From this developed next the sense of ‘ wicked * by an easily understood transition. Sir John Davies, Discoverie of the State of Ireland (ed. 1613), p. 181, says the followers of the Irish chieftains ‘ were borne out and countenanced in all their lewde and wicked actions’; North (Plutarch, ‘Cicero,’ p. 862) has ‘This Verres had been Praetor of Cicilia, and had committed many lewd parts there’; and this is the meaning in Milton, PL iv.
193—
*So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold :
So since into his Church lewd hirelings climb.’ And then, finally, came the meaning of ‘lustful,’ the special wickedness to which the ignorant were prone, and the only meaning that has remained to the word. This is as old as Chaucer; cf. also Spenser, FQ 11. i. 1O— “Ὁ would it so had chaunst,
That you, most noble Sir, had present beene
When that lewd ribauld, with vile lust advaunst,
Laid first his filthy hands on virgin cleene’ ; Milton, PL i. 490—
‘Belial came last, than whom a Spirit more lewd Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love Vice for itself’ ;
and Comus, 465—
‘But, when lust, By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk, But most by lewd and lavish act of sin, Lets in defilement to the inward parts, The soul grows clotted by contagion.’
In AV lewd, lewdly, and lewdness are found in both the meanings last noted, and there is no sharp distinction between them. The special sense of ‘lustful,’ while usual in OT, does not occur in Apocr. or NT.
The Heb. words are (1) 721 zimmah, which is tr* ‘lewdness’ in Jg 208 (Moore, ‘abomination,’ which is the Geneva word), Jer 13°”, Hos 6° (Cheyne, outrages’), and often in Ezk (16% § 22° 232}: 97. 29. 8. 48 bis. 49 9413 see Davidson on 16%), This word has a range of meaning from the colourless ‘ plan’ or ‘ purpose’ (only Job 174) to the special sin of un- chastity. Besides the above, it is rendered in AV ‘purpose’ (Job 17”), ‘thought’ (Pr 24°, so RV, but OHL ‘evil device’), ‘wicked device’ (Is 827), ‘wickedness’ (Lv 1817 19” 20%, RVm ‘enormity’), ‘ mischief’ (Ps 26 119, Pr 10%, RV in last two ‘ wickedness’), ‘heinous erime’ (Job 31"'); in Ezk 167 the Heb. ‘way of lewdness’ is τὰ ‘lewd way,’ so ‘women of lewdness’ in 23“ ‘lewd women’ ; in Pr 2127 Heb. ‘in lewdness’ is ‘ with a wicked mind,’ RVm ‘to atone for wickedness’; and in Ezk 22" it is ‘lewdly.’ (2) The derivative 71> is once (Jer 115) rendered ‘lewdness’; and (3) m53) nadbh- lith, in its only occurrence (Hos 2°) is so translated, AVm ‘folly or villany,’ RVm ‘shame.” Ὁ
In Apocr. the adj. occurs in Ad, Est 16* ‘lifted up with the glorious words of lewd persons that were never good ' (rots τῶν ἀπειραγαθῶν κόμποις waperd Pres, RV ‘lifted up with the boastful words of them that were never good’); 16° ‘lewd disposition
110 LIBANUS
LIBERTY
(κακοπιστία) ; Sir 30% ‘lewd behaviour’ (ἀσχημο- σύνη, RV ‘shameless behaviour’); and Sir 16 »*ing ‘It is better to have none, than many lewd children’; the adv. in Wis 158 ‘employing his labours lewdly’ (κακόμοχθος, RV ‘labouring to an evil end’); and the subst. in To 418 ‘in lewdness is decay and great want’ (ἐν τῇ ἀχρειότητι, RV ‘in
naughtiness’). In NT the adj. occurs but once, Ac 17° ‘certain lewd fellows of the baser sort’ (τῶν ἀγοραίων τινὰς ἄνδρας πονηρούς, RV ‘certain vile fellows of the rabble’); and the subst. once, Ac 18 ‘If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewd- ness’ (ῥαδιούργημα πονηρόν, RV ‘wicked villany’). J. HASTINGS. LIBANUS (Λίβανος, Libanus).—The (Greek) form of the (Heb.) name LEBANON (wh. see), 1 Es 448 5%, 2 Es 15”, Jth 17, Sir 9418 502 [all].
LIBERTINES. —In Ac 6° we read that ‘there arose certain of them that were of the synagogue called (the synagogue) of the Libertines, and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen.’ In close relation to the question who the Libertines were, stands the question as to the number of synagogues here indicated. It has been held that only one synagogue is implied (Calvin, Wieseler ; cf. Hort, Judaistic Christianity, 50); that there were two synagogues—the one consisting of Liber- tines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians, the other of Cilicians and Asiatics (Winer, Holtzmann, Wendt); that each of the five parties had a separate synagogue (Schiirer, Hausrath). The last view is supported by the fact that in Jerus. the synagogues —though they did not number 480, as affirmed in rabbinical traditions—were very numerous, and b the consideration that even if the inhabitants of all the places mentioned could have been accommodated in one synagogue—a supposition which the large- ness of the Jewish population in Cyrene and Alexandria renders very improbable—there was no common bond to bring together men from towns or districts so widely separated.
If this view be sound, it helps to determine the
uestion whether by the L. we are to understand the inhabitants of some town or the designation of a class. The association of the Libertines with the Cyrenians, etc., would naturally suggest the inhabitants of some town in Proconsular Africa, and conjectural emendations of the text (Λιβυστίνων (Wetstein, Blass) or Λιβύων τῶν κατὰ Κυρήνην) based on this eemmption have been made (see Blass, PAilo- logy of Gospels, 69f.). It is argued by Gerdes (‘de synagoga Libertinorum,’ Pzercit. Acad. 1738, who at the same time furnishes a complete statement and discussion of other views) that if Luke had meant Libertini in the Roman sense, he would have used a Gr., not a Lat. word ; that Suidas men- tions a town named Libertum; and that among those present at the Council of Carthage in 41] was Victor Episcopus Eeclesie Catholice Libertinensis, between whom and the rival Donatist bishop a sharp recrimination took place (Mansi, iv. 91, 92). But the statement of Suidas is probably derived from the passage in Ac; and, moreover, it is altogether improbable that the Jewish contingent from a town so obscure could have maintained a separate synagogue at Jerusalem. Moreover, the addition by Luke of τῆς λεγομένης seems intended to guard against the possibility of our misconceiving that the Libertines, like the others mentioned, were inhabitants of a place.