Brugsch (lielifjion dcr alien ^r/t/pter, p. 152) suggests that Vedan is to be identified with ' Uethen, also written Ueten, Ucden, and Uedenu, a spice-bearing country, situated to the east of Egypt, whose inhabitants, the Uethentians, were first subdued by king Thotmosis III.' According to Mariette (Karnak, p. 47), the monument to which he refers is a work of imagination, not of history, and it would be a mistake to demand of it decisive arguments on questions of geography. D. S. Marooliouth. VEIL and ( AV) YAIL.— In the AV • vail ' and • veil ' are both used, and that alike for the article of dress so called, and for a part of the tabernacle and the temple. The spelling 'veil 'in AV does not occur outside the NT, except in Ca 5'. On the other h.and, ' vail ' is not used in the NT, except in 2 Co S'"'- In RV ' veil ' is the uniform spelling.
i. The Veil of the Tabernacle and the Ternple. — Two Heb. words used in connexion with the taber- nacle are tr. in AV 'veU.' 1. tido {masa/ch), RV 'screen,' stands for the coloured linen covering which hunjj before tlie door of the hi'kdl or Holy Place.* It IS also used for a similar covering whicli hung in front of the gate entering the court. t 2. njij (jmrCketh), perh. from Assyr. ' what shuts oil',' is' the technical term for the veil of the same material which hung between the Iiikal and diblr or Most Holy Place;! for this we find also a combination of the two words, thus ^y^n n^i?. § All the above occurrences are in P, and they relate to the tabcrnarle — a significant fact.
We read of no veil in Solomon's temple nor in Ezekiel's, except that 2 Ch 3''', written under P's inlluence, says Solomon's temple had a pdrdketh or inner veil. Besides the one passage adduced, there is no Biblical evidence for this fact. Thenius reconstructs 1 K U-' so as to bring the word par- Ckcth into the text; but he has absolutely no support from MSS, versions, or ancient citations. Lund II and the older authorities generally take for granted that the outer and inner veils of the tabernacle were found also in Solomon's temple. The only proof Lund gives is the above passage from Chronicles.
It is probable that Zerubbabel's temple had veils corresponding to the mdsakk and jmroketk of the tabern.acle, but there is no certainty of this. Since tlie taliernacle follows the second temple in so many matters in which the latter dill'ers from Soloinon's temple (outer and inner courts, etc.), it is a priori likely that they coincided in having an outer veil before the entrance of the hi'kdl and an inner one before the entrance of the rfCWr.H
• Ex •iC.aOf. 3»38 400. t Ex 85" 3»«.
I Ex'.;(Vil-3J l»-3.'>, etc.
{ Ex 3ri'2 3|)»« 4i)'il, Nu 4». In Lv 24' nil'.T nihp 'Tell ot the testimony' (becauBO hiditig the ark), 4" c'jpn njTJ.
n Utitirilhiimer, 307''.
^ r« xxraTiTor^iA, with the article, ■tnndn in LXX (Ex 26** etc.) und in Philo {Vit. iloyt. Ml. Ul. 6) lor tbg inner veil, tht veil pre-eminently.
848
VEIL
VERSIONS
The evidence that Herod's temple had tlie two veils referred to above is stronger, though not con- clusive. It is but one veil — the inner — that is spoken of in the NT, and that only in two con- nexions, viz. the account of the Crucifixion in the Synoptics,* ('the veil of the temple was rent in twain ') and also in Hebrews.f In the latter it is the tabernacle, not the temple, that is meant ; but as this Epistle was \vritten almost certainly before the destruction of the temple in A.D. 71, there would have been some hint of it if the sanctuary known to the writer lacked this feature.
Josephua clearly points out the existence of the two veils in the temple which he describes, and there can be little doubt that his account is based on what he saw. Of the outer one he says, ' it was a Babylonian curtain of fine linen interwoven with blue scarlet and purple, and of a contexture that roused ad- miration.' I The inner veil, it seems implied, was of the same kind.
Maimonides says there were thirteen veils about the temple, viz. seven for the seven pates of the court ; one at the gate of the porch, one at the gate of the temple ; two between the h^kc'U and d/^tir, and two in the space above the house. Lightfoot adopts this opinion.} Another Jewish opinion which Lightfoot.l! Lund,^ and others approve of is, that in the post- e.^ilic temples the cubit-thick wall separating lUkal and d^bir of Solomon's and Ezekiel's temples was lacking. Instead of it there were two veils one cubit apart, occupying therefore exactly the same space as the wall. In favour "of this. Light- foot, followed by Lund, atlduces Maimonides ** and the Talmud, both Mishna tt and Geuiara.t J though in the latter Uabbi Jose raises a discordant voice, which is silenced by the harmonizing Rabbis.
ii. The Veil a» an article of dress. — Many of the words rendered ' veil ' in EV designate articles which would not be so called in modem English books, as they do not cover the face alone, nor do they in all cases cover the face at all. Indeed, even the face-veils which may be seen in Egypt and Palestine very rarely cover more than the lower half of the face, leaving the eyes and fore- head entirely exposed. The white muslin veils which cover the whole face are used in the harem, and are not intended to cover, but to decorate the face.§§