These guests had evidently received a previous invitation, as is customarj' in the East, which they had accepted (vv."'- '0. Their unanimity, the absence of an adversative aWi. or U, and the order of the words, eoiiibiiie to make TrapatTeioSai a sur- prise wlieii it .■..iiifs i,oiuia~t v.i'). They did not uivc u (liicci iciiisal, 111. y "'-n- detained by certain liin.lraiir.'- \\liirli \\,-rr 'ii..t \Mi.nL;' in themselves, but tlicy all slici«i'.| tlie saiuc spirit in rejecting the invitation because they preferred to follow their own inclinations. The first had bought a field, he was elated by his ah-eady acquired pos- sessions (Trench, Parables), and alleged a necessity (?xw avayKv) ; ' Sippe concurrunt tempora gratifc acceptissima et inundana negotia urgentissima ' (Bengel). The second may illustrate the anxiety of getting ; he alleges rather his plan and purpose (7ropei)o/«ii). The third was detained by pleasure ; ills marriage seemed a sufficient reason, and he simply said oi> Sum/mi. Gerhard sums up the hindrances as 'dignitates, opes, voluptates,' cf. Lk 8'*. ' His omnibus niederi poterat sanctum illud odium V. 26 ' (Bengel).
' Kxcuse ' is also used in RV for wp6<t>a(ns ( Jn 15^), so Wye, Vulg. (crcusatio) ; AV follows Tindale 'cloke.' Cf. Ps 140 (141)^ rod Tpo<pa(rlfeiT0at irpo- (/>a(T(is ey a/iapTian ; Vulg. ' ad excusandas excu.sa- tiones in peccatis.' The Jews had no longer any- thing to plead in their own defence, as was pos- sible in times of ignorance.
LrrERATURK.— Comm. of Meyer and Plummer, in loc. ; works of Trench, Bruce, and Dods on Parables : Thomson, LB p. 125. \V. H. DUNDAS.
FACE
3G1
EXORCISM.— See Demon.
EXPIATION. — See Atonement, Death of Christ, Ransom, Reconciliation, Redemption.
EXTORTION {apTay^).—'Thc word is used by Christ in His terrible arraignment of the scribes and Pharisees, on account of tlie way in which, by their methods of plunder, they openly violated the Scriptures they knew so well (Mt 23-^ Lk ll'"). Isaiah (16^) had predicted the cessation of the extortioner as one of the signs of the Messianic reign. Ezekiel (22'-) had inveighed against this sin as one of the transgressions of Israel which called forth the Divine wrath. Yet they, who claimed !to keep the Law to the letter, and who professed to be the teachers of the Law, fattened themselves on e.\tortioii and tilled their cups by it. For the methods of extortion practised by the publicans see art. Publican.
Henry E. Doskee.
EYE.— The OT usage of 'eye' (i:y), with its material and figurative senses, is found to be faith- fully continued in the Gospels.
The almost invariable word used in the Gospels is iifSaKui; ; in two pa-ssages (Mt 20-'U, Mk S-3) i«.K« is found, but used only in the plural. The difference in meaning between the two would appear to be that i^uec refers to the material organ as distinct from its function, while o^ftocKiAK is not only the vehicle of vision but that which sees.* The most usual verb used in connexion with the eves is ISxi-ru (e.g. Mt 73, Lk C^i), with its compounds ^«^iiT« (Mk S^S) and i.«».T», (Mt 20M, Jn 9'=) ; more rarely we find i/>iu (Mt 1315, li, <yM loia, jn 12-") and »!«»K«i (Jn 435 ft'i). A fairly frequent phrase is that of 'lifting up (iT«,p<j) the eyes,' t e.g. Mt 178, Lk \&-> IS'-', Jn 435 ; jn every case in which the eyes of Christ are mentioned this word is used (Lk 620, Jn 65 1141 171).
The word 'eye' is used— 1. In the ordinary, literal sense: as illustrating tlie Ir.r. talionis, Mt 5^ ; J of the eyes being heavy with sleep, Mk 14-'" ; of the multitude fi.xing their'eyes on Christ, Lk 4''^" ; especially of Christ giving sight to the eyes of the blind, § e.g. Mt 9=»- *"20»- «, Mk 8=3, Jn 9». 2. In a literal sense, but with a fiijurative sense implied : 6.17. the words of Simeon, ' IVIine eyes have seen thy salvation' (Lk 2'"), where there is ]iriniarily the literal looking down upon the balje before hin'i, but also, by implication, tlie mental vision of God's salvation of which the visible child was the pledge ; again, in the words, ' Blessed are your eyes, for they see . . .' (Mt 13'*', see also Lk 10-»), wiiere we have both the literal seeing of Christ and the see- ing, in the sense of understanding. His teaching ; further, a striking instance is contained in Lk 24^',
• Perhaps somewhat in the same way that one can differenti- ate between a nmsical instrumeTit and the music it gives forth.
t It occurs very rarely outside of Lk., Jn., and Acts.
X Cf. in this connexion the Code of Uammurabi, § 196, ' If a man has caused the loss of a gentleman s eye, his eve one shall cause to he lost ' (see Johns' The Otdesi Code of Laws, p. 43).
S Regarding methods of curing blindness see Encyc. Bibl.
where it is said of the two disciples to whom Christ, after His resurrection, became known by the break- ing of Incad, that ' their eyes were opened, and they knew him.' There appears here (however it may be accounted for) an extraordinarily close connexion or correspondence between weakness in the bodily and the mental vision, for it is certain that their eyes were open, in the ordinary sense, before they recognized Christ. Another example is that in Jn 4^= ' Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white already unto harvest.' What the bodily eye saw here w.as evidently intended by Christ to be a symbol of the great work of evan- gelization which He desired the mental vision of the disciples to discern. Under this head would come also Mt S^ ' If thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, cut it out and cast it from thee.' From the context the 'eye' is clearly used here in a material sense, while the 'cut it out' is equally clearly used in a ligurative sense (cf. Mt 19'^).