Some think that behind this law v/as an ancient Semitic custom with superstitious and magical associations, which, however, was impressed with a new signilicance by the Hebrew legislation. At any rate, we see here, as elsewhere, that in NT times a special virtue was still thought to be attached to the ' tassels on the four corners ' (cf . Mt 14*, Mk 6=" with Lk 4' and 1 K P»).
In the Mosaic Law they were evidently intended to be, as to the more spiritually minded doubtless they were, simply reminders of the obligations resting upon Jehovah's people to walk in this law and to keep all His commandments (Nu 15^'- ■"'). The ostentatious Pharisees, however, went beyond others in their use of these signs, by making them large and conspicuous.
Jewish hearers and readers would at once under- stand what Jesus meant by this charge against the scribes and I Pharisees, 'who sit in Moses' seat.' Making their phylacteries unusually broad and enlarging the borders (' tassels') of their garments would both be understood as their way of calling every casual observer to witness that they were remarkably pious. It was this of^lontalious display of an empty, outwanl pii-ty « liidi .Icsu^ Ihtb and elsewhere denounces, ami uliiih lias i^hrii such a sinister and forbidding siguilicaucc to ' Pharisaism' the world over.
Literature.— Schiir Did Times, i. 624 ft.; : pctdia '', art. ' Fringes.'
Geo. B. Eagek.
BORROWING.-See Loans.
BOSOM occurs 5 times in EV of the Gospels (Lk &^ l&-"-\ Jn 1"* 13-^), representing in each case the Gr. kAXttos, tlie word which in LXX regu- larly corresponds to p'n of the Heb. text and ' bosom ' of the EV. K6X7ros is found only once more in NT, viz., in Ac 27'", where it has the secondary sense of a bay or bight (a bosom-like hollow) ; ct. Eng. ' gulf,' which comes from this root.
In classical Greek, in the LXX, and in the NT /(6Xiros, like Lat. sinus (which Vulg. gives in all the above passages), is used in the two principal senses of (rt) the human bosom, the front of the body between the arms ; (b) the bosom of the garment, i.e. the hollow formed in front when the upper garment was bound round the waist with the girdle. In EV of the OT 'bosom' is to be understood.
220
BOSOM
BOTTLE
according to the context, in one or other of these two senses. E.g. in expressions like ' the ^vife of tliy bosom ' (Dt 13^), ' Naomi took the child and laid it in her bosom' (Ru 4'"), the first sense is evidently the proper one. On the other hand, when we read of putting one's hand into one's bosom (Ex 4''-'), takin" fire into the bosom (Pr6^), receiving a gift in the bosom (21"), it is the bosom of the garment of which we are to think. See art. Dress.
1. In Lk 6'''*, Avhere our Lord says to ^^■illing givers, 'Good measure, pressed do-v\Ti, shaken together, running over . . . shall they give into your bosom,' it is clear that the word has tiie sense of (6). The overhanging front of the upper garment when con- fined -by the girdle was used as a convenient re- ceptacle, serving the purposes of the modern pocket. An adequate paraphrase would thus be, 'Your pockets shall be filled to overflowing.' In the re- maining passages two distinct questions emerge. First, tlie more important one as to the general meaning in each case of the expression 'in the bosom ' or ' on the bosom.' Next, in those cases in which the plirase is taken to refer to the i>osition at table of one guest in relation to another, as to whether the ' bosom ' is the bosom projier or the bosom of the garment.
2. To be^in with the simplest passage, the general meaning of Jn 13^, in the Mght of the table customs of the period, is perfectly plain. In the time of Cluist it was customary at a set feast to recline on a divan or oouch, Avith the feet stretched out behind, the left arm supported on a cushion, and the right hand free for eatmg. Moreover, the usual plan was that the guests reclined not at right angles to the table, but obliquely, this being mani- festly much the more convenient way of reaching the viands (cf. Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. et Talm., ad loc.). By this aiTangement a second guest to the right hand lay Arith his head towards the bosom of the first, and so on. But what precisely is meant by ' bosom ' in this connexion ? Whether is the word used in the sense of (a) or of (b) as described above ? Probably in the latter, the meaning being that the head ot the second reached ' to the siniis of the girdle' of the first (see Meyer, Com. in loc.). It could not well have reached to the other's bosom in the strict sense of the word, for this would have interfered with his freedom and comfort in eating and drinking. This view is confirmed by tlie fact that when the Evangelist de.scribes St. John as leaning back (avaneailiv) on Jesus' breast to ask Him a question, a dift'erent word (trr^Soj) is em- ployed (v.^, cf. 21-'", and see RV in both cases). See art. GUEST-CHAMBER.