• But it is only fair to recall sayings like that of Rabbi Akiba (Pirlfe A both, iii. 19): * The world is judged by goodness, and [yet] all is according to the [amount of] work.'
t From one point of view, he could say (2 Th I^f-) that God considered it only right (SiKaiov napa 6etZ) to reward Christian suffering with rest and relief hereafter ; horn another, he could suggest that the closing as well as the opening act of the Chris- tian experience was one of God's grace (see above, p. 376). There is no real discrepancy between the two aspects.
KING
KOADS AND TRAVEL
3'J3
Rechtfertigunp bei Paillua, eine Rechtfertipung Paulus,' SK (19121 38 f.; G. P. Wetter. Der yer<jc!Uui;is<ieil(tnki: bei Pautus, Gotlingen, 1912. p. 101 1. ; A, de Boysson. La Loi et la foi, Paris, 1912, p. 2251.; H. Weiiiel, Ihblische Theoloijie des Xr-, Tubingen, 1913, p. 272 (.; J. G. Simpson, urt. ' Justification,' ii'ifB vii. 81S-019 ; J. Weiss, Das Orchrislen- Um, Gottingen, 1914, p. 384 1. J AMES MOFFATT.
RING.— Rings on the fingers were amonj; the oriMiiuents worn by Jews, both by men (Gn 38"- " 41", Lk 15--) and by women (Is 8-')- A warning against the wearing of rings by Christians is given in Apost. Const, i. 3. Tliat it was needed we can see from the fact that in Ja 2^ the Christian con- gregations are warned against paying undne re- spect to the man who comes into their assembly ' with a gold ring' (lit. 'golden-ringed' ; his bands might be adorned with a number of rings). Clement of Alexandria, while forbiilding to Chris- tians such ornaments as are mere lu.xuries, makes an exception of the ring because of its use for the purpose of sealing.
RIVER (irora^iis, Ac 16", 2 Co II", Rev 8'» 9" J215 igJ- n 22'--; the references to rivers in the Gospels are even fewer [cf. Mt 7-=, Mk P, Lk (5^*, Jn 7^]).— The Jordan is the only river in Palestine proper, worthy of the name. It is rightly called the Jordiin, wliich probably means ' the Descender,' as it falls some 2,000 ft. in a distance of 100 miles. Among the other streams and mountain torrents in Palestine there are the Kishon, which drains Galilee westward ; the Yarmuk and the Jabbok, which carry the waters of Bashan and Gilead into the Jordan ; the Leontes and Orontes, which rise in Coele-Syria and drain the great basin between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ; and the Euphrates, greatest of all, forming the boundary of Palestine on the N.E.
The rivers mentioned in apostolic history carry us beyond Palestine. Certain references to rivers, indeed, are but figures of speech. That alluded to in Ac 16'^ is best identified with the Gangitis, a tributary of the Strymon near Philippi. On its banks St. Paul and his companions found a place of prayer, with a small building possibly in con- nexion with it. According to Josephus (Ant. XIV. X. 23), the decree of Halicarnassus allowed the Jews ' to make their places of prayer by the sea^ shore, according to the custom of their fathers.' Tertullian (ad Nat. i. 13) also, about A.D. 200, mentions ' prayers on the shore ' as characteristic of the Jews (cf. Ac 2P). The Jews in Philippi at that time were probably too few in number to possess a synagogue. This ' place of prayer,' being situated by a river, was convenient for ceremonial wasliings. In another passage (2 Co 11-''), St. Paul, in illustration of his unflinching Christian endur- ance, recounts the perils he had suH'ered in his missionary journeys from swollen and turbulent ' rivers,' which had been treacherous to ford or swim. Doubtless he had had many hazardous experiences of this character. When the rivers of Asia Minor and Palestine are in flood, to ford them is little less than a tragedy. The rains and melt- ing snows keep most of them bridgeless.
Two references in the Book of Revelation are of similar import and may be considered together. In the first (8'°), when the third angel sounds, there falls from heaven a great star, burning as a torch, upon the third part of the ' rivers ' and upon the fountains of waters. The star is called ' worm- wood,' a bitter drug, typical of Divine punishment, and regarded as a mortal poison. In the second passage (16''), the third angel pours out his bowl into the ' rivers ' and fountains of waters, and they become blood. In consequence, there is no more drinking water. All nature is in convulsion, the special object of the Apostle being to announce the
doom of Rome and of the worshippers of the Emperor.
There are three other passages in the Apocalypse which may very appriipriately be discusseii by them.selvc.s. In the first (Rev 9'^), the sixth angel with the trumiiet is bidden to loose the four angels that are bound at ' the great river Euphrates,' that they may lead forth a mighty army to the sad disaster of Rome. The Euphrates, which in the olden time had been the ideal eastern boundary of Israel's territory, is here conceived of as the frontier between Rome and her enemies the Parthians. In a parallel passage (16'-) the sixth angel pours out his bowl on the Euphrates, and its waters are dried up that the way may be ready for the kings (of Parthia) to cross over (cf. 17'-' '"). Both predictions have to do with the Roman Empire and its fate. In the remaining passage (12'°) the dragon casts water out of his mouth ' as a river' that the Imperial mistress (Rome) may be carried away as by a deluge. In all these passages the Seer is attempting to picture the marvellous deliverance of God's people from their Roman enemies. For the Roman armies under Nero threatened to sweep away Christianity in the wreck of the Jewish nation.