Benjamin B. Warfield.
RED SEA.— The passage of the Red Sea with the destruction of Pharaoh's army was one of the great miracles of Jewish history which the people loved to recall. There are three distinct references to this event in the NT. In Ac 7"" St. Stephen mentions it as manifesting the glory of Mose.s. In He 11-" it is referred to as a striking instance of what faith can do. But the chief reference is in I Co 10'' ^, where St. Paul, in warning the Corin- thians of the danger of neglecting their Christian benetits, quotes Israel's escaping from Egypt as an illustration. Of several great benefits bestowed by God on His people Israel one Avas that they all passed through the Sea ; while a second was that they were all baptized in the Sea as followers of jSIoses. But all their great benelits did not save them when they afterwards became disobedient. .St. Paul here conceives the passage through tlie Red Sea to have been an initiatory rite like baptism (see G. G. Findlay, EGT, ' 1 Corinthians,' 1900, p. 857). J. W. Duncan.
REED {Ki.'KaiJ.ot, Heb. n3|3 = Eng. 'cane').— The ' reed like a start' (xaXa/tos S/ioios pdpSiji) which St. John used for measuring the temple of God (Rev 11') was probably the arundo donax, which flour- ishes especially in the Jordan Valley, growing in marshy brakes to a height of 15 to '20 ft. and strong enough to be used as a walking-stick (Ezk 29°-', Is 36"). Being straight and light, this reed served also as the most convenient measuring- rod (Ezk 40^' '), and as a delinite measure it was G'i cubits long=about 9 ft. (Liddell and Scott, s.v.). The New Jerusalem was measured by an angel who had for a measure a golden reed (Rev 21" "').
James Straiian.
REFORMATION (Siip^wo-is).— This word— fraught with so much significance in tlie history of Christen- dom— occurs only once in the English Bible. The passage is He 9'°, in which the writer, speaking of the ordinances of the First Co\'enant, says that they are 'carnal ordinances, impo.sed until a time of reformation ' (RV). The time of reformation re- ferred to is the period of the New Covenant, de- scribed in He S^"- by a quot.-itiou from Jer 3P'''*. The inauguration of it by the oll'ering of Christ is set forth in He 9"'-, where His perfect sacrifice of Himself is contrasted with the annual sacrifices of the older dispensation.
It is from an Old Testament point of view that this title is bestowed on the Christian era. Other aspects of that era, from the same point of view, are indicated by the words ' regeneration ' {iraXivyfi'effla, Mt 19^) and 'restoration' (diroKOTd(rTaffi!, Ac 3-').
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KKGENEKATIOX
REGENERATION
The aspect of 'reformation' is complementary to these, and involves a necessary element. It was when Christ, the ' Hig'i Priest of the good things to come,' appeared that all defects inherent in the ancient system were remedied. The numerous inetl'ectual sacrifices were replaced by the one perfect Sacrifice ; the veil was taken away. Re- ligion became le.ss a matter of mechanical routine, and more a matter of rational spiritual service.
The corresponding Greek word SidpSoKra is equally uniq\ie in hihlical usage. Except in He 9'° it does not occur in the Greek Bible. It is fairly common in later Greek in the general sense of ' amendment ' or ' correction.' Aristotle so uses it with refer- ence to laws and constitutions (Pol. in. i. 5, vil. i. 9). Polybius employs it of the rectification of things that have misehanced or gone amiss (v. Ixx.wiii. 2, VI. xxxviii. 4). The corresponding verb diopBovi' is used in the LXX of amending one's ways (cf. Jer 7^', Wis 9'»).
LiTERATDRE. — J. F. Schleusner, Novum Lex. Gr.-Lat. in Xvv. Test., Leipzig, 1819, s.v., and the Commentaries on Hel>re\v9, in ioc, esp. B. F. Westcott (London, 1889, p. 264); A. B. Bruce (Edinburgh, 1S99, p. S24 f.).
Dawson Walker.
REGENERATION.— /»<rorfMctory.— A study of the NT idea of regeneration does not mean, of course, simply an examination of the passages in which that particular metaphor occurs, but a con- sideration of the theory which the NT writers held as to the nature of the experiences which they found in themselves and in their converts. These experiences did not take place in a vacuum, but in a world in which supernatural religion was an in- tensely significant interest. No movement can ever be so original that it is entirely independent of the ideas and conditions of its day. However new it may be in its spirit, it will inevitably clothe itself in the familiar forms of human speech and conduct, even though it give to them a wholly new significance. In the time of .Jesus, people believed already in a Divine power which would make them fit for an immortality of bliss. They thought of the necessary transformation as a death and resur- rection, as a new birth, as a purification. If the totality of the utterances of later Judaism and of the non-Christian religions be considered, it is prob- able that we should regard the conditions of the new life which they present as, for the most part, unethical, external, magical. But when the finest of these utterances are read with due appreciation, it must be recognized that they have a large ethical meaning.* The gospel of regeneration was not a striking novelty either to the Jewish or to tlie pagan world, and if the condition of regeneration were simply stated as a belief that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, it might seem quite eon- sonant with the common faith of the time. And this was probably so much the case that one of the great problems before the creative personalities of Cliristianity, who were passionately inculcating a spiritual faith, was to put ethical content into those supernatural conceptions of the new religion with which the people were all too easily satisfied. It is probable, therefore, that we shall have to look for the highest meaning of regeneration as con- ceived by the apostles, not so much in those mir- aculous aspects which have generally attracted attention, important as these "are in I^T thought, but rather in what was added of real ethical quality to the conceptions that otherwise might have been largely external and magical.