The origin of the word is difficult to trace. Trench (English Past and Present, 3ii6) says un- reservedly, ' To refuse is recusnre, while yet it has derived the / of its second syllable from rrfutare j it is a medley of the two'; and perliaps he ia right. J. Hastings.
REGEM (nn; B 'Vi-yefi, A ■p^7tM)-— The eponym of a Calebite' family, 1 Ch 2".
REGEM-MELECH (-^jcn: B'Ap/3e(re^p [A 'Ap/Se- ddsip, i^'- ' 'kp^taip, Q 'kplieael] 6 /SairiXei's).— One of a deputation sent to consult the priests about the propriety of continuing to observe the fast of the lifth mouth in commemoration of the destruction of the temple by the Chaldaians, Zee 7-. The text of this passage is dubious, especiallj' as concerns the words Bethel (AV 'house of CJod') and Sharezee (which see).
REGENERATION In the NT this subject is
uniformly regarded in its concrete or experimental aspect : "hence the abstract idea hardly occurs. Wliere it does, the terra TaXivyefetrla (so Tisch. \VH, 7raXi77. TR) alone is employed. This word is not found in LXX, but it has a history ia Classical and Hellenistic Greek, being used mainly in the figurative sense of complete renovation {dvaKalvu(TLS, cf. Ro 12", Tit 3"). It is this idea of restoration to pristine state that meets us in the nearest equivaient to the term found in LXX, viro/jLevd ?us iraXiv 7cv(i>|iai, Job 14'^. But ia pre- Christian usage it is not the individual so much as the world, or a nation, that is generally the subject of the entire change of condition denoted by iraXivyevfata. Thus Basil {Horn. iii. in Hexcem.) says that the Stoics dTreipous (pBopas Kbanov k. vaKiy ■yevealas eladyeii' (cf. PhUo, de Incorr. mundi, 3. 14. 17 ; de Mundo, 15), what M. Aurel. (xi. 1) calls T) TTcpioBiKT) w. Twii SXuv. Similarly, Philo calls Noah and his sons, iraXiyy. ijyep^oi'es k. Se\rripa% dpxiry^rai TreploSov (Vit. Mui/s. ii. 12 ; cf. 1 Cletn. ix. 4). National restoration is a sense found in Jos. [Ant. XI. iii. 9, v ayaKTijan k. ttoXitt. tt)S TrarplSos) ; and this, in the fuller sense of the Messianic renewal of Palestine (and of the whole world, or dependent thereon, dTroKardcrTaffis iravruv), seems to reappear in Mt 19-", one of the two NT occur- rences of iroKivy. (cf. Dalni. 145). Even in Classical usage, however, the term does sometimes refer to the lot of the individual, denoting restoration to life in a literal or a figurative sense. PlutJirch uses it several times in the former sense, i.e. iu relation to the transmigration of souls (de Esu cam. ii. 4. 4, firt xp^'*''"''^ Ko^voXi a.1 tpvxo-i trufia<Tt¥ iv Toi! Tra\t.yy(viaiai.s) ; and Agrippa is (juoted by Philo (Leg. ad Gaiiim, 41) as addressing the em- peror Gams as follows: riy . . . nOfe^a, t(^ o^et j^uTTvp-Zjcrai KaOdirep ix jraXiT'yfi'eo-ias ivrjyeipas. In more figurative wise Cicero (ad Att. vi. ti) calls his restoration to his lost life of dignity and honour hanc waXiyy. nostram; and Olj'uipiodorus, speak- ing of memory, says, jraXi77. ti)s yvwaub's ianv i) afd/xv-nais. Hence, on the whole, 10X177. in non- biblical usage seems to denote a restoration of a lost state of well-being, amounting to re-creation or renovation.
If we could be surer of the Rabbinic use (esp. in relation to proselytes) of such an idea in th«
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time of Christ, we should probably get further li^'ht on the exact connotation ot iraXtKy. and kindred expressions as they emerge in the NT. Among the latter the following are [irominent : dycmaiyuutt (Ro 12-, and eap. Tit 3'), with the verb oFoKoivoiV^ai (Col 3'", 2 Co 4"') and its synonym iyayeoucdai (Eph 4^); dvayefi'SLV (1 P I'-^'^J [which does not occur elsewhere in extant Greek litera- ture uninfluenced by the NT itself, thougli the Philonean tract, de Incorr. mvndi, 3, has 0^07^1-- friui! as a synonym for the Stoic TraXiy-fivicla of the world, and PorphjTy has avayewriTiKht (Ep. ad A neb. 24)]; ytvi>T]0Tifai ivwOev (Jn 3^'', cit. •y^vr. •y4fni)v &» or ievTipoVy V.*) ; Katv^) Krl^ts in the con- crete sense (2 Co 5", Gal 6", Eph 2'" 4-*), and its practical equivalents, koikAs d^-ffpunros (Eph 2" 4^), vios ifOp. (Col 3'"); T^itra SfoD 7fv^<7«o« (Jn 1"), y€vi'T}6iivai ix r. 6tov (Jn passim), iK r. wyeu/xaroj, or e'J CottTot K. vKv/iaTos (Jn 3'-°-'); and, finally, yevfdv (rica) iid toC ciayy., used of the preacher of the Word (1 Co 4", of. tjal 4'"). A single passage from an early Christian Father may be subjoined, as showing the influence of the NT ujion his langua^'e, and also the relation of the biblical idea ot Regeneration to certain other cognate ideas. Clement of Alex., speaking of the restora- tion of a sinful woman, writes (iitrom. ii. ad fin. p. 424) : i) 5i fieravorjaaaa, olof avayivvqdf'iaa. /card TTiv iiri(7Tpotp7jv Tou ^iov, TTaXiyyevfaiav txet fw^J, TtdvTiKulas lUv T^s TripKTjs T^s ToKalai, els jSiov 5^ rape\doij<rr]s av$Li tt)S Kara ttjv fxerdvoiav yevv-rjSelffTjs. It has sometimes been thought that the idea of religious regeneration in this life was one ' in the air' in the 1st cent. ; and the phrase in wtcmum renatus tauruboliu, in connexion with Mithraic worship, has been cited as evidence. But Hort thinks it, as well as the -roKiyyevccla of the Her- metic writings, to be dependent on Christian usage. Nor can the fact that Osiris was addressed as one who ' giveth birth unto men and women a second time,' be cited to the contrary : for this clearly refers to renewed life bej'ond the grave, not to spiritual regeneration in this life. The origin of tills latter notion and phraseology is rather to be sought in the OT and its liabbinic developments. The phrase 'new creation,' adojited by St. Paul, occurs repeatedly in the lilidrashim with various applications (see Dalm. Worte Jesu, 146), and a proselyte is compared to a newborn child in the Talmud (Jebamoth G2a ; see WiinsLhe, Erldut. der Evanrjg. 506) ; cf. Hort, First Ep. of Peter, p. 33. The present article will deal with the following points : —