p. 82.
Geerhardus Vos.
PEARL {ixafryaplTTjs, Lat. margarita or ■um). — In ancient as in modern times women adorned themselves with pearls (1 Ti 2') ; the ' woman arrayed in scarlet and purple ' was decked with them (Rev W 18'") ; and they are included in the merchandise of the apocalyptic Babylon — Imperial Rome (18'-). The pearl itself is a lusus naturae.
' The cause of pearl-formation is in most cases, perhaps in all, the dead body of a minute parasite within the tissues of a mollusc, around which nacreous deposit is secreted ... so that, as a French writer has said, the ornament associated in all ages with beauty and riches is nothing but the brilliant sarcophagus of a worm ' (B£)-ll xxi. 26, 27).
The ancient world obtained its pearls chiefly from the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. For fine specimens fabulous prices were paid. The single pearl which Cleopatra is said to have dissolved and swallowed was valued at £80,000. The twelve gates of the New Jerusalem are figured as twelve pearls, each gate one pearl (Rev 21=').
James Strahan.
PEN.— See Writing.
PENNT.— ' Penny ' {Sjinipiov) is mentioned twice in Rev 6'. The RV gives marginal reference to Mt IS'*, where a note states that the coin (which was of silver) was worth about 8 Jd. The American Revisers' note renders Sriviptov by ' shilling,' which more nearly represents the actual value. During the reign of Nero the denarius suffered depreciation, and its value was as above stated. In the time of Christ it was worth 9-6 pence, or roughly 9id. (see DCG, art. ' Money '). For its purchasing power, with special reference to Kev 6^ see HDB, art. ' Money,' § 11. The denarius, or the denarius- drachm, probably underlies the 'pieces of silver' mentioned in Ac 19'" (see EBi, art. 'Stater,' with reference to Vulg.). At the higher value the total price of the books burned is about £2000. W. CRUICKSHANK.
PENTECOST. — So far as canonical Scripture is concerned, it is only in the NT that we meet with this name, and that in three places— Ac 2' 20'", 1 Co 168. We also find it in To 2': 'in the feast of Pentecost, which is the holy feast of the seven weeks ' ; and in 2 Mac 12^"- : ' the feast of weeks being close at hand. But after the feast called Pentecost ..." In the last two instances the explanatory language reminds us that the term was comparatively new and came into use among the Greek-speaking Jews. Among Christian writers, Tertullian (c. A.D. 200) apparently is the first to use it as the name of a Christian festival (de Idol.
Pl•:^"TEcu.sT
PENTECOST
161
14). He simply took it over from llie Greek as alreaily used in the ],XX ami NT.
1. The name ' Pentecost ' (17 irfVTTjKoirTT)). — It is luirilly iit-'Oes«ny to mlil sc. (opri) or i7M^/)a, as the word had already hardened into'a proper name. It was so used by St. Paul in 1 Co IG" (tws rip TTein-ri- Koarffi). It is therefore an unnecessary refinement to translate it in the NT, with K. V. Weymouth, ' the Harvest Festival ' (The NT in Mudern .Spccrh', London, 1009, ad lor.), or, still more cumbrously, with The 201 h Caitury NT-, London, liW4, 'the Festival at the close of the Harvest.' Pentecost was the feast of the fiftieth day. It is a colour- less name, and, iinlike ' Passover or Unleavened Bre.ad ' and 'Tabernacles or Booths,' it reveals nothing as to tlie nature of the festival itself. This is the case also with the Helirew name, ' feast of weeks (haq shabu'dth),' generally given to this festival (Ex '34=-, Dt IG'"). It is true, the feast is also termed 'the feast of harvest' (Ex 23'"), and, further, Ex 34"- adds 'of the firstfruits of wheat harvest'; whilst, again, Nu 28-'' calls it ' the day of firstfruits.' At a very much later date the Jews gave to this festival the name of luig hdazereth or 'azarta (Aram.), a term which in earlier times was applied to the concluding festivi- ties of Passover and Tabernacles (Lv 23'"', Nu 29-'°, etc.; in EVV 'a solemn assembly'). Apparently it applied to Pentecost as the feast which marked the conclusion of the harvest. The Gr. aaapOd (a transliteration) betrayed Josephus into the error of supposing that this term itself meant Pentecost (A7it. III. X. 6). But the far more common name was the Feast of Weeks, and later still, the Feast of Pentecost. Under the latter name it still de- notes both the Jewish and the Christian festival.
2. Origin, — The name ' Pentecost ' takes its origin from the very ancient custom of carefully counting the days from the second day of the Feast of Ma??6th according to the specific injunction of Lv 23'^'-, where the fifty days also are expressly mentioned. Although there has been much dispute as to the exact meaning of ' the morrow after the sabbath,' it is generally agreed to treat the 16th Nisan as the day when the wave-sheaf of early barley was offered and as the day when they began to 'count the onier.' So Jos. Ant. III. x. 5: 'on the second day of unleavened bread, which is the sixteenth day of the month.' The term 'omer' = (n) sheaf, and ( i) a measure of about 5^ pints (dry), though the identity of the term in the two senses is uncertain. This, in turn, has given rise to the question whether ' counting the omer ' refers to the sheaf or the measure. In the time of the Second Temple, it would seem that the meal rather than the corn-sheaf was the ottering. Josephus {Ant. III. X. 5) is explicit on this point. Yet Lv 23 seems equally clear in intending a sheaf.