Outside the NT the word occurs in Ignatius in a sense which is clearly inlluenced by tlie NT, and ajiparently in the meaning of the Itivine fulness, as going forth and blessing and residing in the Church {Eph. Inscr. r-g (i'Xoyrj/ji^fii iv iie-^iVti 8(ou rarpiis TrXrjpw/iaTi, and Trail. Inscr. fli- Koi dffjrdj'o^ai ill T(f 7rX7)pii/iaTi, almost = ^1- Xpurrif [but see light- foot, arl (or.]).
In Gnosticism the use becomes yet more stt.eo- typed and technical, thouj^h its applications are still very variable. The Gnostic writers ajiiieal to the use in the NT {e.g. Ireu I. iii. 4), and the word
PLOUGH, PLOUGHSHARE
POETRY (HEBREW)
retains from it the sense of totality in contrast to the constituent parts ; but the chief associations of irXripufia in tlieir systems are with Greek philo- sophy, and the nuiin thought is that of a state of complutuness in contrast to deliciency {ixTTipiifia, Iren. I. xvi. 3 ; Hippol. vi. 31), or of the fulness of real existence in contrast to the empty void and unreality of mere phenomena {K^Ko/ia, Iren. I. iv. 1). Thus in Cerinthus it expressed the fulness of the Divine Life out of which the Divine Christ descended upon the man Jesus at his baptism, and into which He returned (Iren. I. xxvi. 1, III. xi. ' xvi. 1). In the Valentinian sj'.stem it stands m antithesis to the essential incomprehen- sible Godhead, as 'the circle of the Divine attri- butes,' the various means by which God reveals Himself: it is the totality of the thirty .'eons or emanations which proceed from God, but are separated alike from Him and from the material universe. It is at times almost localized, so that a thing is spoken of as 'within,' 'without,' 'above,' 'below' the Pleroma : more often it is the spirit- world, the archetypal ideal existing in the invisible heavens in contrast to the imperfect phenomenal manifestations of that ideal in the universe. Tlius 'the whole Pleroma of the teons 'contributes each its own excellence to the historic Jesus, and He appears on earth ' as the perfect beauty and star of the Pleroma' (TeXeiArarov koXXos /tai iarpov toO rXripiiimro!, Iren. I. xi. 6). Again, each separate seen is called a irX-Zipw^a in contrast to its earthly imperfect counterpart, so that in this sense the plural can be used, irX-npaiiara (Iren. I. xiv. 2) ; and even each individual has his or her Pleroma or spiritual counterpart (t6 irXrjpuna avriii of the Samaritan woman, — Heracleon, ap. Origen, xiii. p. 205 ; ap. Stieren's Irenmus, p. 950). Similarly It was used by Ophite writers as equivalent to the full completeness of perfect knowledge (Pwis* Sophia, p. 15). It thus expressed the various thonghts which we should express by the God- head, the ideal, heaven ; and it is probably owing to this ambiguity, as well as to its heretical associa- tions, that the word dropped out of Christian theo- logy. It is still used in its ordinary unteclinical meaning, e.g. Theophylact (p. 530) speaks of the Trinity as ir\i)pw/ia toC CeoD ; but no use so technical as that in Ignatius reappears.
For fuller details ci. Suicer's Thesaurus, s.v. ; Lightfoot, Col. ('Colossian Heresy' and Additional Note); Smith's Diet. ChrUt. Bior/r. s.vv. 'Gnosti- cism,' 'Valentinus'; Cambridge texts and Studies, i. 4, p. 105. W. Lock.
PLOUGH, PLOUGHSHAKE See AaRlCTJLTCEK
in vol. i. p. 49.
PLUMBLINE, PLUMMET.— A line or cord with a heavy weight attached, used by masons when erectin" a building, to ascertain if the walls are perpendicular. The plumbline used by the Syrian masons is a cord passing freely through a hole in the centre of a cylindrical piece of wood about 3 in. long ; at one end of the cord is a hollow cone of copper filled with lead. The cord is fastened to a ring inserted into the centre of the b.ase of the cone- shaped plummet, the diameter of the base being the same as the length of the C3'limler of wood. One end of the piece of wood is aj)plied to the face of the wall, and the plummet is allowed to descend slowly. If the rim of the ba.se just toudies the surface of the stones the wall is perjiemlicular. Several Heb. words are rendered plummet or plumbline. 1. i;n, literally, a stone, proliably showing that the original plummet wa.s a sus- pended stone. Is 34". In Zee 4'" the ex])re.ssi()n px T'jri (see Nowack, ad lac.), a stone of tin, a plummet, is used. 2. Tut; Am V- ". The etymology
of this word is doubtful. There are similar words in cognate laiigu;t^;es for ' lend,' ' tin ' (cf. Oxf. Heb. Lex. s.v.). 3. r^pi-r in 2 K 21", n^Rfp Is 28", a weight. In all the Scripture references to ' plum- met' or 'plumb-line,' the term is used metaphori- cally, e.17. in Am 7", where J" is to set a plummet in the very midst of His people (i.e. apply to it a crucial moral test), and whatever does not conform to its standard will be destroj'ed (Driver, ad toe).
W. Carslaw.
POCHERETH - HAZZEBAIM. — Amongst the 'children of Solomon's servants' who returned with Zerubbabel are mentioned the D'3iri rnzi "ia. Ezr 2"=Neh 7=^" (D-;;>-n 's -jg). The LXX, mis- understanding the passage, divides into two propel names (in Ezr B viol 4>a<Tpd8, viol' Aire^aeli', A 'PaKepa.6, 'Aae^uelfi. ; in Neh B viol <taKapdff, viol Zafiadu, A . . . ^axapdO . . . ). In 1 Es 5** the LXX has viol ^aftapiO 2a/3(e)i77. See PlIACAP.ETH. The Heb. pochereth-luizzebaim means ' hunter of gazelles.'