3. Metaphorical use of 'prison.' — The word ' prison ' is applied in a figurative sense (1) to the place of confinement of the spirits ' which were disobedient ... in the days of Noah' (1 P S''-"- ; of. Gn ()■-"■').* These are probablj- to be identified with ' tlie angels which kept not their first estate,' declared in Jude (v.") to be ' reserved in everlasting chains under darkness to the judgment of the great day,' and with ' the angels tliat sinned,' who are 'consigned to Tartarus' (2 P 2*, raprapwa-as), as distinguished from Gehenna, 'to be reserved unto judgment.' The allusion in all these passages appears to be to the Book of Enoch, which rei)r(!- sents the fallen angels as undergoing temporary jiunishment (in Tartarus, six. 1-3 ; cf. xx. 2) until the day of tlieir final doom. (2) The term ' prison ' is also applied to 'the bottomless pit' (RV 'the abyss'), in which Satan is bound a thousand years (Rev 20' ; cf. v.i).
Literature. — Artt. ' Career ' in Smith's DGRA~, 1875,' Prison * in McCIintoclt-Stron'j's llihl. Ctjctoprfdia, viii. [1S~9J, in HDB iv. [1902], and DC'G ii. [1908]. For instances of imprisonment in tile life of St. Paul, see Lives bv Conybeare-Howson (new ed., 1S77), F. 'W. Farrar (1897), and others.
W. S. Montgomery.
* See art. Spirits in Prison.
276
PRIZE
PRIZE. — According to the Gospels, reward {fujSot'\ tinds a place in the teaching of the Kingdom of Goil. But the doctrine is redeemed from mer- cenariness by the fact that the reward is reckoned of pace and' not of debt (Mt -JO'-", Lk 17'") as well as by tlie nature of the reward. It is no mere ex- ternal or material reward. Generally speaking, it is the Kingdom of Got! or, according to the Fourth Gospel, eternal life, that our Lord sets liefore His followers as the reward to which they may look forward. The blesseilness which is to be theirs consists iu the attainment of tliat moral perfection after which they strive. Tliey that hunger and thirst after righteousness sliall be tilled : the merci- ful shall obtain mercj" : the pure in heart shall see Goil.
The same doctrine is found in the apostolic writ- ings. But here the reward is descril)ed as a prize. This pliraseology is most common in the speeches and Epistles of St. Paul, but it occurs also in the Epistles of St. James and St. John and in the Reve- lation of St. John. The imagery is taken from the tTreek games which occujiied such a large place in Greek life and were invested with almost religions signiliiance. The four great festivals were the Isthmian, the Nemean, the Olympian, and the Pythian games. Of these the Olympian were pre-eminent in theory, being the cliiet national festival of the Greeks, and m practice they out- lasted all the others, continuing to be celebrated till the reiiin of Theixlosius. But when the Epistles of St. Paul were written the chief interest of Greece was in the Isthmian games, which also from their pro.\imijy to Corinth were likely to supply the .\postle with the metaphors of the foot-race, the pugilistic contest, and the prize, of which he makes frequent use. The Isthmian games were held on the Isthmus of Corinth, in a grove of pine-trees sacreil to Poseidon, near the shrines of the Isthmian Poseidon and Melicertes, in the first month of spring, in the second and fourth year of CAch Olympiad. The contests consisted of gymnastic exercises, horse races, and competitions in music. Besides the customary palm the prize in Pindar's time consisted of a wreath of dry o-Airor (often translateil 'p.irsley,' but more probably identical with the ' wild celery' — apiunt graveolcns). After the destruction of Corinth, a crown of pine-leaves was substituted for it. The Xemean games, which were celebrated in the valley of Xeraea in the ter- ritory of the Argive town Cleon.-e, consisted of gymnastic, equestrian, and musical contests. The prize was a palm-branch and a srarland of fresh trAu'or. The Olympian ^mes, held in honour of Zens at Olympia in the Peloponnesian district of Pisatis, consisted of foot-races, chariot-races, leap- ing, quoit and spear throwing, >vrestling and box- ing ; and the prize was a wreath of the leaves of the sacred wild olive, Siiid to have been originally planted by Heracles, which had been cut with a golden knife. The Pythian games, held on the Crissae&n plain below Delphi, consisted of gyni- n.istic and athletic contests similar to those held at Olyrapia, with the addition of musical ceremonies. The prizes were a wreath from the sacred bay-tree in the Vale of Tempe and a palm-branch (SeyfTert, DU-t. aass. Ant., pp. 326, 413, 427, 531).
It was doubtless these games, more particularly the Isthmian games, that suggested to fet. Paul the comparison of the Christian life to a race and to a boxing-match, and led him to insist on the need for discipline and self-denial in order to "ain success. And it is from these games that he t)orrows the figure of the prize which awaits the successful runner of the Christian race. In two passasies ( I Co 9", Ph 3'*) the term used is Spa^eioy, tlie word regularly employed to denote the award to the victor in the games, a prize (Grimm-Thayer, s.i:).
PRIZE