 287. W. M. Ramsay.