There remains only the critical reference in Gal 3'"'^^ The starting-point of the argument is the impossibility on the part of anybody of compliance with the requirements of a legal re- ligion or specifically of the .Jewish Law ; for while the Mosaic Law is to the forefront, the Pauline use of the word for ' law ' without the article is significant, and the pronouns look be^-ond the group of converts from Judaism. Hence every legal religion lays upon its adherents the unavoid- able curse of Dt 27-®, which again is cited freely from the LXX. The ciirse evidently means humi- liating hopelessness of attainment ; strive as he may, the aspiring man is bound in the shackles of his very nature, and cannot meet the claims which his religion is recognized as justly making upon him. ' He that doeth them shall live in them ' (Lv 18') is a law of life, which in experience becomes a doom. The only refuge left is a sure one, for Christ became a curse for us and thereby redeemed us from the curse of the Law. What that curse means is shown in two particulars. The one is His death by crucifixion, and the other the fact that this death w^as endured not for Himself but for others. Shame and penalty, rejection by God (Mk 15^'*), gathered upon Him; and thus faith became the permanent secret of righteousness. Crucifixion can hardly be said to have been practised among the Jews ; though there are many instances of their exposing dead bodies on stakes or other- wise, and to that the citation from Dt 2P^ relates. To the Roman the shame of the punishment was intolerable because of its association with slaves and captives ; to the Jew it was an outrage upon humanity. It meant the defilement of the land, and the concentration upon the sufferer of the wrath of God. It has been argued that Christ's death in this way, though He was personally sinless, was the formal inauguration of a better method of salvation than Mosaism (but see C. C. Everett, The Go-^pel of Pcml, 1893). But neither Jew nor Gentile would be likely thus to understand it ; nor do such spectacular expedients appear to enter into God's methods of salvation. The Paul- ine thought is rather that Christ was made sin for irs (2 Co 5-') and a curse for us, bearing the penal- ties of sin and thus effecting our redemption.
LlTBRATtTRE. — In addition to Comm. on the passages cited, and artt. on ' Ban ' in SDB and on ' Cursing and Blessing' in ERE, see F. Weber, Die Lefiren des Talmvd, ISSO, p. 137 ff. ; E. Schiirer, fiJPn. iL[18S5]60ff. R. W. MoSS.
CUSTOM. — 1. Custom in its primary significance is habitual practice, on the part of either the indi- vidual or the community. The Greek word I0os implying both usage and habit is employed in the
NT to denote the routine of the priest's office (Lk P), the practice of attending the ceremonial feast (Lk 2^-), and detailed observance of ancestral prac- tice or the Mosaic ritual (Ac 6'^ 16^' 21-' 26^ 28'').
The formation of habit in individual conduct through frequent repetition is a process Avell known to the psychological student, but the origin and development of custom in the community are in- volved in some obscurity. The first step towards the establishment of a polity and organized society is the formation of a ' cake of custom,' as Bagehot terms it (Physics and Politics [ISS, 1872], p. 27) ; but it is a matter of dispute as to the way in which the ' cake ' was made, since it goes back to the re- motest antiquity. The parities of circumstance were in those far-distant days more prominent than in the historical period, but it is thought by some, as e.g. Henry Maine, that the sjiecific commands and judgments of the ruler or sovereign preceded the establishment of custom (Ancient Laiv^", new impression, 1907, p. 4tt'.). Most probably it is a collective product or a common creation. It is generally held that custom was the precursor of law and one of the chief elements in its evolution. Whether amongst primitive peoples or in later times, custom has a tremendous influence over the actions of the individual and the community, rivalling even the law itself, with its appropriate sanctions. The law recognizes the force of custom and usage, but apart from the legalized forms ; whilst the individual is largely under the domina- tion of habit, so the community is under the sway of custom.
2. The word 'custom' in English, through the associations of law and obligation, is extended to cover what is connoted by the Greek rdXos in its signification of toll, tax, or duty. The State with its authority and sovereign power becomes the riXos, but the term is used in a derivative sense to include what is due to the State, as custom in the sense of toll. The tax-gatherer, 6 reXuiuris, collected the custom on behalf of the State or the King (Mt 17'^). In Ro 13'' the payment of custom to- gether with tribute, no less than fear and honour, formed part of the obligation devolving upon the Christian with respect to the higher powers, which indeed are ' ordained of God.' J. G. James.