MIXED MULTITUDE
Third Missionary Journey had arrived at Troas from rhilippi, and, after a week’s stay at the former place, had preferred travelling by land to Assos, while the ship rounded the promontory of Lectum and picked him up on its 8. voyage. His motive for going by land may have been to remain longer with the disciples at Troas, or to be assured of the complete recovery of Eutychus. After St. Paul was taken on board at Assos, the ship sailed to Mitylene (Ac 20") and stayed there for the night. This was the usual practice for vessels in the f£gean Sea, where, during the summer, the N. wind blows during the day but falls in the after- noon. An early start would be made each morning before sunrise, so as to get the full benefit of the wind. After leaving Perales (Ac 20") the travellers sailed to a point opposite Chios, prob- ably near Cape Argennum.
M., which has in later times given its name to the whole island of Lesbos, was a town of some importance in early history. It joined the Athen- ians in the Peloponnesian war, revolted from them, and was punished by almost complete annihilation. It made an alliance with the Macedonians under Alexander the Great, it offered a stubborn resist- ance to the Romans in the Mithridatic war, and was afterwards made a free city by Pompey. There is no record of any Christian church existing in the island at the time of St. Paul’s visit. M. formed part of the eastern half of the Roman empire, and was conquered in A.D. 1462 by the Turks, under whose power it has since remained.
Lrrerature.—Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 291 ff.; Bouillet, Dict. Oniv., 8.v.; on the present town see Tozer, Islands of the Agean, 121, 134f., and on the ancient city, ib. 136.
C. Η. PRICHARD.
MIXED MULTITUDE, an expression used to describe certain people who accompanied the children of Teas of Egypt Ex 12%, and ‘fell a lusting’ at Kibroth-hattaavah Nu 114 It is also used of those who were separated from among the Israelites after their return from cap- tivity Neh 13% In Ex 1938 the Heb. is 31 2, LXX ἐπίμικτος πολύς, Vulg. vulgus promiscuum tnnumerabile, Targ. Onk. ‘many strangers,’ Syr. ἈΜῺΣ KIMY. The VSS agree in giving to 27 the sense of a mingled people, as it is rendered in other passages (see further on), and to 25 its common meaning of ‘many,’ so that ‘ mixed multi- tude’ represents adequately the original in this
ge. But in Nu 11 Heb. has a different word, Appox (the x being quiescent) occurring only in is passage. It is probably a contemptuous term for a gathering together of the le and there is no ther indication of multitude than that implied in any gathering. The LXX and Vulg. omit the adjectives πολύς and innumerabile, but otherwise render asin Exodus. The earlier English translations indicate the difference in the original. Wyclif has in Ex 12% ‘the comoun of either sex unnoumbrable’ (where the influence of the Vulg. is evident), and Nu 114. ‘the comoun forsothe of either kynde.’ Tindale in Ex has ‘moch comon people,’ and also Coverdale; but in Nu Tindale’s the rascall people’ was perhaps a little too forcible, and Coverdale has ‘comon sorte of people.’ The rendering of AV puts out of sight a variation in the original indicated in the earlier translations, and RV has not (as in some similar cases) brought it back into view.
A similar criticism of AV and RV ieee to Neh 13°. There the Heb. is a9y-57, the LXX renders the noun as before, but Vulg. has omnem alienigenam, which Wyclif renders by ‘alien,’ and the early English versions ‘every one that had mixte himself therin,’ a fair rendering of the Hebrew.
The same Heb. word occurs, but with the def. art. {30}, Jer 50° (cvupixros), Ezk 30°, where it prob.
MIZAR 399
means ‘mercenaries,’ and (the y being pointed with
Seghol) Jer 25*-* (σύμμικτος). Both AV and RV translate ‘the mingled people’ in these passages, in 25” the people are in or near Egypt, in 25% they are to the S.E. of Palestine on the borders of Arabia. The same Heb. consonants (differently pointed) denote Arabia; and for the parallel pas- sages 1 K 10%, 2 Ch 94, where both punctuations occur, see ARABIANS. The meaning of the Heb. word in the account given in Neh is evident. The strangers with whom Israel had contracted alliances, and the children of such alliances, formed the ‘mixed multitude’ or the ‘mingled people.’ The verb (in Hithpael) is used, Ezr 9%, of these marriages, and Ps 106® of ‘mingling with the heathen.’ A similar condition of aflairs existed when the Israelites came out of their bondage in Egypt. The intercourse between Egypt and Israel continued, Solomon allied himself with Pharaoh’s daughter, and the special permission for the children both of Edomite and Egyptian parents to enter into the congregation (Dt 23°) shows that alliances between Israel and these nations were recognized. After the return from captivity a strict rule οἱ severance from surrounding nations was enforced. A. T. CHAPMAN.
MIZAR.—Ps 42° [Heb.”] reads, following the MT ‘Om od, my soul upon me” is cast down, therefore do I remember thee from the land of Jordan and the Hermons, from the mountain of Mizar’ (so Driver, Parallel Psalter, and (substanti- ally] AV and RV; AVm and RVm suggest as an alternative tr® of the last expression 1ys> 77D ‘from the little hill [or mountain],’ cf. LXX ἀπὸ ὄρους μικροῦ, and Vulg. a monte modico). The question is whether mizar is an appellative or a proper name. If the latter, Mt. Mizar must have been in the vicinity of (or perhaps a part οὗ) ἡ Hermon, but it cannot be identified. In the former sense (=‘a little thing,’ ‘a trifle’) mizar occurs in Gn 19-22, where by one of J’s characteristic etymo- logies the substitution of the name Zoar for the earlier Bela’ is accounted for by Lot’s plea, "Ὁ let me escape thither, is it not a little one (rys>)? . . . therefore the name of the city was called Zo ar’ (rx, i.e. ‘ pettiness,’ ‘ petty town,’ see Dillm. ad loc.). Cf.2 ch 24°4 ΟΝ ων ‘a small company of men’; Job 87 1ysp πριν ‘thy beginning was small’; Is 63! 1ys2b ‘for a little while ’ +t [all].