In the Old Testament this version adheres exceed- ingly closely to the Septuagint (but in the book of Daniel has followed the version of Theodotion). Its most striking characteristic is, that it does not follow any known recension of the Sept. Although it more often agrees with the Alexandrine text, in readings which are peculiar to the latter, than it does with the Aldine or Complutensian text, yet, on the other hand, it also has followed readings which are only found in the last two. Bertholdt accounts for this mixed text by assuming that the copy of the Greek Bible sent from Ephesus contained the Lucian recension, and that the pupils brought back copies according to the Hesychian recension from Alexandria, and that the translators made the latter their standard, but correct- ed their version b}r aid of the former (Einleit. ii, 560). The version of the New Testament is equally close to the Greek original, and also represents a text made up of Alexandrine and Occidental readings. — Kitto.
This version was afterward revised and adapted to the Peshito in the sixth century, on the occasion of an ecclesiastical union between the Syrians and Ar- menians. Again, in the thirteenth century, an Ar- menian king, Hethom or Haitho, who was so zealous a Catholic that he turned Franciscan monk, adapted the Armenian version to the Vulgate, by way of smoothing the wray for a union of the Roman and Ar- menian churches. Lastly, the Bishop Uscan, who printed the first edition of this version at Amsterdam, in the year 1666, is also accused of having interpolated the text as it came down to his time by adding all that he found the Vulgate contained more than the Armenian version. The existence of the verse 1 John v, 7, in this version, is ascribed to this supplementary labor of Uscan. It is clear, from what has been said, that the critical uses of this version are limited to de- termining the readings of the Sept. and of the Greek text of the New Testament which it represents, and that it has Buffered many alterations, which diminish its usefulness in that respect. See generallv Walch, Bill. Theol. xv, 50, 247 ; Rosenmiiller, Handb. d. Lit- eratur, iii, 78-84, 153 sq. The following are the forms of this version hitherto published: 1. Biblia, jussu Jacobi protopatriarchaa (Amst. 1666, Ito) ; Biblia, jussu patriarchs Nahabiei (Constpl. 1705, 4to) ; Biblia, jnssu Umihai patriarchs (Ven. 17:53, fob); Biblia (ed. Dr. Zohrab, Ven. 1805, 4 vols. 8vo and 1 vol. •Itoi: ;■/. (Petropol. 1817, Ito; also Serampore, 1817, 4to); Bible, i„ mod. Armen. (Smyrna, 1853, -ito). 2. Vov. Test. (ed. [Jscan, Amst. 1668,*8vo); id. (Amst. 1698, l2nio; Ven. 1720 and 1789, 8vo; Lond. 1818); Voe /'■ it., in ancand mod. Armen. (ed. Dr. Zohrab, Par. 1825, 8vo). Special parts and treatises are: O&adku Armenus, cur. A. Acoluthio (Lips. 1680); Quatuor prima cap. Evang. Malthzi (ed. ('. A. Bode, Jlal. 1756) ; Bredenkamp, Genau, ,-, \; rfriehuug <l. av- ium. r<l,<r.«tziiii!i </.-.< \. t., in Michaelis's N. Orient. Bibl. vii, 139 sq. ; Schroder, in his Tins. ling. Armen. See Versions.
Arm-hole (~P V^SX, atstsW gad, joint of the hand; Sept. ayiewv ^fipoc). "Woe to the women that sew pillows to all arm-holes" (Ezek. xiii, 18), i. e. elboivs, although the term has also been taken for the wrist, or for the knuckles of the hand. The true meaning is somewhat doubtful, for it evidently refers to some custom with which we are unacquainted. The women spoken of are no doubt the priestesses of Ashtaroth, and the object of the prophet is to denounce the arts they employed to allure God's chosen people to a participation in their idolatrous worship. Orien- tals, when they wish to be at their ease, recline on or against various kinds of rich pillows or cushions. The adulteress in the Proverbs (vii, 1G) alludes to the costliness and richness of those that belonged to her divan or "bed" among the circumstances by whicli she sought to seduce "the young man void of under- standing;" it is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that something of the same kind may be here intend- ed. See Pillow'. The term also occurs in Jeremiah xxxviii, 12, in describing the release of the prophet from the dungeon of Malchiah.
Armies. See Army.
Arminianism, properly, the system of doctrine taught by James Arminius, especially with regard to the Augustinian theory of unconditional predestina- tion, as revived and extended by Calvin and others in the Reformation. It is designated by Guthrie as that "gigantic recoil from Calvinism, than which no reaction in nature could have been more certainly predicted. Of all the actors in that movement — so fertile of mighty actors — no one played a more con- spicuous, important, and trj'ing part than Arminius. To high talent and cultivation, and to consummate ability as a disputant, Arminius added the ornament of spotless Christian consistency (his enemies being judges), and of a singularly noble, manly, and be- nevolent nature. This, with his conspicuous posi- tion, made his personal influence to be very potent and extensive. And yet few names have ever been overshadowed by a deeper and denser gloom of preju- dice than his; to utter which, as Wesley remarked, was much the same, in some ears, as to raise the cry of mad d cj. This is attributable partly to the latitu- dinarianism of some of his followers, who, revolting at the dominant faith, and maddened by oppression, resiled to the opposite extreme ; and partly to the ac- cidental circumstance that his milder scheme found general favor in the Church of England at a time when she stood in hostile relations to the English Puritans and the Scottish Presbyterians. But these were results with whicli neither the man Arminius nor the Armin- ian principle of conditionalism had any thing whatever to do. To trace them to him were not more just than to trace German Neology to Luther and Melancthon, and Socinianism to Calvin." (Preface to Brande's Lift °.f A rmmius.")