burg, 1550, 8vo) : — Osinndri de Justificatione Refutiitii (Francf. 1552, 4to) : — Catulogus Testium Veritatis, etc. (Bale, 1556 ; Francf. 1674, 4to) : — Unun. Piim. Ecclesim consensus de nan scrutando divinas generationis Filii Dei modi) (Bale, 1660, 8vo) : — Historia certaminum de pii- matu Papce (Biile, 1554, 8vo) : — Clavis Scriptura Sacrce (Bale, 1567, 4to ; Jena, 1675, fol. ; a valuable Bibli- cal and hermeneutical dictionary). See, besides the works already noticed, Twesten, M. Flacius Illijrlcus (Berlin, 1844); Adami, FiCre Theolog. Germ.; Hocfer, Nouv. Biogr. Generale, xvii, 808 ; Herzog, Real-Ency- llopiidie, iv, 410 sq. ; Heppe, Die confess. Eniwickelung der altp}-otest. Kirche Deutschlandi (Marburg, 1854) ; Studien u. Kritiken, 1855, 648 ; Schmidt, in Zeitschrift f. d. histor. Theologie, 1849; Dorner, Gcschichle d.prot. ^Theologie (Munchen, 1867, 8vo), 361-374 ; Gieseler, (7/«. History, ed. Smith, vol. iv, § 37 ; and the articles Aui- APHOKisTic Controversies; Synekgistic Contro- versy.
Flag (as the name of a plant) stands in the Auth. Vers, as the representative in part of two Heb. words. See Botany.
1. Achu (WX ; Sept. Grfecizes uxi, lixn, ftovTOjxov ; Vulg. locus imlustris, carectuni), a word, according to Jerome {Comment, in Isa. xix, 7), of Egyptian origin, and denoting "any green and coarse herbage, such as rushes and reeds, which grows in marshy places" (comp. Gesenius, Thes. Heb. p. 67). In Job viii, 11, it is asked, "Can the acAi< (" flag") grow without wa- ter.'" It seems probable that some specific plant is here denoted, as Celsius has endeavored to prove (//*- eroh. i, 342), for the achu is mentioned with the gome or "papj'rus." See the treatise of Happoch, -De 2?a- piuro, etc. (Coburg, 1772; with the Additament. ib. 1777). The word occurs once again in Gen. xli, 2, 18, where it is said that the seven well-favored kine came up out of the river and fed in an achu ("meadow"). Now it is generall)'' well known that most of the plants which grow in water, as well as many of those which grow in its vicinity, are not well suited as food for cattle ; some being very waterj', others verj'^ coarse in texture, and some possessed of acrid and even poi- sonous properties. None, therefore, of the Algie can be intended, nor any species of Butomus, or ' ' flower- ing rush" (as might be inferred from one rendering of the Sept.). The diflferent kinds of Junciis, or rush, though abounding in such situations, are not suited for pasturage, and, in fact, are avoided by cattle. So are the majority of the Cyperacece, or sedge tribe ; and also the numerous species of Carex, which grow in moist situations, yet yield a very coarse grass, which is scarcely if ever touched by cattle. A few species of Cyperus serve as pasturage, and the roots of some of them are esculent and aromatic ; but these must be dug up before cattle can feed on them. Some species of Scij-pus, or club-rush, however, serve as food for cat- tle : »S^. cespitosus, for instance, is the principal food of cattle and sheep in the highlands of Scotland from the beginning of IMarch till the end of May. Varieties of iS'. m'lritimus, found in different countries, and a few of the numerous kinds of Cyperaceaj common in In- dian pastures, as Cyperus duhius and hexastachyus, are also eaten by cattle. Therefore, if any specific plant is intended, as seems implied in what goes before, it is perhaps one of the edible species of scirpus or cyperus, perhaps C. esculentus, which, however, has distinct Ar- abic names: or it may be a true grass; some species of panicum, for instance, which form excellent pasture in warm countries, and several of which grow luxuri- antly in the neighborhood of water. But it is well known to all acquainted with warm countries subject to excessive drouglit that the only pasturage to which cattle can resort is a green strip of difterent grasses, with some sedges, which runs along the banks of riv- ers or of pieces of water, varj'ing more or less in breadth according to the height of the bank, that is,
FLAG
586
FLAG
Cijiwrtis EscttUnlus.
the distance of water from the surfiiee. Cattle emerg- ing from rivers, which they ma}' often be seen doing in hot countries, would naturally go to such green herbage as intimated in this passage of Genesis, and which, as indicated in Job xviii, 2, could not grow without water in a warm, dry country and climate. Kitto (Pid. Bib. on Genesis, 1. c.) identifies this sedge with the ixaXiimOdW)] of Theophrastus {Hist. Plant. iv, 8, 12), which plant was much eaten by sheep and cattle. There is, however, much doubt as to what the maliiiathnlla denotes, as Schneider has shown. The- odotion, in Job viii, 11, has «xt ; and a'xe occurs in the Sept. (Isa. xix, 7) also as the representative of T^'^\^J (A.V. "paper reeds"), which word is explained by Geseniiis, naked places without trees — the grassy places on the banks of the Nile. The same Greek word is used by the son of Sirach, Eccles. xi, 16 (rt^t or cixii, for the copies varj'). As no similar name is known to be applied to any plant or plants in Hebrew, endeavors have been made to find a similar one so ap- plied in the cognate languages (see Jablonski, Opusc. i, 45 ; ii, 159, ed. Te-Water), and, as quoted by Dr. Harris {Nat. Hist, of the Bible, s. v.), the learned Cha- pellon says, "We have no radix for WX, unless we de- rive it, as Schultens does (Comment, in Job, 1. c), from the Arabic add, to bind or join together." Hence it has been inferred that it might be some one of the grasses or sedges employed in former times, as some still are, for making ropes. But there is probably some other Arabic root which has not yet been as- certained, or which may have become obsolete; for there are numerous words in the Arabic language liav- ing reference to greenness, all of which have akh as a common element. Thus aJchyas, thickets, dark groves, places full of reeds or flags, in which animals take shelter; nkkevas, putting forth leaves; so akhzirar, greenness, verdure ; alchchishib, abounding in grass. These may be connected with kah, a common term for grass in Northern India, derived from the Persian, whence amber is called kah-rohehy, grass-attracter. — Kitto, s. V. ; Smith, s. v. See Reed.