PERSIC YVERSIONS.—See VERSIONS.
PERSIS (Ilepols). —The name of a Christian saluted by St. Paul in Ro 16", and described as ‘the beloved Persis, which laboured much in the Lord.’ The name appears as that of a freedwoman
(CIL vi. 23,959), but does not occur apparently among the inscriptions of the imperial house- hold. A. Ο. HEADLAM.
PERSON OF CHRIST.— See CurisTo.Locy, IN- CARNATION, and JESUS CHRIST.
Péarsa).—The Persians were Aryans, speaking a language closely allied to Sanskrit, and were thus kinsmen of the Medes. They boasted of their admiration of the truth, but the ‘lie,’ which is
PESTILENCE 754
PERSUADE.—To persuade in AV is not always to ‘convince,’ sometimes only to ‘argue with,’ ‘ try to persuade,’ as may be seen from 1 Καὶ 22 ‘Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also’ (RV ‘Thou shalt entice nim’), and Gal 1° ‘Do I now persuade men, or God?’ See also Ac 19° ‘ Dis puting and ersuading the things concerning the Ἐπ είς of 70d,’ and 28% ‘ persuading them concerning Jesus.’ Neither the Heb. nor the Gr. words so tr. have the full force of ‘persuade’ in mod. English. That force is, however, contained in the verb rane, which is twice (Ro 4% 145) rendered ‘fully persuade.’ For the Eng. word cf. Knox, Hist. 149, ‘The Earle of Argyle and Lord James did earnestly perswade the agreement, to the which all men were willing: but some did smell the craft of the adversary’; and Fuller, Pisgah Sight, v. iv. 2, «Should these quotations be severally examined, many would be found rather to perswade than prove, rather to intimate than perswade the matter in hand.’
The old adj. persuasible is found in 1 Co 2*™- for text ‘enticing,’ Gr. πειθός (WH 786s), RV ‘ per- suasive.’ The term. -id/e is properly passive, but was often treated as active: so -iwe, which is properly active, is often passive, as Shaks. As You Like It, ΠΙ. ii. 10, ‘The fair, the chaste and unexpressive she.’ ‘Persuasible’ here is the Rhemish word.
Persuasions, meaning ‘efforts to persuade,’ occurs in 1 Es 5% (συστάσει). Cf. Tindale, Exposi- tions, p. 73, ‘When they could not drive the people from him with these persuasions, they accused him to Pilate.’ In Gal 5° (πεισμονή) ‘ per- suasion’ is usually taken to be passive, that which the false teachers have persuaded.
PERUDA.—See PERIDA. PESHITTA.—See Syriac VERSIONS.
PESTILENCE (733 deber).—A general term used for fatal sickness sent as a Divine judgment, but apperense not employed as the name of a spe- cific disease. It occurs 28 times in Jeremiah and Ezekiel ; in all but one instance (Jer 915) coupled with other calamities, usually famine and sword, or evil beasts. It is em needa Ex δῆ 9", Lv 267, Nu 14%, Dt 287 in the same sense, as also in Solomon’s dedication prayer (1 K 8, 2 Ch 6*), in response to which God promised to hear and answer i eb for the removal of His judgments if offered with repentance in the place in which His name was worshipped (see 2 7% 009), It is used for the epidemic which followed David's numbering the people, 2S 24'*! (1 Ch 214%), here being a synonym of ‘plague.’ Habakkuk speaks of pesti- lence as preceding the march of God when He visits the earth in judgment (3°), and in Am 4° it is used for the plagues, or diseases, of Egypt. The pestilences from which God’s people are protected are called ‘noisome’ and ‘ ralving in darkness’ (Ps 91* *),
Deber is the word which is translated ‘ murrain in the Egyptian plague (Ex 95); and probably itis in this sense that the word is used in Ps 78”, where the context favours the marginal reading ‘ gave their beasts to the murrain,’ rather than that of the text ‘ gave their life to the pestilence.’
In NT ‘pestilences’ occurs twice in AV as the tr. of λοιμοί in the parallel passages Mt 24", Lk 21", in both of which it is Faapled with ‘famine.” This paromoiosis of λιμοὶ καὶ λοιμοί is used by classical authors as in Hesiod, Op. et Di. i. 241 (a fine which may be an ancient interpolation, as A®schines omits it in CtesipA. 137); also in Herodotus, vii. 171, viii. 115; Plutarch, Coriol. xiii. ; Clement of Alexandria quotes this phrase as it occurs in the Sibylline verses. See Wakefield, Silva Critica, v. 39; Field, ad loc. The fulfilment of the prophecy
J. HASTINGS.
Τοῦ PETER (SIMON)
is recorded in Jos. BJ vi. ix. 3. RV (following Lach., Treg., WH) omits ‘ pestilence’ in Mt. See, further, MEDICINE, p. 324. A. MACALISTER.
PETER (SIMON).—
1. Hisrory or St. Perer TILL THE ASCENSION.
1, Names of St. Peter.
2. Family, home, education.
3. The call of Christ to (i.) friendship; (iL) disciple- ship ; (iii.) apostleship.
ἃ, St. Peter as the Lord's companion (the Confession and the Promise).
5. The week before the Passion.
6. The Resurrection.
Il. History or St. Perer AFTER THe Ascension, in THB NT.
1. The Church at Jerusalem (Ac 1!-8}),
2. The Church of Palestine (Ac 8-931),
8. The Church of the world (Ac 92 and onwards, with other notices in NT).
4. Theology of St. Peter's speeches in the Acta.
IIL, St. Perer iy Curistian Trapirion, 1. St. Peter's early life.
2. St. Peter in connexion with the Syrian Antioch.
3. St. Peter in connexion with Asia Minor (Pontus, ete.).