DRINK, DRINKING
DROPSY
expensive materials for dress — the purple dye obtained from the murex on the coasts of Tyre, and the pixraoi, or ' fine linen,' which was imported at pjeat exjjense from E-^'pt.
Reference is made at the beKinninfj to the various terms used to describe the robe put on Christ by the mocking soldiers. Of these the -xXaixvi, or military mantle, fastened by a buckle on the ri<'ht shoulder so as to hang in a curve across the body, would appear to have been the most distinctive and suitable for the purpose.
Literature.— Tristram, Ensi.-rn r„si..,n.< in Bible Lands; Edersheim, Life and Times nf J, -i., //,, Messiah; art. 'Dress and Personal Adornment in .M^M> r:i !',i!r-iine,' bv Masterman in Biblical World, 1902; Kmv >. k , ami l;, nziiiger's Heb. Arch.; artt. ■ Dress ' or ' Costume ' m llastiii,'^' IT, (by Mackie), in the Enct/c. Bibl. (bv Abrahams and Cook), and in the Jewish Encyc. (by Noldeke). ' E. ^\■. G. MASTERMAN.
DRINK, DRINKING.— See Eating and Drink- ing, Food, Lord's Supper, Meals, AVine.
DROPSY. — As the name (Gr. OSpuf}* would seem to imply, this disease is characterized by an accretion or accumulation of water in the cellular tissue or serous ca^^ties. In the only place in the NT where a reference to it occurs, no mention is made as to whether the patient sufteretl from a general aruisarca or a local dropsical swelling (Lk 14^). The writer simply uses the adjective i'Spiii- TiKds [sc. avepimo^) instead of tlie noun. This is, however, in strict accordance with tlie usage of Greek medical 'Nmters, as we have it in the works of Hippocrates, Dioscorides, and Galen. That the (Iisea.se was not unknown to tlie authors of some of the OT \\Titings appears from the description of the trial by ordeal of a wife suspected of infidelity to her husband (Nu 5""^'). In vv.-'-- part of the punishment Inflicted on the guilty woman M-as a dropsical swelling (cf. Jos. Ant. III. xi. 6), which looks as if dropsy used to be considered as an affliction sent by God upon the wicked for con- tinned wilful sin (cf. Ps 109'«, and see also the Mishnic Ua.Qi^i^-Sh,ihl„,fh xxxiii. 1), and esjiecially for the sin cif Mlf-iii.UiIuMiice (cf. Horace, Carm. II. ii. 13, ' oves( it imhil-iii-^ sibi dims hydrops').
The healing of tlie iliiipsical man is introilueed by St. liuke as part of a nanatii e Mliicli is peculiar to his Gospel, if, indeed, the pai.tlih' in Lk W^--* Ije not identical with that in .Mt ±2-"— a con- jecture which does not seem likely (see, Iiowever, Wright's Synopsis of the Gospels in Greek, p. 273 f.).
St. Luke alone of the Evangelists tells of Jesus being invited to partake of the hospitality of the Pharisees and of His accept- ing their invitations on three different occasions : ' to eat ' (T^**), ■ to breakfa-st ' (US'), ' to cat bread ' (14'). It was on one of these occasions, as lie was sitting probably at breakfast or the midday meal (i;io~r«., v.l2)on the Sabbath, that He healed the dropsical man.
Like the story of the healing of the woman with the crooked spine, told in the preceding section, it furnishes a vivid illustration of the way in which the protracted controversy alx)Ut the Sabbath rest was conducted by Jesus against the Pharisaic Sabbatarians of His time (cf. Mk 2°-3^ Mt 12'-'=, Lk 6'-" I3'»'", Jn 5»-'8). It is not easy to deter- mine wliether the diseased man was specially introduced into the house for a malignant pur- pose, or whether he appeared there unbidden in order to claim the sympathy and the help of Jesus. The )uesence of iSov seems to imply that tlie latter w;is tlie case, and that the host was as much sur- prised as any one else at the turn of events. In Hiiy case he could not have l)een an invited guest, as ,Iesus could not in that event, with courtesy, have dismissed him when healed, as St. Luke says He did (iTre\v(xev, v.*). Whatever was the im-
• Not found in NT, only the adj. !,lp^T,xi! occurring in
meili.itu cause of the man"s presence, Jesus utilized till u|.|iciitunity thus aftbrded to emphasize once a;4aiii 11 is tt aching on the Sabbath question. Here was a man afflicted with a most inveterate and dangerous maladj% indicative of deeply rooted organic disease, and, according to contemixirary belief, springing from moral as well as from physical sources. It was, moreover, a disease Aveli known to those present : and it seems to have been more or less prevalent in that region down to recent times (see Jrirish Inl, lltgcnce, 1842, p. 319).
The persistent c
of the espionage to which Jesus wa
to St. Luke (cf. Lk 6' 20-M, Ac 9" ; see also Mk 32 and Gal 4i">.
The question addressed by Jesus on this occasion to ' the lawyers and Pharisees ' aptly illustrates His method of ' carrj-ing the war into the enemy's camp ' (cf. 13'°, Mt 12"'-, and Lk T^"-)- The ettect of the question, which placed them on the horns of an ugly dilemma, is vividly narrated. They Avere forced to be silent because they were completely nonplussed (oi &i iiavxaaav, v.^). This verb, wliicli occurs in the NT only once outside of St. Luke's writings (see 1 Th 4"), is often used in the sense of a silence produced by superior or determined argu- ment (cf. Ac 11'8 21" ; .see also Neh 5' LXX). The nature of the difficulty, in which Jesus placed His enemies, will be understood if we remember the almost incredible minuteness with which the law of the Sabbath was treated by the Jewish Rabbins, and the childish way in which they regulated whether a phj-sician should perform a deed of mercy on that day (see Hchurer, HJP II. ii. \m. 96-105 ; Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus t/ic Messiah, App. XVII., and ii. pp. 59-61 ; Farrar, Life of Christ, vol. i. pp. 431-441).