i
CHAFF
CHANCE
Mt 14^'). And when it is recorded of the disciples to whom tlie Lord appeared after His resurrection, that ' they saw him, and worshipped, but some doubted ' (Sdrrdfu, 2S''j, He met this mixed regard by a great personal affirmation, and a great charge laid on them, which formed in point of fact the strongest appeal to their most certain trust. See, further, art. Assurance.
LiTBRATUEF..— See the lit. at Assurance, and add— E. White, Certainty in Religion; .1. Clifford, Christian Certainties; W. R. Harper, Religion and the Higher Life, pp. 88-100 ; G. A. Coe, Religion of a Mature Mind, 109-132 ; A. E. Garvie, The Gospel for To-daii, M; Princeton Theol. Rev. i. 138 (Warfleld) ; Uomiletic Rev. xlvi 413 (Wright); Expos. Times, vii. 438, 633.
E. P. Boys-Smith. CHAFF.— The term used in English to denote the protective coverings and appendages of the growing corn — the glumes, scales, and awns — after they have been dried in the ripening of the plant and in the wind and sun, and separated from the grain and straw. The Greek word is &xvpoii (Lat. palea), ' mostly used in plural for chaff, bran, liusks ' (Liddeli and Scott) ; perhaps derived from i-X, indicating its pointed nature. But the older authorities, and most writers on the Greek of the NT, incline to regard the dxvpov as including the cut or brokenup straw which mingles with the chaft' proper.
Schleusner, controvertini? the opinion of previous lexico- Kraphers, says that the word for the outer integuments (,palea) is Hx^^i, and that ecx^po" includes totum calamitm /rumenti inde a radice usque ad spicam. quae grana contlnet, and that it is equivalent to the Heb. [nn tebhen ; and Post (art. ' Straw ' in Hastings' DE) suggests the use of the Arab, word tihn, which denotes the n^'ngled chaff and cut or broken straw.
In reaping it was often the jiractice to leave all tlie straw, except an inch or two cut off with the ear. The dust of the chaff is in the LXX x^oCs ( Ps 1* 35=, Is 29'', Hos 13»), and once x^oCs ax^pov (Is 17"), and once Konopri! (Job 21'*).
The combination of broken straw with the chaff is explained by the process of harvesting, thresh- ing, and winnowing in Palestinian agriculture. The threshing-machine, or threshing-waggon (see art. 'Agriculture' in Hastings' DB), Avhich, by repeatedly passing over the sheaves, broke up the short straw into fragments, separated the grain from its dried envelopes. The threshing-floor was so placed, usually in an elevated and breezy posi- tion, that the wind could be utilized to separate the lighter, heavier, and heaviest materials from one another, and the method of winnowing secured that the grain should fall in the centre, the heavier straw at a small distance from the grain heap, whilethe broken strawandchaff(ilx''p<"')were carried away by the wind, either out of the threshing-floor, or so that it could be swept together for burning. The complete separation of the chaff, which in- cluded fragments of the awns and straw, from the corn was effected by means of the winnowing-fan (irriov), the broad shallow shovel with which corn after threshing was thrown up against the wind, and so finally cleansed of the chaff". See art. ' Shovel ' in Hastings' DB. This final stage of tlie winnowing process is referred to by John the Baptist in the only occurrences of the word ' chaff' in the NT (Mt 3'-, Lk 3").
The imagery of the tlireshing-floor was finely adapted to e.xpress the sweeping reform of the national life which the ardent soul of the Baptist expected to characterize the coming of the Jewish Messiah. The chaff well represented (1) the in- sincerity and hypocrisy of the national religious leaders, profession without substance, looking at a distance like grain, but proving on near inspection to be chaff"; and (2) the light irresponsibility, the absence of true principle, in the people who accepted this formalism and pretence as genuine grain of godliness. And the winnowing represented tlie
readiness with which such unsubstantial elements of national character would be carried away by the first wind of trial, or burnt up by the divinely authorized Messiah, whose coming John expected to be with swift discrimination and judgment. John looked for the immediate separation of the false from the true, the bad from the good. The Christ would come as Malachi (3'-°) predicted, with searching and striking condemnation of all that was worthless and injurious; and the com- parative slowness and indirectness of our Lord's method was the moving cause of his perplexed question, when he heard in the prison the works of Christ, and sent his disciples to ask, 'Art thou he that should come, or look we for another 2' (Mt IP, Lk 7'").
Literature. — Mackie, Bible Manners and Customs, pp. 34-36 ; Tristram, Eastern Customs in Bible Lands, ch. 6 ; Jahn, Bibli- cal Archaeology, pp. 66-73; Thomson, Land and the Book, pp. .138-540; Nowack, Heb. Arch. i. 233 f.; artt. 'Agriculture' ' Chaff,' ' Straw,' in Hastings' DB. T. H. WRIGHT.
CHAINS.— The usual NT word for 'chain' is aXums. Tidai (Mk 5* AV and KV fetters) are for binding the feet. 5e(riJ.6t is a more general term, meaning anything to tie or fasten. AV renders Se<Tfiol, 'chains,' in Jude ", but RV substitutes 'bonds.' For critical reasons 'chains' disappears from 2 P 2*.