turned the people's minds from the barley bread of the previous day's miracle to tliink of Himself as the Bread of Li'fe (Jn 6) ; and said of the broken loaf at the Last Supper, ' Take, eat, this is my body.' For further information the reader is referred to Agriculture, Barley, Sowing, etc.
Literature. -Candolle, OHgine des Plantes Cultitvex ; Low, Ammdieche Pjlamennamen ; Tristram, Natural Uktorij of the Bible ; see also Bruder'3 Cmicord. NT Greed ; Grimni-f hayer's
''*^-'-^'"- J. C. Lamdert.
CORNER-STONE (njs m-\, K€4>a\ri 7u>'fas).— The quotation from Ps 118- occurs at tlie close of the
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parable of the Wicked Vinedressers (Mt 21*-, Mk 12'", Lk 20"). A question was asked about the punishment of such unfaithful servants and the transferring of the vineyard to the charge of others ; and the quotation afforded Scripture proof that the necessity for such a transference, however surprising to those rejected, may actually arise in God's administration of His kingdom.
1. Literal mecininfjf of corner-stone. — The term ' stone of the corner ' is applied in Palestine nst only to the stones at the extreme corners of a building, but to the stone inserted in any part of the outer wall to form the beginning of an interior room-wall at right angles to it. It applies especi- ally, however, to the stone that is aKpoyuviaios, belonging to an extreme corner of the building. In the construction of a large edifice, the founda- tions are generally laid and brought up to the surface of the ground, and are then left for several months exposed to the rain, so that the surround- ing earth may settle down as close as possible to the wall. When the first row of stones above the ground line is to be laid, the masons place a long, well-squared block of stone at the corner to be a sure rest for the terminus of the two walls. It is tlie most important corner-stone (Eph 2"").
2. Selection and treatment of the corner-stone. — It is always carefully chosen, and is specially treated in view of the service expected of it. (a) It must be sound, in the case of sandstone being free from weakening cavities, and in the case of limestone being without any white streaks of spar that under pressure and strain might lead to cleavage. — (6) It must be carefully dressed so as to be quite a rectangular block, whereas the ordinary stones usually slope away at the back, and the empty spaces are filled in with stone chips and plaster. It is expected to be in close and solid contact with whatever is under it and above it. — (c) In preparing a place for it, the mason gives it a more liberal allowance of mortar so as to increase the power of adhesion. These qualifications are summarized in Is 28"*. Thus the corner-stone is expected to be strong and .sound in itself, and alile to control the tier that belongs to it, and clieck any tendency to bulge either outwards or inwards.
The thought of Mt 21^-' and Lk '20'* pas.ses beyond the idea of a corner-stone, which is required to remain in its place, and neither falls on any oiie nor is fallen upon. The transition is so abrupt that some have been inclined to attacli importance to the fact that the addition is omitted in Mk 12'"'-, and that certain ancient authorities {e.g. D 33) omit it even in St. Matthew. It is a similar con- ception that appears in 1 Co 1-^, 1 P 2*- ', namely, tliat of a stumbling-block on the public highway. The ' way of life ' was a familiar religious term, ' the Way ' being a descriptive epithet wliich Christ applied to Himself (Jn 14"), and one of the first designations of the Christian Church (Ac 9-). The same situation of conflict is presented in Is 8'S where the fear of the Lord would be to some a sanctuary, a place of safety and rest by the way, but to others a stone of stumbling and a rook of offence. Those who marked out to their own liking the moral highway of the nation had obscured the truth that Israel existed for God, not God for Israel, and left no space for the sufl'erings of Christ. It was an error of blindness like that of the house-builders concerning the rejected corner-stone. They should have made allowance for the immovable object of bed-rock truth that had the right of priority. In the Syrian town of Beyrout one of tlie carriage roads has at one point a third of its width occupied by an ancient saint- shrine, with its small rough room and dome. It is a useless and inconvenient obstacle to the traffic, but any petition to have it removed would be
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frowned down as an act of irreverence and in- Jidelity. The shrine was there before the road.
3. Oriental respect for the huiklers. — In connexion with the rejection of a particular stone, it has to he remembered that tlie ancients liad no explosive by means of whicli to lighten their labours. The . work had to be done by hammer, chisel, and saw, I though they knew how to insert wooden wedges in prepared sockets in the line of desired cleavage, and make them expand by soaking with water. They would naturally pass by a stone that required a great deal of work and jdelded only ordinary results. They carried this principle to the length of often taking prepared stones from one building for the erection of another at a considerable dis- tance, as when the carved stones of the Epbesian temple of Diana were taken to build the churcli of St. Sofia in Constantinople, and the ruined edidces of Roman Csesarea supplied the material for the city wall of Acre. It would, however, sometimes happen that a stone discarded by cer- tain builders would be recognized by a wiser master as that which he needed for an important place in his building, and this gave rise to the proverbial saying quoted in Ps 118-^ which is familiarly re- peated and applied to-day in Syria.