HELMET.— See Armouk.
HELPS. — 'Help' (avTl\riix\pi^) is fairly common in the LXX, in the Psalms, and in 2 and 3 Maccabees. In Sir 11'^ bV we have persons who are in need of avTiKi]fx\l/is. 'I'he plural a.vTi\ri/j.\p€is occurs in 1 Co 12-^, coupled with ' governments,' and nowhere else in the NT. The verb from which it comes {avn- "Kafi^oLpecrOai) is found in Lk \^ in a quotation from the LXX, where it is frequent ; also in Ac 20^ in a speech of St. Paul. The verb means ' to take firm hold of some one in order to help (1 Ti 6- is different) ; and by 'helps' or 'helpings' St. Paul probably means the succouring of those in need, as poor, sick, and bereaved persons. Perhaps the lielping of those in mental peri)le.xity or spiritual distress, and all whom St. Paul calls 'the weak,' is also included. H. Cremer [Bibl.-Theol. Lex.^, 1880, p. 386) is mistaken in saying that this sense of ' lielping' is 'unknown in classical Greek' : it is frequent in papyri, in petitions to the Ptolemys (G. A. Deissmann, Bible Studies, Eng. tr., 1901, p. 92). The Greek commentators are also mistaken in interpreting ' helpings ' as meaning deacons, and 'governings' as meaning elders ; such definite official distinctions had not yet arisen. St. Paul is speaking of personal gifts. He is not speaking of select persons whom he or the congregation had appointed to any office ; and neither he nor they can confer the gifts ; that is the work of the Spirit. He exhorts the whole congregation to ' continue to desire earnestly the greater gifts' ; and individuals might receive more than one gift from the Spirit.
We have an instance of the gift of ' helping ' in Stephanas and his household (1 Co 16"''*), and it is
expressly stated that they 'appointed themselves to minister to the saints.' The Apostle did not nominate them to any office of ' helper,' nor did the congregation elect them to any such post. _ A person who believed that he possessed the gift tried to exercise it. If he was right in this belief, the people accepted his ministrations. There was no other appointment, and there was no class of officials into which he entered.
LirERATTRE.— F. J. A. Hort, The Christian Ecelesia, 1897, pp. 156-160; Robertson and Flummer, 1 Corinthians, 1911, pp. 2S0-2S4 ; H. A. A. Kennedy, Sources of NT Greek, 1895, p. 96 ; H. B. Swete, The Holy Spirit in the NT, 1909, p. 186 f. ; art. ' Helps ' in HDB and SDB. A. PLUM.MER.
HERESY (al'pea-is). — The primary meaning of a'ipeffis is ' taking,' used especially of ' taking a town' (Herod, iv. 1). Its secondary meaning is ' choice,' ' preference.' From this it passes to ' the thing chosen,' and so 'a plan,' 'a purpose.' In later classical usage it comes to mean a philosophic school of thought, and hence a sect.
In the passages in which the word occurs in the Acts, it has the meaning of a religious party, e.g. Ac 5^'' : 17 a'ipecns tQv HaSSovKaLuv ; 15^ 26^ : Kara ttjv aKpL^€<TTaT7]v aipecriv rrjs T]/j.€Tepas Opija-Keias ^^rjcra ^api- aa7os. Thus it is used of the Christians not by themselves but by others, e.g. 24^ : irpujToaTiTrjv re TTJs tQv Nafw/jaiwj' aip^aewi ; and again, v.'^ : Kara, ttjv odbv fjv \iyov(nv aipecriv (see also 28"). In the Epistles it is used of the evil principle of party spirit, divi- sion, and self-assertion. Thus in Gal 5-" it is classed among the works of the flesh in company with ipide'iai and StxocTao-fat. In 1 Co 11^*'* St. Paul uses alpiaeis as the natural outcome of o-x^o"- p-ara : aKovw crxicr/J-CLra iv v/uv virdpxeiv, Kal /xipoi Ti wicyTevui. Set yap Kal alpicreis ev v/jlIv elvai, iva oi 56ki./j.oi (pavepol yivwvTai iv v/xiv. So that, bad though these things are, they may serve a providential purpose in testing men's characters and showing those that can stand the test.
These divisions destroyed the harmony of the Agape. The brotherly spirit which should have characterized the common meal was absent and the sacredness of the Communion was lost in general disorder. In this passage 'heresy' and 'schism' iq.v.) approach very nearly to becoming synonymous.
As St. Augustine says : ' Haeresis autem schismainveteratum' (c. Crescon. Don. ii. 7). And Nevin quoted by Trench (AT Synonyms^, 1876, p. 359) says: 'Heresy and schism are not indeed the same, but yet they constitute merely the different manifestations of one and the same disease. Heresy is theoretic schism : schism is practical heresy. They continually run into one another, and mutually complete each other. Every heresy is in principle schismatic ; every schism is in its innermost constitution heretical.'
So far we have found no trace of atpecris being used in connexion svith false doctrine but simply with divi.'^ions and factious party spirit. But in 2 P 2^ a new meaning is introduced, and from the idea of a party or sect we pass to the principles and teach- ing which characterize the sect, aipicreis dn-wXeias must refer to doctrines which lead to destruction ; indeed the following words, ' even denying the Lord that bought them,' point to a specimen of such false teaching, implying either a rejection of Christ as the Son of God, or a denial of His re- demptive work. As this Epistle was written at a much later date than the Acts, it marks the gradual transformation that was going on in the meaning of ' heresy ' as it passed from party or sect, first to schism and finally to erroneous teach- ing.