‘Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.’”
LirerATURE.—The literature of this subject is very copious, and a full list will be found in the pages of Schiirer, pp. 300- 804. In addition to the catalogue there given, Morris Jastrow’s chapter on Babylonian Magic and Blau’s treatise should be con- sulted. To these we have made frequent reference. See also Lehmann, Aberglaube u. Zauberei ; Wiinsch, Sethianische Ver- sluchungstafeln, and Ramsay, Expos. July 1899, p. 22. For further information, see articles Sorcery and Exorcism.
OweEN C. WHITEHOUSE.
MAGISTRATE.—This word is used several times in AV, where it represents different words in the original. At Jg 18’, where it is said of Laish, ‘there was no magistrate in the land that might put them to shame in anything’ (7x2 927 07227") ayy woh), the meaning of the expression has been much discussed and is confessedly obscure ; but it probably denotes, not any particular office, but the more general idea of ‘some one possessing power of restraint,’ or as in RV ‘ possessing authority.’* At Ezr 7*°, where Ezra is directed to appoint ‘ magis- trates and judges,’ the first word (γ8: Ὁ} is the Aram. form of what is in Hebrew the usual expression for ‘judges* (shdphétim, which reappears in the Cartha- ginian sufetes). At Lk 12" ‘magistrates’ repre- sents the general word (ἀρχαί) for ‘ruling powers,’ and is better rendered as in RV ‘rulers’; while at Lk 12° the ‘magistrate’ (ἄρχων) to whom it pertains to receive a complaint appears to denote a local authority of somewhat higher position than the ‘judge’ (κριτής) to whom he remits the case. At Tit 3! the phrase ‘to obey magistrates’ repre- sents the compound verb πειθαρχεῖν, which may probably be better rendered as in RV by the simple ‘to be obedient.’ But the principal use of the word ‘ magistrates’ is in Ac 16, where it denotes the chief authorities of the Roman colony of Philippi. When Paul and Silas were dragged into the market-place before the ‘rulers’ (ἄρχοντας, i.e. thie local city-judges), the charge against them re- solved itself into one of political disturbance, con- flicting with the allegiance due to Roman authority, and the accused were brought unto ‘the magistrates’ whose duty it was to deal with it (the στρατηγοί, 16”: 35. ὅδ, 86. 88), These were the duwmviri or pretores,t as they were called in towns which were colonies. They had officers in attendance on them to execute their orders, called ‘serjeants’ (EV) or ‘lictores’ ; but in this case they exceeded their powers, and when they were made aware that the prisoners whom they had ordered to be scourged were entitled to the privileges of Roman citizens, they were glad in turn to become suppliants that the released captives might leave the city.
WILLIAM P. DICKSON.
MAGNIFICAL.—The old adj. ‘magnifical’ is retained by AV in 1 Ch 22° from the Geneva version, and it is still kept in RV—‘ the house that is to be builded for the LoRD must be exceeding magnifieal ’°—though the word has long since been displaced by ‘magnificent.’ The adv. occurs in Rhem. NT, Lk 16 ‘There was a certaine riche man, and he was clothed with purple and silke: and he fared every day riepytitcally 3
J. HASTINGS.
* The MT appears to be hopelessly corrupt, and the Versions | give no help (see Moore, ad loc.).
+ On the application of the term at Philippi, see Ramsay, St. Paul t
(oe to the magistrates he Traveller, p. 217 f.
MAHALALEL
MAGOG (33>, Maydéy).—Enumerated among the
sons of Japheth between Gomer (the Cimmerians) and Madai (the Medes) in Gn 10%. Ezekiel (385) calls Gog ‘the prince of Rosh, Meshech, «πὰ Tubal,’ of ‘the land of Magog.’ In Rev 205, Gog and Magog are alike made representatives of the northern nations. If Gog is Gyges of Lydia, Magog would be Lydia, and we should have to explain Magog as signifying ‘the country of Gog’ (but see Dillm. on Gn 103, where this explana- tion, which is that of Ed. Meyer [Gesch. § 464], is emphatically rejected), It is noteworthy that méys meant ‘land’ in the Lydian language, and that the Assyr. inscriptions give the name of a district in Armenia as indifferently Ma-Zamua and Zamua. In any case, as Meshech and Tubal were nations of E. Asia Minor, Magog would seem to have been in the same part of the world, and its association with Gomer in Gn 103 would be explained by the Cimmerian settlements in Asia Minor. Cap- padocia is even called Gamir by Armenian writers. Josephus (Anf. I. vi. 1) identifies Magog with the Scythians; but the term Scythian was used vaguely to denote almost any northern popu- lation about which little was known.
The prophecy of Ezk 385-996 was the source of the constantly recurring notion in Apocalyptic literature that Israel’s enemies would Δ finally destroyed at the advent of the Messiah (see Liter- ature below, and cf. Rev 203). In the Assumption of Moses, where there is no mention of the Messiah, this final destruction is the work of God Himself, as it is also in Enoch, where the Messiah appears after the judgment. Gog and Magog not only meet us in Rey, but recur constantly in the ‘antichrist-Apocalypses’ (see Bousset, Antichrist, Index, s. ‘Gog u. Magog’).
LiTerature.—Dillmann on Gn 102; Davidson and Bertholet on Ezk 38f. ; Bousset on Rev 208; Schrader, KAT? 80, 427 (COT i. 62, ii. 123); Stade, ΟΥ̓ 1 ii. 61f. ; Schiirer, HJ αι. ii. 166, iii. 279; Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthuin, ii. 732 ff. ; Weber, Jiid. Theologie (Index, s. ‘ Gog’); Renan, ’Antichrist 3,