The east seems to have been regarded as symbolical of distance (Isa. xlvi, 11), as the land stretched out in tliese directions without any known limit. In Isa. ii, (!, th3 house of Jacob is said to be " replenished from the east" (D'1J5'D ^N3"2), which some explain as refer- ring to witchcraft, or the arts of divination practised in the East, while others, with greater probability, under- stand it of the men of the East, the diviners and sooth- sayers who came from the east (comp. Job xv, 2) ; the correct text may, however, be epic's, with sorcery, which gives a better sense (Gesen. Thesaur. p. 1193). See Witchcraft.
3. 'AvaroXi'i, sun-me. This word usually occurs in the plural, and without the article. When, therefore, we read, as in Matt, ii, 1, 2, that ^'- jiayoi I'l-b avaro- \wv came to Jerusalem saying we have seen his star iv T?j avaroX))," we are led to suspect some special reason for such a variation. The former phrase is naturally rendered as equivalent to Oriental Magi, and the indefinite expression is to be explained by ref- erence to the use of Clp in the Old Test. The latter phrase offers greater difficultv. If it be taken = " in the east," the questions arise why tlie singular and not the customary plural should be used ? whj' the ar- ticle should be added .' and whj- the wise men should have seen the star in the east when the place where the child was lay to the west of their locality (unless, indeed, tv rij avaroXy relates to the star, and not the wise men themselves, to whom it seems to refer). Pressed liy the difficulties thus suggested, the majority of recent interpreters take ti' tij dvaroXij literally = i« its rise, and trace a correspondence of this with the TEx^cR- of the preceding clause : they inquired for the child, whom thej' knew to be born, because they had seen the risinc/ of his star, the signal of his birth. Al- ford objects to this, that for such a meaning we should expect auTov, if not in ver. 2, certainly in ver. 9; but the construction liills under the case where the article, by indicating something closely associated with the subject, supersedes the use of the demonstrative pro- noun. In the Sept. ch/aroXai is used both for kedem and rrvzrach. It should be observed that the expres- sion is, with but few exceptions (Dan. viii, 9 ; Rev. xxi, 13; comp. vii, 2; xvi, 12, from which it would seem to have been John's usage to insert I'/Xiov), dvaruXai (Matt, ii, 1 ; viii, 11 ; xxiv, 27 ; Luke xiii, 29), and not dvaroXij. It is hardly possible that IMatthew would use the two terms indifferently in succeeding verses (ii, 1, 2), particularly as he adds the article to dvaro- Xi), which is invariablj^ absent in other cases (comp. Rev. xxi, 13). He seems to imply a definiteness in the locality — that it was the country called Cip, or dt'OToXlj (comp. the modern Anatolia), as distinct from
the quarter or point of the compass (dvaroXa!') in which it lay. In confirmation of this, it ma_v be no- ticed that in the only passage where the article is pre- fixed to kedem (Gen. x, 30), the term is used for a def- inite and restricted locality, namely. Southern Arabia. — Kitto, s. v. ; Smith, s. v. See Star in the East. The only other terms rendered "east" in the Scrip- tures are the following : n^Din (charsuth' , j'ottery), applied to a gate of Jerusalem, improperly called " easJ gate" (Jer. xix, 2), but meaning the potters' gate (q. v.), i. e. one which led to the "potters' field" in the valley of Hinnom (see Strong's Hai-mony and Exjwsi- tioii. Appendix ii, p. 11). See Jerusalem. XlSTa (jnoisa', a rjoing forth, as it is elsewhere usually ren- dered), applied poetically to sun-?-jse (Psa. Ixxv, 6). For "east-wind," "east-sea," see below.
EAST, Turning towards the. 1. The earliest churches faced eastward ; at a later period (-fth or 5th centurj') this was reversed, and the sacramental table was placed at the east, so that worsliippers facing it in their devotions were turned towards tlie east. The Jewish custom was to turn to the west in prayer. Soc- rates says {Eccles. Hist. bk. vi, ch. v) that the church of Antioch had its altar on the west, i. e. towards Jerusa- lem. 2. Many fanciful reasons are assigned, both by ancient writers and by modern ritualists, for worship- ping towards the east. Among them are the follow- ing : " (1.) The rising sun was the symbol of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness ; and, since people must worship towards some quarter of the heavens, they chose that which led them to Christ Ity symViolical representa- tion (Tertullian, Apol. i, IG). (2.) The east was the place of paradise, our ancient habitation and countrj', which we lost in the first Adam by the Fall, and whither we hope to be restored again, as to our native abode and rest, in the second Adam, Christ our Sav- iour (^Apost. Const, lib. ii, c. 57). (3.) The east was con- sidered the most honorable part of the creation, being the seat of light and brightness. (4.) Christ made his appearance on earth in the east, and thence ascended into heaven, and there will appear again at the last day. The authority of manj' of the fathers has been adduced by ecclesiastical writers in support of these views. The author of the Questions to Antiochus, un- der the name of Athanasius, gives this account of the practice: 'We do not,' says he, 'worship towards the east, as if we thought God any way shut up in those parts of the world, but because God is in himself the true Light. In turning, therefore, towards the created light, we do not worship it, but the great Creator of it ; taking occasion from that most excellent element to adore the God who was before all elements and ages in the world. ' A little attention to geograph}- shows that these are nothing but fancies. That part of the heavens, for example, which is cast at six o'clock in the morning, is west at six o'clock in the evening, so that we cannot at both these periods pray towards ' that quarter of the heavens where (according to Wheatl}') God is supposed to have his peculiar resi- dence of glorj',' unless, if we turn to the east at morn- ing prayer, we turn to west at even song. Not only so, but two individuals on opposite sides of the globe, though both suppose that they are praj'ing with their fiices to the east, are, so far as it respects eacli other, or any particular 'quarter of the heavens,' praying in opposite directions, one east and the other west, one looking towards that 'quarter,' the otlier awav from it. So that all such reasons are rendered futile by the geographical fact that, owing to the rotation of the earth on its axis, every degree of longitude becomes during the twent3'-four hours both east and west."