VH marg. .,,. : WH
The word 'ship' is rightly expelled from the Gospels by the Revisers. It corresponds to vaus, which occurs nowhere in the Gospels, and in the NT only in Ac 27^'. Being a small lake, the Sea of Galilee had no ' ships ' ; but it had numerous ' boats ' mostly employed in fishing (termed irXoXa in the Gospels,'also [rd] <rKa<)n\ in Josephus). Some of these were biggish craft, and usually swung at anchor on the Lake (cf. Jos. Vit. 33), being at- tended by TrXoidpia, 'punts' (cf. Jn 2P' *). In Ac 2716. 30. 32 ti,e small-boat of St. Paul's ship is called T] aKa<j>ri). To quell the revolt in Tiberias, Josephus mustered all the boats on the Lake, and they num- bered as many as 230 (Jos. BJ u. xxi. 8). A boat which could accommodate Jesus and the Twelve must have been of considerable dimensions; and in the battle on the Lake, under Vespasian, the Romans fought on rafts and the pirates on boats. Though small and weak in comparison with the rafts, the boats must have been of considerable size (Jos. BJ m. x. 9).
Jesus had much to do with boats during His Galilsean ministry, and one use that He made of them is peculiarly noteworthy. In two recorded instances He employed a boat as His pulpit (Lk 5'-3, Mt 13'-= = Mk 4'). Getting into it to escape
♦ The MSS give : ^mvyii-yi; NAB, etc., ^eaupyy^ D, iScxnfyi;
I t .-..,
, is read by nAC, i
: is the reading of BU.
BOAZ
BODY
217
the pressure of the multitude, He pushed out a little way from the land and addressed the people ranged along the sloping beach, as St. Chrysostom puts it, ' hshing and netting those on the land (dXtei^off Kal aayqvevojv tous €v Tjf yy).' Only two instances of His resorting to this device are re- corded, but it seems to have been His practice. Early in His ministry, St. Mark says (3"), 'He spake to his disciples that a little boat should wait on him because of the crowd, lest they should throng him ' ; and it is interesting to ob- serve how the Evangelist subsequently alludes to 'the boat' (Mk 4^" 6^'-. Cf. Mt S-^ tA TrXoio;- TR, Tisch. ; TrXoioi/ WH), meaning the boat which had been put at His disposal. DAVID SMITH.
BOAZ.— The husband of Ruth, named in the genealogies of our Lord (Mt P, Lk 3=-).
BODY.— i. The Human Body generally.— ' Body ' in the Gospels invariably represents cru^a in the original. Always in Homer and frequently in Attic Greek (rdfia-a, dead body; and in this sense the word is occasionally used in the Gospels (Mt 27"-'*- '» II Lk 173'). The usual meaning, how- ever, here as in the rest of the NT and in ordinary Greek usage, is the living body, and in particular the body of a living man (Mt &" 26'=, Mk 5-'->). In the records of our Lord's life, teaching, and whole revelation, we find the dignity and claims of the body as an integral part of human nature con- stantly recognized. This meets us in the very fact of the Incarnation (Jn 1"), in the most solemn utterances of Jesus (Mt 25^=- ''■), in His tender re- gard for the bodily neetls and pains of those around Him — His feeding of the hungry and healing of the sick; but above all in the narratives of His Resurrection and Ascension, which show that the Incarnation was not a temporary expedient of His earthly mission, but a permanent enfolding of our human nature, body as well as soul, within the essential life of the Godhead.
The Gospels give no support to the philosophic tendency, so often reflected in certain types of religious teaching, to treat the body with dis- paragement. Jesus accords full rights to the cor- poreal side of our being. He was neither an ascetic nor a preacher of asceticism — ' the Son of Man came eating and drinking' (Mt IP^-is). At the same time, we find in His teaching a clear recog- nition of a duality in human nature— a distinction drawn between body and soul, Hesh and spirit (Mt 625 og4i)_ Moreover, He lays strong emphasis on the antithesis between the body as the lower part of a man, and the soul as the higher. Though the body is a true part of our humanity, its value is not to be compared for a moment with that of the spiritual part (Mt lO-*). Those who follow Jesus must be prepared, if need be, to surrender their bodies to the sword and the cross (Mt 23^) ; but ' What shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? ' (Mt 162«).
In the teaching of Jesus the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, which had gradually taken root in the Jewish mind, is everywhere pre- supposed (as in His references to the Future Judg- ment), and at times is expressly proclaimed (Lk 14" 20»^ Jn 5*- =»). And by the grave of His friend Lazarus our Lord gave utterance to that profound saymg, ' I am the resurrection and the life ' (Jn II-'), winch reveals the ultimate ground of Chris- tian faith in the resurrection of the body, and at the same time invites us to find in the nature of the risen Christ Himself the type, as well as the pledge of that new and higher corporeal life to which He is able to raise His people.