Literature. — Trench, Parables ; Bruce, Parabolic Teaching of Christ ; Winterbotham in Expos., 1st ser. ix. [1879] p. 76 ff. ; Jiilicher, Die Gleichnisreden Jesii ; Goebel, Parables (T. & T. Clark) ; Wendt, Teaching of Jesus (T. & T. Clark), vol. i. p. 136 ; R. Rainy, Sojourning %uith God (1902), 95.
John Reid.
SLOTHFULNESS.— 1, Gospel usage.— The noun 'sloth' is not found; the adj. 'slothful' {oKvrjpos) occurs once only (Mt 25-"). The Avicked, slothful, and unprofitable servant is silhouetted once, for all men and time. The Avords, ' Thou wicked and slothful servant,' ' Avere in the Gospel Avell coupled ; and the first epithet Avas grounded on the second, he being therefore Avicked, because he had been slothful' (BarroAv). It is the man of one talent, and he Avho has buried the same, that is guilty of the sin of sloth. That is true psychology. But let every man give heed unto himself. Genius has yielded to this sin as Avell as mediocrity. StcAvardship of five talents has been neglected, and equally in that case the ' precipitate' of character has been sloth.
2. The life of Jesus a rebuke to slothfulness. — The Saviour Avas in all respects a complete oppo- site to 'the slothful servant.' The zeal of the Lord ate Him up (Jn 2''). Early and late He Avearied not in Avell-doing, but accomplished what
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was given Him to do. ' Our great example, the life of our blessed Lord Himself, what was it but one continual exercise of labour ? His mind did ever stand bent in careful attention, studying to do good. His body was ever moving in wearisome travel to the same Divine intent' (Barrow). His practice stimulates to diligence, His preaching warns to avoid sloth. The Apostle Paul was built on the same model. When he bids men be ' not slothful in business' (Ro 12" AV), these are the words of a man who was in labours most abundant (2 Co 1P»).
I^iTERATi'RE. — Bruce, Parabolic Teaching of Christ, 'The Talents'; Horton, Proverbs, 'Idleness'; Barrow, Sermons, on 'Industry'; Urummond, Natural Laiv in the Spiritual World, ' Degeneration ' ; Stalker, Seoen Deadly Sins (1901), 115.
John R. Legge.
SLOWNESS OF HEART.— A disposition which our Lord discerned in His disciples, especially in relation to His Person and work (Lk 24-^ ppadeis rrj KapSiq.). He connects it with ' emptiness of mind ' (dvdijTos, cf. Bengel, who paraphrases, ' void of mind and slow of heart') as the joint cause of their failure to understand and believe the testimony of the prophets concerning Himself. This dual dis- position is characteristic of the disciples' attitude toward the whole of Christ's teaching (cf. Mt IS^^^^^ 16^"'^, Jn 14^) ; and tlie order in which the epithets are employed in Lk 24^^ suggests that slowness of heart is the root from which dulness of mind con- cerning spiritual truth springs. The disciples be- lieved, but slowly, and with a heavy heart. There was an element of reluctance in their faith. Jesus was not the sort of Messiah they expected, and His teaching was not the kind of teaching they desired. He and His words, in consequence, encountered in their hearts an unAvillingness to believe which generated, in its turn, failure to understand. Slowness of heart thus reveals a moral fault. The free action of faith is hindered by prejudice of one kind or another. The will is biassed in a different direction (cf. Jn 7^^). As Godet says, ' If they had embraced the living God with more fervent faith, the fact of the resurrection would not have been so strange to their hopes' (Com. on ,S'^ Luke's Gospel, vol. ii. p. 354). Slowness of heart is the opposite extreme to that over-quickness of faith which our Lord stigmatized in the parable of the Sower under the figure of the rocky ^ound. Between these extremes there is a quickness of heart which is ready to believe whatever bears the sufficient warrant of the Word of God. Of this quickness Nathanael is a striking instance (Jn l^^-tyy Thomas, on the other hand, illustrates slowness of heart, while Christ's treatment of him shows us how He deals with such slow believers and quickens their faith into great confessions (20**--'').
James Mursell.
SMOKING FLAX {Xbov TV(f)6/j.evov, Mt 122«).— The little earthenware lamp is largely replaced to-day, even in the houses of the fcllahin in Palestine, by lamps made by travelling tinsmiths from the tins in which petroleum is imported. But the old-fashioned lamp, resembling those dug out of ancient graves, is still to be seen. Olive oil is ])oured into the bowl of the lamp, and for wick a few strands of flaxen fibre or cotton thread twisted together are inserted. As the oil is consumed the fiame sinks, and the wick fills the house with peculiarly disagi-eeable smoke. The lamp must be replenished with oil, and the wick trimmed, or, as more frequently happens when the smoking stage is reached, the flax is ' quenched ' and cast out. W. EwiNG.
SNARE (TTttvfs, /3p6xos).— 7ra7fj (Lk 2pi, Ro IP, etc.) is primarily a trap, then a trick or snare. pp6xos (1 Go 7^*) is a noose or slip-knot for hanging
or strangling, then a snare for birds, or the mesh of a net. We can hardly take 7ra7is in Lk 2P^, with Godet (Com. in loc), as a net enclosing a flock of unsuspecting birds. The idea in both words is simply that of taking unawares, as the bird in the fowler's trap — the fakhkh, in the use of Aviiich Arab boys are so expert — or the hare in the noose cunningly spread in its path.