The derivation of .110 is not known, and afl attempts to identify it have failed.' There is no justification for the sug- gestion of Gesenius (Lexicon, s.v.) that it is connected with the «(»i)io plant, nor for Stanlej-'s assumption (Hist, of the Jewish Church (ed. 18S31, i. 97) that it was the wil " "
The fact
bramble (Rubus), but according to Post (Hastinira* DB, 'Bush'). *Rubus has not been found wild in Sinai, which : south of its range, and climatically uusuited to it.'
' The parallel pass.ige in Matthew (2231) omits the reference
BUSHEL
BUSINESS
243
/3dTos occurs once again in the Gospels : Lk 6^* ; AV and RV ' bramble bush ' [Matthew's parallel (7'") has 'thorns']. It was thought necessary to alter the translation ; the word which in the other passage had such lofty associations is here used by Christ almost with contempt. Moreover, a vme might well enough be described as a ' bush ' in the abstract ; it does not grow high, and has no strength of wood (Ezk 15). 'Bramble' in older English means ' thorn bush ' not necessarily ' black- berry bush. ' Yet the translation seems apt enough, even according to modern usage. Liddell and Scott give /SoTos as=' blackberry bush' or 'wild rasp- berry,' but the adjective |8aT6ei?='thorned.'
Robert Mackinto.sh.
BUSHEL (6 M65tos, Mt 51-'', Mk 'i-\ Lk ll»-a Lat. word with a Gr. form).— The Roman modius, equal to 16 sextarii, or approximately one English peck, was not a measure in common use in Jewish households. Although the definite article is prob- ably generic {'the bushel,' so RV), the measure wluch would lend itself naturally to our Lord's illustration, and tliat to which He actually re- ferred, was the Hebrew seah measure used by the housewife in preparing the daily bread. While the ^eah measure varied in size according to locality, it is generally regarded as being equal to one modius and a, quarter, though Josephus {Ant. IX. iv. 5) states : ' A scah is equal to an Italian modius and a half.'
To the influence of Roman customs was no doubt due the substitution of modius for scah in the report of the saying (Mt 5''-> etc.); and in like manner, since no importance was attached by our Lord to exactness of measure, the familiar ' bu.shel ' of earlier English versions has been retained by the RV, although ' peck ' would be a more accurate rendering.
The saying of our Lord is as picturesque as it is forcible. It gives us a glimpse into a Galihi-an home, where tlie commonest articles of furniture would be the lamp, the lampstand, the scah measure, and the couch. And wlio could fail to apprehend tlie force of the metaphor ? ' When the word has been proclaimed, its purpose is defeated if it be concealed by the hearers ; when tlie lamp comes in, who would put it under the modius or the couch of the triclinium^.' (Swete on Mk 4=').
Literature— Art. 'Weights and Measures' in Hastings' DB iv. 911", 913i>, and tlie Emyc. Bibl. iv. col. 6294 f.
Alex. A. Duncan. BUSINESS — 1. The first recorded words of Jesus stand in the AV, ' Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?' (Lk 2^«). This is the only passage in the Gospels where the word ' business occurs, and it is not without some sort of regret that we are obliged to acknowledge the greater accuracy of the RV, ' Wist ye not that I must be in my Father's house?' The familiar rendering, however, finds a place in the margin ; and indeed in tliis case, as in so many others, the AV well represents the inner meaning of tlie original words. Translated quite literally, the phrase (ii> nh tov irarpdi fiov) means 'in the things of my Father ' : it denotes a person's property or estate, and is equivalent to our colloquialism ' at my father's,'— the whole stress falling on the idea of OMnerslup,— and in this way it is fairly frequently used in Greek authors. 'The closest parallel in Biblical Greek occurs in the Septuagint transla- t;'-"' "f Est 7'-', where 'in the house of Haman'of the KV IS rejiresented by the phrase fV rofs 'A/xdi', and it IS clear that the gallows, fifty cubits high, must liave stood in tlie picciihts ,,( ili,. liou.se, or (m the estate, of Hanian. (l<'.,i ..ih.i ii,,,kinces, see Lxcursus I. in Farrar's St. L„l.r in 1 1,.. ( 'ambridge Bible for Schools, wlicr,. .-,, ,siii„i,i:iiy i. given of the essential points from an iiuportaiit monograph
on the passage by Dr. Field of Norwich : this monograph has been reprinted in Notes on the Translation of the NT, by the late Frederick Field, Cambridge, 1899).
The Latin Versions render the Greek phrase as literally as the language allows, and throw no light on tlie interpretation. The Sinaitic Syriac has the suggestive paraphrase, ' Wist ye not that I must be with my Father?' The idea of a sym- pathetic relation with God is indeed of the essence of the passage ; perhaps we can best render it by borrowing from the symbolical language of the parables, ' Wist ye not that I must work in my Father's vineyard ? '
A passage of Clement of Alexandria {Strom. IV. xxiii. 148) affords an interesting parallel to the translation of the Sinaitic Syriac just quoted : ' For the dispensation of creation indeed is good, and all things are well arranged, nothing happens without a reason ; in the thintjs that arc Thine must I be {iv roh aois dvo.1 fie dii), O Almighty, and if I am there I am with Thee.' In another pas.sage {Strom. VI. vi. 45) the phrase is used with an even wider application ; of the souls in Hades, Clement says that they are in the things {i.e. within the domain) of God. With this compare the teaching of the ' Elders ' referred to by Irenseus (V. xxxvi. 1): ' For this cause they say that the Lord said that in the things of My Father are many mansions. For all things are God's, who gives to all men the habitation that befits them.' Thus what in Jn 14^ is called ' the house of my Father,' is by the sub- stitution of the phra.se ra toO warpSi /iov extended to mean the whole Universe, including, as the context shows, heaven, paradise, and the ' city ' of the re-created earth. In Protrepticus, ix. 82, Clement seems to have the incident of Lk 2"' in his mind as implying the complete consecration of life : ' But I suppose that when a man is enrolled and lives as a citizen and receives the Father, then he will be in the things of the Father.'