of Vernacular Syriac gives the vocalization ^3?
reca (or rica) for the present dialect of the Azer- baijani Jews. This want of examples may, how- ever, be due to the fact that a word was avoided, the use of which was denounced in the Gospel. The expression dvdpuiire Kevi in Ja 2^" niay be con- sidered its Greek equivalent, as St. Paul's d(j>pivv ( 1 Co 15^^) is the parallel to fioipe. It may be added that the et'/crj in the first part of the verse has been believed by some to be the Greek explanation of rliis Raca, and to have crept into the text at the wrong place. But this is not likely. The Ono- mastica sacra (ed. Lagarde) are unanimous in the explanation ' Ktvi, k€v6s, vacuus,' and spell }aKd, paKKd, Bacha, Raca (cod. F). See also art. Fool. Eb. Nestle.
R&CHEL, the wife of Jacob and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, is mentioned in Mt 2^"*, in a quotation from .ler 31^^. The words of Jeremiah are understood in this passage as a prediction of the slaughter of the Innocents, but in their original connexion they refer to a historical incident in the prophet's own life. He accompanied the exiles on their way to Babylon as far as Ramah, 5 miles north of Jerusalem (Jer 40'), and the impression produced by his last sight of them took the form of a poetic picture of Rachel, the ancestral mother of the Israelites (who according to one tradition — 1 S 10^ — Mas buried in the neighbourhood), bewail- ing the fate of her descendants (Jer 31'''). The application of this passage to the massacre at Beth- leliem seems to have been suggested by the fact that another tradition placed Rachel's tomb in the vicinity of that town (Gn 35'«- ^» 48''). The sup- posed site of this sepulchre has been shown, at least since the 4th cent. A.D., about 4 miles south of Jerusalem, and one mile north of Bethlehem. See Ramah. James Patrick.
RAHAB. — The mother of Boaz, and thus an ancestress of our Lord (Mt P).
'These names [those of Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba] are probably introduced as those of women in whose case circum- stances were overruled by the Divine providence which, as it might have seemed, should have excluded them from a place in the ancestral line of the Messiah. They were in a sense fore- runners of the Virgin Mary' (W. C. Allen, Cum. ad toe).
The ' faitli ' of Rahab is extolled in He IP', and her ' works ' in Ja 2-^.
RAILING.— See Reviling and Mockery.
RAIMENT.— See Dress.
RAIN.— See Agriculture in vol. i. p. 40*.
RAM. — A link in our Lord's genealogy, Mt P'-
(AV Aram).
RAMAH (Mt 218) .^^^as a city of Benjamin (Jos IS^s), the site of which lias been identified with er-Rdin, a small village situated about 5 miles north of Jerusalem, at an elevation of about 2600 feet above the sea. Ramah was the point at which Jeremiah parted from the exiles who were being carried away to Babylon (Jer 40'), and he associated it with Rachel in the passage (31'^) which is quoted by the First Evangelist. This seems to imply that he con- sidered Rachel's tomb to be in the neighbourhood ; and the existence of such a tradition is sujiported by the account in 1 S 10'^, which states that Rachel was buried ' in the border of Benjamin.' The men- tion of Ramah in the NT quotation is a detail which has no significance in relation to the massacre of the Innocents, since Bethlehem was 10 miles away, on the other side of Jerusalem. See Rachel.
James Patrick.
RANSOM. — The word 'ransom' occurs twice in the NT, in both cases with reference to Christ's giving of Himself for the redemption of man : (1) in Mt 20'^8 = Mk 10^', where it represents the Gr. XvTpov : ' the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many ' ; and (2) in 1 Ti 2", where it stands for dvr'CKvTpov : ' For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus (v.®), who gave himself a ransom for all.' The idea, however, is implicit in the verb (Xvrpod- piai) and nouns (Xi^rpwrT^s, \6rpwcns, diroXvTpucris) used to express the thought and fact of redemption (see Redemption). It is probable from its struc- ture that the second of the above passages (1 Ti 2^) looks back upon Christ's saying in the first (Mt 20^8) ; it has been thought also that the iXvrpdidT^Te in 1 P 1'8 is an echo of the same saying (Denney, Death of Christ, p. 92). The word Xvrpov itself is most probably the equivalent of the Heb. word nss (Wendt and others question this, but most admit the connexion), and the attempt to give a closer definition of its meaning in relation to Christ's redemption goes back on the usage of this OT word (cf. the elaborate discussion in Ritschl's i?ec^^. tc. Vers. ii. pp. 70-80).
"133, then, the word generally translated 'ransom' in the OT (Ex 2130 301'/, Nu 3531.32 AV 'satisfaction' ; 1 S 12:' aV 'bribe,' Job 333:'- 24 3618, Ps 497, Pr 635 138 21I8, is 433, Am 512), is derived, like the verb 133 ' to propitiate,' ' to atone,' from a root meaning ' to cover.' It may thus be used, as in 1 S I?' above, of a bribe given to blind the eyes from seeing what, in justice, they ought to see (cf. Ex 238, job 924). This connects itself with 'the old idea of a gift as ' covering the face ' (cf. Gn 3220) of an offended person, i.e. propitiating, appeasing him, or inclining him to favour. As, however, in the case of an oflFence, there is little difference between covering the eyes of the offended party from beholding the offence, and covering the offence from his sight, it can easily be seen how 1^3 came to take this second sense of covering the sinful person or his iniquity. This leads to the idea, which is the common one in the OT, of "l?3 as a 'ransom,' in the sense of something given in exchange for another as the price of that other's redemption, or for one's own redemption,