St. Paul's ship of Alexandria sailed from Myra ' slowly ' and ' with difficulty,' probably on account of adverse winds rather than of calms, taking
COALS
COLLECTIOX
223
' many days' to come ' over against Cnidus.' The distance between the two ports was 130 miles, which with a fair wind could have been run in one day. After passing the point which divides the southern from the western coast, the ship was in a worse position than before, having no longer the advantage of a weather shore, and being exposed to the full force of the N.W. winds — called Etesian — which prevail in the .'Egean towards the end of summer. Instead of taking a straight course to the north of Crete — the wind not permitting this (fxi] TTpoaeuivTOi i]fj.ds rod dve/Mov) — she had to run under the lee of the island. Some interpret St. Luke's words as meaning that the crew made a vain attempt to reach Cnidus, 'the wind not allo^ving' them; but there was apparently no reason why they should not have entered the southern harbour, which was well sheltered from N.W. winds.
LrrBEATTRE.— C. T. Newton and R. P. Pullan, Bigt. of Dis- coveries at Ualicamasmis, Cnidus and BronchidoB, 1S63 ; T. Lewin, St. Paid, 1S75, ii. 190; Conybeare-Howson, St. Paul, 1S56, ii. 390 ff.; W. Smith, Diet, of (xr. and Mom. Geog.i. [18.56] 638£E. JaMES StRAHAX,
COALS {ivOpaKes, prumce). — The coal of the Bible is charcoal. The knowledge of the process of pre- paring charcoal fi'om timber dates from a remote period. True coal is not found in Syria except in one part of Lebanon, where it was mined for a short time about 1S34 (C. R. Conder, Tent Work in Pal., London, 187S, ii. 326). Pieces of charcoal in process of combustion were called ' coals of fire ' (&vdpaK€s ■irvp6s = vi< '!r"i), and glowing coals heaped upon the head became a figure for the burning sense of shame Avhich an enemy feels when he receives a return of good for the evil he has done (Ro 12-0 ji pj. 25=i- "). Another view (held by Chrysostom, Theodoret, Grotius, etc.), that the 'coals of fire' are Divine judgments which will fall on the sinner's head if he hardens his heart against persevering love, is impossible. Benevo- lence tainted by such a thought is scarcely better than malevolence. Jerome says rightly : ' " Car- bones ignis congregabis super caput eius," non in maledictum et condemnationem, ut plerique ex- istimant, sed in correctionem et poenitudinem ' {contra Pclagianos, i. 30; of. Meyer, Romans, ii. [1874] 272). James Strahax.
COAT (xtTcii', Lat. tunica, both words probably related to the Eastern .T:n2 ; Assijv.Kitinne, 'linen'), or 'tunic' (Jn 19-^ RVm). — The word was used to designate the under-garment of all classes and both sexes, over which the cloak (H;?--;', I/xcltlov, pallium) was worn. On entering the upper-room in Joppa where the body of Dorcas lay, Peter was surrounded by widows showing the x'^^'^'^as fo' IfJidTia which her hands had made (Ac 9^^). Tunics naturally varied in material and shape according to the position, means, and taste of the wearer. Wool and flax were the native products of Syria ; fine linen (bf/ssus) was largely imported from Egypt r the silk of the East was unkno^\Ti till the begnnning of our era, and its use was deemed an evidence of extreme luxury (Rev 18'-; 'silk' in Ezk IS'" is probably a mistake). The Jewish prisoners in Sennacherib's marble reliefs, who are evidently carved from life, have tunics fitting fairly close to the body and reaching nearly to the ankles. This was the garment worn by free townsmen ; that of peasants and slaves was no doubt shorter and looser. The coat of white linen with long skirts and sleeves (Gn 37^) was a mark of honour, wealth, and leisure. In later times even the poorer classes adopted a somewhat more elaborate toilet. Jose- phus mentions a slave in the time of Herod the Great who was found to have an incriminating
letter of his master's concealed in his inner tunic, or true shirt {Ant. xvil. v. 7). The x'^"** '^'^'S made of two pieces of cloth sewn together at the sides, or of one piece which required a single seam ; or it was entirely seamless [ap^acpos, unsewed), being 'woven from the top throughout' (Jn 19-^), a pro- cess for which a special loom was needed.
The x'-'''^" of the Greeks was of two sorts. The Ionian was a linen tunic with sleeves, reaching to the feet (rep/jnoeis [Od. xix. 242]) ; the Dorian was a square woollen tunic with short sleeves or mere anuholes. Among the Romans a tunic with long sleeves was thought very efleminate ; ' et tunicae manicas habent' are words uttered in scorn (\ irg. .^71. ix. 616). The proverb ' Tunica proprior pallio est ' was like the English ' Near is my shirt, but nearer is my skin.' Cf. also art. Clothes.
James Strahan.
COHORT.— See Army.
COLLECTION. — At a very early stage in the history of the Christian Church the consciousness of its members expressed itself in voluntary etibrts to ameliorate the condition of the poor and desti- tute (Ac 4^^ 6'). That this somewhat naive attempt proved a failure was, perhaps, inevitable. Its ap- parently early abandonment leads to the conclusion that its promoters soon realized that a permanent settlement of social evils could never be arrived at by practical communism. Indeed, it is conceivable that, instead of curing the ills of poverty, wide- spread and deep-seated as it was in Jerusalem, it aggrravated and perpetuated them. As we shall see, other and more powerful causes were at work ; but, even if Ave minimize the historical value of the early chapters of Acts, enough remains to prove that this earliest and most self-sacrificing attempt of Christian men to realize their obligation to their jjoor brethren contributed to, rather tlian allayed, the evil it sought to destroy. See art. Community OF Goods.