W. B. STEVENSON.
OR.—There are obsolete uses of this word in AV. 1. For before, Ps 90? ‘Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth’; Pr 8* ‘or ever the earth was’; so Ec 125, Ca 613, Dn 6%, Sir 1819, All the examples are of ‘or ever,’ and all are retained in RV. The RV has even introduced the phrase into Ec 12% The Amer. RV allows it in Ps 90? but substitutes ‘while’ in Ec 12':*:8, In other writers we find ‘or’ alone, as Dn 8* Coy. ‘It wylbe longe or it come to passe’; Hos 8° Coy. ‘ How longe wil it be, or they can be clensed?’; Ex 10% Tind. ‘ How longe shall it be, or thou wilt submyt thy selfe to me?’ As an ex- ample of ‘ or ever’ take Shaks. Hamlet, τ. 11. 183—
‘Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven, Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio.’ The word in this sense is probetly a corruption of Anglo-Saxon aer, which is properly represented in SES English by ‘ere,’ but is found in earl English under various forms, as er, ear, yer.t We find also ‘or ere,’ as Milton, Nativity, 85— ‘The cin haat on the lawn, Or ere the point of dawn, Sate simply chatting in a rustick row.’ And ‘ere ever’ is found in Sir 23” ‘He knew all things ere ever they were created,’ RV ‘or ever.’
2. For either.—1 S 26 ‘Or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle, and perish.’ Cf. Shaks. Henry V. τ. ii. 12—
‘We pray you to proceed, And justly and religiously unfold Why the law Salique, that they have in France, Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim.’ J. HASTINGS.
ORACLE.—A Divine utterance given for man’s guidance (2S 1053 133), or the place in which such utterances were usually given. In OT the word in EV is intended to have the latter meaning in 1K 6'*, where Solomon, in building his temple, makes a Most Holy Place for an oracle, and in 7® 85. 5, 2 Ch 316 4” δὴ 8°; also Ps 283, where, however, the correct meaning of the Heb. is given in RVm
* It may be argued that it is not the writer that mentions Ophrah (Moore's J) who localizes the battle in the plain of Jezreel. That does not seem to matter, unless it be suggested that Ophrah was not Gideon's home in this other source.
Besides, the grounds for refusing 6 to J may be challenged, if WY are only that 8*2 is his and that 8° is inconsistent
+ This form is found in the 1611 ed. of AV, Nu 11% ‘ While the flesh was yet betweene their teeth, yer it was chewed’; 141) * How long will it be yer they beleeve mef’
ORCHARD 629
‘the innermost place of thy sanct In the Apocr. (Sir 33°) it is used in a wider sense of any supernatural utterance, and (Sir 36") of the manifestation of the Divine Will in Sion. The Israelites used to ask for Divine guidance in any enterprise (1 S 28°) by means of Urim and Thum- mim (which see). In NT ‘oracle’ (λόγιον) stands for a Divine utterance, and generally refers to OT Scriptures, e.g. Ac 7® Moses is said to have re- ceived living oracles in the wilderness, i.e. com- mands from the living God. In Ro 3* the Jews are the favoured nation, because to them were entrusted the oracles of God. In He 5" the first principles of the oracles of God are mentioned as needing to be taught afresh to the Hebrews. St. Peter says (1 P 4"), ‘If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.’
Among the Greeks till the time of the Persian war, oracles were in high repute, that of Delphi enjoying the pre-eminence. Answers were given either orally, in which case they were usually in hexameter verse and of ambiguous interpretation, or by signs or dreams. They had a most important influence on Gr. colonization, since questions were generally addressed to them about the place to be colonized (Herod. ν. 42). The Romans as a nation did not consult oracles for divine guidance Feopheeyiis by means of lots (sortes) was prac- tised at Praeneste and other places. In imperial times, however, the custom became prevalent, and foreign as well as native deities were consulted. Lucan (Phars. ix. 577) has expressed in noble words the contempt felt by the Romans for divination: ‘ Non vocibus ullis numen eget,’ etc. The emperor Theodosius at the end of the 4th cent. forbade the publication of oracles. Sortes Ver- giliane had a wide influence in the Middle Ages, and recourse to them was forbidden by the Church.
C. H. PRICHARD.
ORATOR.—For AV Is 35 (RV ‘enchanter’) see DIVINATION. In Ac 24' we are told that ‘the high priest Ananias came down with certain elders, and with an orator, one Tertullus’; and a short speech delivered by Tertullus is given. The orator (ῥἡτωρ), who differed from the professional lawyer (iuris- consultus or vou.xds), was the skilled speaker who was hired to present the case in court. His train- ing was rhetorical not legal, so that he does not quite correspond to our barrister. The need of his employment arose partly, as was natural, from the necessity of having the case well stated, partly from the fact that the language of the courts was Latin. So Valerius Maximus (ii. 2. 2) quotes it as an instance of the manner in which the magistrates guarded the majesty of the Roman people, that even in Greece and Asia they refused to give responsa except in Latin. Many young Romans started their oratorical career by practising in the provinces. A good illustration yf the duties of the ῥήτωρ will be found in the lengthy Petition of Dionysia to the Prefect (Grenfell and Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papyri, pt. ii. pp. 160, 162).