LiTERATTOE.— Commentaries on the NT passages ; art. ' Evan- gelist ' in Hastings' DB ; works on the organization and history of the Early Church ; Suicer, «. i). ; Zahn, ' Die Tiersymbole der Evangelisten ' in Forschungen, ii. ; art. ' Evangelists' in Did. of Christian Antiquities ; Farrar, Messages of the Books^ 13.
\V. Patrick. EVENING (t) Syj/ta [sc. iipa], eirHpa).— The Baby- lonians divided the day into equal parts by sun- watches. The ' sixty system ' of minutes and seconds was in vogue among them. Among Syrian peoples also, it is likelj;, the same system pre- vailed. No trace of this is found among the Israelites, however, in the pre-exilic period. An- other marked ditt'erence between the Babylonians and the Israelites is noteworthy. With the
lonians at sunrise. It is at least certain that the reckoning from e\e to eve became the exclusive method in Israel witli tlie triumph of the Law. A kindred system j.rexailed among Arabs, Athen- ians, and (;.inls 'I'liny. UN ii. 79). It was cus- tomary, toil, in ,11111. Ill Israel to distinguish be- tween the ' lir-t i'\.iiiiiu ■ and the 'second evening.' It is not eeilaiii jusl where they drew the line (Edersheim). The phrase ' between the two even- ings' (ben haarbmjivi), Ex 16i= 29™, as a designa- tion of the time of the daily evening otlerings, clearly meant some period in the late afternoon. The 'first evening,' it is generally thought, began about 3 p.m. and extended to sunset ; the second began at sunset and continued into the night.
In Mt 14"- ^ we have the word ' evening ' used in both senses. 'When it was evening' (v.">) clearly refers to the first evening (cf. Lk 9'- ' and the day began to decline,' Bible Union Ver.). For when the disciples suggested that Jesus send the multitude away, that they might go into the villages and buy themselves food, Jesus said they need not depart ; and the feeding of the live thousand and the sending away of the multitude followed before ' he went up into the mountain apart to pray.' Then a. second evening is spoken
.■iH.-r iiiv III •.. . ■•!' I ■'. . vi.lently
-ou;^lit the ni..nni,,iM -.•:, , ,i- II. .ii.i un other
Delusions, lu s|ien.l inihli ul llie iu,i;la lu prayer (v. -5). Tills second evening, then, was evidently verging on the night. Geo. B. Eager.
EVIL.— It is customary to distinguish three
EVIL
kinds of evil: (1) wliat Leibnitz called meta- physical evil, i.e. the incompleteness and imperfec- tion which belong more or less to all created things ; (2) phyaical eril. i.e. pain, sutt'ering, and death ; and (3) moral cml, wliich is a vicious choice of a morally responsible being.
1. Metaphysical evil.— The writers of the OT were, for the most part, deeply impressed with tlie doctrine of God's transcendence; i.e. His unique and unapproachable majesty, power, and holiness. Hence the nothingness and transitoriness of all earthly and visible tilings are a constant theme with them : 'Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee,' etc. (1 K 8-') ; 'What is man that thou art mindful of him';' etc. (Ps 8<) ; 'AH flesh is grass,' etc. (Is 4(i'') ; ' The inhabitants of the earth are as grasshopjicrs' (v.~). Comj)ared with God's inefiiible holiness, the holiest of created beings are, as it were, unclean. In heaven the holy angels veil their faces in God's presence (Is 6-). The holy sanctuary of Israel required to be purged every year from its pollutions by the blood of sacrifices (Lv Ki'"). All human righteousnesses are as a iiolhited garment (Is 04'').
In the NT tli.Tc is iKifurally less stress laid upon the Divine tians<rii,l,.|ici.. The theme of the NT writers is tlie love <il (iml sliown in the Incarna- tion. The etiTiial Si.ii ,,1 C..,! li.t. (iiken upon Him liuiii.iu iKituic, to nii-.' i( iiil.. trll,,wsliii)with God,
cdUsiios. .-111.1 loi:iu>r il t.i |i:iii:i]i.' of the Divine imiiKirtulity. Yet tlic awful ami unapproachable character of God, and the infinite iibyss which separates the Creator from the highest creature, are never lost sight of. He alone is the Absolute Good (Mk 10'") ; He alone may lawfully be wor- shipped (Mk 12-'- •■'■-, Kev 1!)'").
2. Phy.sical evil.— (1) O/itiitusm and pessimism. — Christianity nuiy Iju classed philosophically as a moderate optimism. It is not an extravagant optimism, like that of Leibnitz, who maintained that this is the best of all possible worlds, or of Malebranche, who regarded it as the best conceiv- able. Christ would certainly not have endorsed the hyperboles of Pope, that all discord is harmony not understood, and all partial evil universal good; yet He must certainly be classed among the most pronounced teachers of optimism. As against all forms of Gnosticism and Dualism, He maintained that the Universe, in all its parts, is tlie work of a perfectly good Creator, and tliat, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, it is under the guid- ance of His fatherly Providence : ' Behold the fowls of the air,' etc. (Mt 6-'^); 'Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?' etc. (Mt 10"'-'); 'He maketh his sun to rise on the evil uid on the good,' etc. (Mt 5*^). The optimism of Jesus is particularly evident in His cscliatology. He taught that in the end good will triumph over evil, and evil be absolutely excluded from the Universe : ' In the end of the world the Son of man shall send forth his angels,' etc. (Mt 13-", cf. 24^1 25™-'"). He be- lieved that there is a glorious goal to which the whole creation is moving. In one passage He calls it Creation's new birth (waK^vyevtala, Mt 19'-*) ; but His usual term for it is the ' Kingdom of God ' (or of Heaven) : ' Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father' (Mt IS'"). For the coming of this Kingdom every Christian is directed to pray (Mt 6") and to watch (24« 251"). -ri^^f t|„. i,,,,,;,,.;^, Tinivcrse will be glorified alon^; with tlir w],i,i(„,il j^ ,,nl distinctly stated by.Icsiis. Iml is a n.-.-rssarN inliTnicc from the doctrine (il lln- rcsurn-ii i.m ul' Uir /„„/,/, which was undoubteiUy held by Him (Mt 5-^ 10-" etc.), though in a more spiritual form than was generally current ('22™).