LiTBRATURE. — B. F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 1889, p. 429 ; E. C. Wickham, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 1910, p. 123 ; C. J. Ellicott, The Pastoral Epistles of St. Pauls, 1864, pp. 73 1., 185; Sanday-Headlam, Romans^ {ICC, 1902), 363 ; Speaker's Commentary : ' Romans to Philemon,' 1881, p. 786 ; C. Bigg, St. Peter and St. Jtide (ICC, 1901), 173 ; W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire, 1893, pp. 288, 368 ; W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book,<new. ed., 1910 ; J. C. Geikie, The Holy Land and the Bible, 1887, i. 143, 306, 443 ; H. C. Trumbull, Studies in Oriental Social Life, 1894, pp. 73- 142 ; A. Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, 1908 ; G. Robinson Lees, Village Life in Palestine, new ed., 1905 ; Smith's DB, ed. Fuller, vol. i. pt. 1. pp. 1401-03 ; SDB 365-67 ; DCG i. 751. P. S. P. HaNDCOCK.
HOUR (figurative).* — As in the literal sense ' hour ' signifies a point in, or part of, the course of a day, so in the NT it is used metaphorically to signify a point or period in a course of historical development. In Ro 13'^ the use is vividly real- istic. The present time of trial is like the dark and gloomy night, but 'salvation' di-aws nigh; already, therefore, it is ' the hour to awake out of sleep.' With this single exception, the metaphori- cal sense of the word is peculiar to the Johannine group of writings (cf. Jn 2^ 4-i 12-^ 13\ etc.), and may be defined as the fxed time, in distinction from Katpds, the Jit time ('the boast of heraldry, the pomp of power . . . await alike th' inevitable hour'). Thus the Apocalypse speaks ( 14'^) of the ' hour ' for reaping the harvest of the earth, which is the 'hour' of God's judgment (14'') upon the pagan world. To the faithful church in Phila- delphia (3^°) safe-keeping is promised from the ' hour of testing ' which is about to come upon the whole earth, i.e. the period of trial which is to usher in the Messianic deliverance. This is defined (IS'**'") as a time of seduction to the worship of the Beast (the Imperial cult) ; but in 1 Jn 2^'* the sign of this ' last hour ' is already seen in the rise of Antichrist, yea, of ' many antichrists,' i.e. the Gnostic propagandists. In many passages the appearance of false teachers is foretold or dis- cerned as a symptom that the last hour of this world's day is running its course (Mt 24''- ''• ^^' ^•*, Lk 218, 1 Ti 41-^ 2 P 3^ etc.). Robert Law.
HOUSE. — In this article the references in the * For ' Hour ' in the literal sense see Time.
HOUSE
HOUSE
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NT to the structure and appointments of a house will be collected together, and a description of a house in apostolic times will be given, with illus- trations from the present writer's observations in his Eastern travels. For ' house ' in the sense of those who inhabit the building, and of descendants, see Family.
1. Foundations and materials. — Great attention was paid to the foundations ; they were if possible of stone, even if the walls were of mud. The foun- dations (the apostles and prophets) and the corner- stone (Christ) are the principal elements in the spiritual house (Eph 2^'>). The importance of the foundations of the wall of the holy city is illustrated in Kev 21""- by their being adorned with precious stones. It thus happens in the jjresent day that in the ordinary Eastern house the foundations often cost as much as all the rest of the building put togetlier. In places where stone is plentiful all houses are built of that material ; otherwise only the very rich men's houses are of stone and all others are built of sun-dried bricks (sometimes of kiln-dried bricks, which are more expensive), or even of mud set in layers, each layer being left to dry hard before the next layer is placed on the top of it. The sun-dried bricks are made simply of clay with which chopped straw is mixed (Ex 5'^), and are set to dry in the sun for a few days before they are wanted for the building. Thus brick- making and house-building go on together on the same ground. The perishable nature of the material explains why, with the exception of the royal palaces, which were built of stone, nearly all Nineveh has completely vanished. If Layard's rather doubtful theory is correct (Nineveh and its Bemains, London, 1849, vol. ii. p. 236 tt".), that vast city of 'three days' journey' [round the walls] (Jon 3*) occupied the large area between the fortresses, which alone remain to this day, and was some 75 miles in circumference ; but of the buildings in the centre of the area there is not a trace. The same thing also explains the references to ' digging through ' houses in Mt 6'** 24^, Lk 12^^* ; this is quite an easy thing to do.
2. The roof (d{b/xa; sometimes ariyq, Mt 8*, Lk 7''). — This is flat, made of mud laid on beams of wood, crossed by laths, and covered with mat- ting. It is used in summer as a sleeping-place, and by day (especially in the evening) as a sitting-room, or often as a promenade, for roofs of adjacent houses in the villages are frequently joined together. It is possible sometimes to walk from one end of the village to the other without descending the ladders or staircases to the courtyards and streets. Hence in time of persecution the fugitive would do well to flee along the roofs rather than fall a prey to the enemy in the streets (Mt 241^, Mk 13l^ Lk W^). So St. Peter goes to the roof to pray (Ac 10^). The roof is a favourite place for village gossip ; this is the 'proclamation on the housetops' of Mt 10^, Lk 12^. The nature of the material of the roof explains how easy it was to dig through it (Mk 2*, i^opv^avTss ; cf. Gal 4^^) in order to let the paralytic down ; the mention of tiles in || Lk 5'^ is merely a paraphrase adopted by St. Luke for the compre- hension of his more Western readers — or at least of readers less acquainted with the customs of Palestine than those of St. Mark (W. M. Ramsay, Was Christ born at Bethlehem?, 1898, p. 57 f.).