(2) Jesus had said to Peter : ^oa-Ke ra dpvia fiov . . . irolfiaive to, irpd^ard fiov, ' Feed my lambs . . . tend my sheep' (Jn 2P"- '"). Accordingly the Apostle, ' in a personal reminiscence ' (W. H. Bennett, The General Epistles [Cent. Bible, 1901], p. 36) and, in ' unobtrusive allusions to Christ's life which har- monize with his discipleship ' (Moft'att, LNT, 1911, p. 335), says as a fellow-elder : iroi/j.dpaT€ rb iv viJ.lv irol/nviov Tov 6eoO . . . rinroL yivofxevoi rod troifiviov, ' Tend the flock of God which is among you . . . making yourselves ensamples to tiie flock ' (1 P 5^* ^ ; cf. Fss.-'Sol. xvii. 45). ' To feed the flock ' takes in the whole varied duties of the pastoral office. ' It is not right that a man should only preach a sermon every Sunday, and after that pay no regard to the people ' (Stier, op. cit., 328, quoting Gossner). ' All modes of watchfulness and help are to be displayed. Fold as well as feed them ; guide and guard and heal them ' (Hastings, Great Texts of the Bible, ' St. John,' 1912, p. 422). In the AV of 1 P 5^ the flock is called ' God's heritage,' but Bead is not in the text, and it is better to read with RV ' the charge allotted to you ' (cf . Tindale's Version : ' be not as lordes over the parrishes '). * The charge allotted to you ' is therefore parallel to ' the flock of God which is among you,' i.e. the particular Christian society committed to your care. ' Each separate iKKXrjcria was thought of as the "portion" (/cX^pos) of the presbyter who watched over it' (E. H. Plumptre, Camb. Bible, ' St. Peter and St. Jude,' 1880, p. 154).
It is evidence of how completely the thought of the shepherd and the flock possessed the mind of the earl}'' Church, that in the Catacombs the figure of a shepherd with a sheep on his shoulder and a crook in his hand is the most frequent of all symbols. W. M. GRANT.
FLOOD {KaraKXva-fids, which is used in the LXX for b^3C). — In exhibiting faith as the principle
FLUTE
FOEEKXOWLEDGE
413
which has all through historj' ruled the lives of the saints, the writer of Heb. (11') instances the faith of Noah, who, warned of things not yet seen, i.e. of the coming flood, prepared an ark for the saving of his house. 1 Pet. (3^) alludes to the ark in which eight souls were saved through Avater. 2 Pet. (2') illustrates the retributive jus- tice of God by the fact that He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, and (3^- '') contrasts with the world which was overflowed with water the heavens and the earth which are stored up for fire. The Avriters of these Epistles, being apostles and evangelists, not men of science, had no thought of verifying historical documents or investigating natural phenomena, their sole desire being to awaken or strengthen the faith, to purify and ennoble the lives, of their readers. Like the writers and compilers of the deluge stories in Gen. (6-9'"), they doubtless believed — as most Christians did until a comparatively recent period — in a universal flood which destroyed all men and animals except those preserved in the ark. In the light of science and criticism, the Gen. narra- tives of the deluge are now regarded as a part of the folk-lore of Babylonian or Accadian peoples, from whom it was borrowed by the Canaanites.
liiTERATURE. — ^The discussion of the problems connected with the story of the flood — whether, e.g., it is a highly coloured legend based on actual occurrences or a Kature-myth which has assumed the form of a history — is relevant to the interpreta- tion of the narratives in Genesis, but would cast little or no light upon the literature ot Apostolic Christianity. It is there- fore enough to refer to F. H. Woods' art. 'Flood 'in HDB and ' Deluge ' in ERE, and T. K. Cheyne's artt. ' Deluge ' in the EBi and EBr^^ ; R. Andrea, Die Flutsagen, Brunswick, 1891 ; C. J. Ball, Light from the Ea-tt, London, 1899 ; Elwood Worcester, Genesis in the Light of Modern Knowledge, New
York, 1901. James Strahan.
FLUTE See Pipe.
FOOL. — The diversity in the conceptions of folly is strikingly illustrated by the use in the writings of the Apostolic Church of the terms 'fool' and 'foolish,' translating the Greek words a<ppwv, /jLupds, ddoipoL, ai/oTjTos, dauveros, and related lurnis.
1. There appears to be a reference to folly as intentional clownishness in Eph 5'*. The Christian must avoid ' foolish talking or jesting ' {fjnopoXoyia Kai evTpaireXla).
2. Unseemly and undignified conduct is folly. Thus St. Paul, vindicating his apostleship, is re- luctantly led to a self-commendation, such as, in other circumstances, only a fool in the folly of boasting would ofl"er (2 Co Ili6-i8-2i 12" ; cf. 5'^). There is, however, a deeper folly— unwarranted boasting (12^). TAvice in these 2 Cor. passages a certain play on the idea of folly is presented. St. Paul in self-defence is compelled to speak as a fool, yet are not the real fools the Corinthians, ironi- cally (ppovifioi., for tolerating fools, namely the false teachers? (11". is. 20)_ Again the Apostle, having acknowledged * I speak as a fool ' (in my boasting), presently comes to the mere supposition that these false teachers are servants of Christ — the sense of the parenthesis changes — ' Now in- deed, I do speak out of my mind' (vv.^i--^).