In the NT 'corner-stone' was applied by Jesus to Himself (Mt 21*'^), and reanpears in St. Peter's address to the Sanhedrin : ' He is tlie stone which was set at nought of you the builders, which was made the head of the corner' (Ac 4'' yevbii.evo% els
Ke<j>a.\7]v yuviuLs). Quoting, evidently from memory, the Apostle uses i^ovdeviu ' despise and regard as valueless,' a word expressing great contempt ; but later ( 1 P 2'') he uses the milder word dTroSo/ctyttdfw of the LXX, which means ' test and reject after actual trial.' Ramsay {Pauline Studies, London, 1906, p. 253) notes that ' at the Phrygian marble quarries there have been found many blocks, which had been cut, but not seat on to Rome . . . some of them bear the letters REPR, i.e. repro- batum, "rejected." These were considered as imperfect and unworthy pieces, and rejected by the inspector.' It might happen, however, that a stone passed over by one builder was seen and chosen by another and wiser aichitect ; cf. Michel- Angelo carving his colossal statue of David out of a block of marble which had been spoiled and rejected by an inferior sculptor some years before. So St. Peter's argument in his Epistle (1 P28''). In ignorance and self-will the leaders of the people had rejected the comei--stone, but others, with truer spiritual discernment, making it the ground of faith and belief in God, had found in the rejected stone ' preciousness' (RVm 'honour') and worth; ivTifios suggests both meanings.
In Eph 22" ' Christ Jesus himself being the chief comer-stone ' (6vtos dKpoyuvialov airov Xpi<TTOv'I'r]<rov), the thought is of the unity of Jew and Gentile in the Church — ' the saints build up the fabric, and the corner-stone is Christ.' They are drawn and held together in Him, as the walls of a building cohere in and are united by the corner-stone, which determines the lines of ' each several building' and compacts it into one.
LiTERATTjRB.— C. Gofc, EpheB., London, 1898, p. 118 ; W. M. Ramsay, Expositor, 5th ser. ix. [1899] 36 f. ; A. Maclaren, Ex- positions : ' Ephesians,' London, 1909, p. 118, may be consulted for doctrinal and homiletical uses. W. M. GRANT.
COS (Kwj, now Stanchio=is riv Kw). — Cos was an island of Caria, at the entrance to the Ceramic Gulf, between the two headlands on which stood the cities of Cnidus and Halicarnassus. Its chief city, lying at the sheltered eastern extremity of the island, was ' not large, but beautifully built, and a most pleasing sight to mariners sailing by the coast ' (Strabo, XIV. ii. 19). Its position on the maritime highway between the ^gean and the Levant gave it great commercial importance and wealth. It had the rank of a free city tUl the time of Augustus.
Cos was ' the garden of the Egean ' (T. LeAvin, St. Paul, 1875, ii. 97). It was renowned for its vines and looms, its literature and art, and above all for its temple of ^Esculapius and school of medicine, which must have made it especially interesting to St. Luke. It had Theocritus the poet, Apelles the painter, and Hippocrates the physician among its citizens. It attracted Jewish settlers at least as early as the Maccabtean period (1 Mac 15^^). Some words which Josephus (Ant. XIV. vii. 2) quotes from a lost work of Strabo — ' Mithridates sent to Cos and took . . . 800 talents belonging to the Jews' — prove that the city had become a Jewish banking centre. One of the benefactors of the island was Herod the Great (BJ I. xxi. II). Another was the Emperor Claudius, who decreed that it ' should be for ever discharged from all tribute,' chiefly on account of its medical fame (Tac. Ann. xii. 61).
St. Paul and his companions, in their voyage through the Mge&n, ' came with a straight course' — running before the wind (evOvSpofi-nffavTes) — from Miletus to Cos, a distance of 40 miles. Off Cos, where there was good shelter, they anchored for the night, and next day, with a nortiierly wind still blowing, they enjoyed an equally good passage to Rhodes (Ac 21»).
COUCH
COVEN AliT
261
LrrERATURE. — L. Ross, Reisen nach Eos, etc., Halle, 1862! W. R. Paton and E. L. Hicks, The Inscriptions of Cos, Oxford,
1891. James Strahan.
COUCH.— See Bed. COUNCIL.— See Sanhedrin. COURAGE.— See Boldness. COURTS.— See Trial- at-Law.
COVENANT.— 1. Context.— In the EVV of the
NT ' covenant ' is the translation of the Greek word diadr/KT), which occurs 33 times. In the RV the word is uniformly rendered 'covenant' except in He 9^^- ", where ' testament ' is used, with ' cove- nant ' in the margin. In the AV, ' testament ' oc- curs 13 times (Mt 2628, Mk U^, Lk2229, 1 Co ll^^, 2 Co 3«- ", He T''' 9i*6«»- 1«- 1^- 2», Rev ll'^) and ' cove- nant ' 20 times (Lk V^ Ac 32s 1», Ro 9* IP^, Gal 3"'- " 424,Eph2'2,He86-8-9Ms. 10 Qibis. 1016.2912241320), (p-Qj.
further particulars see DCG i. 374.) Analyzing the instances moie closely, we see that 18 refer directly to the OT, 7 occurring in quotations ; 12 have reference to the new or better dispensation of Jesus, or to His blood ; 3 only (Gal 3'^ He 916. 17) are concerned with ordinary human institu- tions.