Honert, Joiiann van den, a distinguished Dutch divine, v.as born near Dortrecht Dee. 1 , 1693. His early- years were spent in military service, but on his father's accession to a professor's chair in the University of Ley- den he decided to follow a literary- life, and, after lour years of studv, he became a candidate for the ministry in his twentv-fourth year. In 1718 he was appointed minister at Catwick, on the Khinc; later, at Enkhuysen, and then at Haarlem. In 1727 he was called as pro-
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fessor of theology to the University at Utrecht, and in 1731 was honored with the professorship of Church His- tory. In 1734 the University of Ley den called him as professor of theology, to which was added, in 1738, the department which he last filled at the Utrecht Univer- sity, and in 1746 the department of Homiletics. He died April 7, 1758. A complete list of his works, which in a great part have now nearly gone out of date, is given by Adelung (in Jocher's Gel. Lexik. Addenda ii, 2123 sq.'). His De gratia Dei non universali, sed par- iiculari (Lugd. 1723, 8vo), which was intended to serve as an intermediator at the time when the Calvinistic pre- destinarian doctrine was much softened by the French and Swiss theologians, so rigidly opposed by many sys- tematic theologians, involved him in a controversy with some of the Remonstrants (q. v.). (Comp. A da Jiist. eccl. ii, 819 sq.) His Oraiio de hist, eccles. studio Theologis maxiine necess. (Lugd. 1734, 4to) was, like many other translations of German theological works, of great value to the Church of his country. He wrote also Institt. Theol. (Lugd. 1735). Honert was regarded by all par- ties as a very scholarly divine, and was considted by all of them without distinction. — Gass, Gesch. der Protest. Doffmat. iii, 1862 ; Fuhrmann, Ilundwurterh. d. Kirchen- gesch. ii, 339 sq. (J. H. W.)
Honestus, St. See Dasiian, Peter.
Honey (^?'7, debash', sometimes rendered "hojiei/- comb," in composition Avith "i^^, ya.'ar, or Jj^lU, tsuph ; while rsb no'pheth, singly, is sometimes translated "honey-comb;" Greek iiiXi) is represented by several terms, more or less accurately, in the origmal languages of Scripture.
1. ^y^, ya'ar, which only occurs (in this sense) in 1 Sam. xiv, 25, 27, 29 ; Cant, v, 1 ; and denotes the honey of bees, and that only. The word properly signifies a copse or forest, and refers to the honey fomid in the •woods.
2. r33, no'pheth, honey that drops (from rj^lJ, to sprin- He or distil), usually associated with the comb, and therefore bee-honey. This occurs in Psa. xix, 10 ; Prov. T, 3 ; xxiv, 13 ; xxvii, 7 ; Cant, iv, 11.
3. Ui3'n, debash' (from its ijlittinous nature). This is the most frequent word. It sometimes denotes bee- honey, as in Judg. xiv, 8, but may also refer to a vege- table honey distilled from trees, and called manna by chemists ; also the sirup of dates, and even dates them- selves. It appears also sometimes to stand as a general term for all kinds of honey, especially the sirup of grapes, i. e. the newly-expressed juice or must boiled down. At the present day this sirup is still common in Palestine, under the same Arabic name dibs (Robin- son's Researches, ii, 442, 453), and forms an article of commerce in the East; it was this, and not ordinarj' bee-honey, which Jacob sent to Joseph (Gen. xliii, 11), and which the TjTians purchased from Palestine (Ezek. xxvii, 17). The mode of preparing it is described by Pliny (xiv, 11) : the must was either boiled down to a half (in which case it was called dffrutum), or to a third (when it was called siracum, or sapa, the ff/poioc olvog, and tT^i}fia of the Greeks) : it was mixed either Avith wine or milk (Virg. Georg. i, 296 ; Ovid, Fast, iv, 780) : it is still a favorite article of nutriment among the S\t- ians, and has the appearance of coarse honey (RusseU, Aleppo, i, 82). It was used for sweetening food, like sugar with us (Exod. xvi, 31).
4. vJ^liS, tsu2)h (literally ajlowing), denotes rather the cells of the honey-comb full of honey (Prov. xvi, 24 ; Psa. xix, 11).
5. The "wild honey" (^liXi uypiov) which, with lo- custs, formed the diet of Jolm the Baptist, Avas, accord- ing to some, the manna or vegetable honey noticed im- der debash (No. 3, aboA'e), but may very naturally refer to the honey stored by bees in the rocks of Judrea De- serta, in the absence of the trees to Avliich they usually
resort. Such wild honey is clearly referred to m Deut xXii, 13 ; Psa. Ixxxi, 17. Josephus {War, iv, 8, 3) spe- cifies bee-honey among the natiu-al productions of the plain of Jericho : the same Greek expression is certainly applied by Diodorus Sicidus (xix, 94) to honey exuding from trees ; but it may also be applied, like the Latin mel silvestre (Phny, xi, 16), to a particular kind of bee- honey. A third kind has been described by some Avrit- ers as " A^egetable" honey, by Avhich is meant the exu- dations of certain trees and shrubs, such as the Tamarix mannifera, found in the penmsula of Sinai, or the stunt- ed oaks of Liuristan and Mesopotamia. A kind of honey is described by Josephus (I. c.) as being manufactured from the juice of the date.