Conjectural Diagram of the Laver. (After Thenius.)
a, borders; 6, ledges; c, additions; rf, plwtes ; e, undersetters, _/, naves; ^, spokes; A, felloes; i, chapiter; X:, round compass.
"Thenius, with whom Keil in the main agrees, both of them differing from Ewald, in a minute examination of the whole passage, but not without some transposition, chiefly of the greater part of ver. 31 to ver. 35, deduces a construction of the bases and lavers, which seems fairly to reconcile the very great difficulties of the subject. Fol- lowing chiefly his description, we may suppose the base to have been a quadrangular hollow frame, connected at its corners by pilasters (ledges), and moved l>y four wheels or high castors, one at each corner, with handles (plates) (for drawing the machine. The sides of this frame were divided into three vertical panels or com- partments (borders), ornamented with bass-reliefs of lions, oxen, and cherubim. The fop of the base was convex, with a circular opening of one and a half cubit diameter. The top itself was covered with cngra\'ed cherubim, lions, and palm-trees or branches. The height of the convex top from the upper plane of the base was one and a half cubit, and the space between this top and the lower surface of the laver one and a
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half cubit more. The laver rested on supports (under- setters) rising from the four corners of the base. Each laver coutaiued 40 ' baths' (Gr. X""?); or about 300 gal- lons. Its dimensions, therefore, to be in ])roporliou to seven feet (four cubits, vcr. 38) in diameter, must have been about thirty inches in depth. The great height of the whole machine was doubtless iii order to bring it near the height of the altar (2 Chron. iv, 1 ; Arias Mon- tanus, De Templi Fabrica, in Crit. Sac. viii, G2G ; Light- foot, Descr. Templi, c. xxxvii, 3, vol. i, p. Gi6 ; Thenius, in Kurzg. Exeg. llandb. on 1 Kings vii, and Append, p. 41 ; Ewald, Geschichte, iii, 313 ; Keil, Hundb. ihr Bibl. Arch. § 24, p. 128, 129)" (Smith). Mr. Paine, in his work on Solomon's Temple (plate xii, fig. 6), gives the follow- ing conjectural view of one of these lavers, which is more compact, less likely to be overturned, and more closely analogous to the forp of the great or molten sea
Form of the "Laver" acco; diu2: to Paiue.
(q. v.). Yet in neither of these figures does the " base," with its chest-like form and inconvenient height, seem at all adapted to the above purpose of catching the waste water, or of aiding in any M'ay the ablutions, un- less the laver itself were furnished with a spout, and the box below formed a tank with openings on the top for receiving the stream after it had served its cleansing purpose. The portable form was doubtless for conven- ience of replenishing and emptying.
3. In the second Temple there appears to have been only one laver of brass (Mishna, Middoth, iii, C), with twelve instead of two stop-cocks, and a machine for raising water and filling it (Jlishna, Tumid, lii, 8; com- pare i, 4, Ziima, iii, 10). Of its size or shape we have no information, but it was jirobably like those of Solo- mon's Temple. Josephus, in liis description of Herod's Temple ( War, v, 5), scarcely alludes to f liis laver. See H. (L Clemens, De labro m/ieo (Utr. 1725 ; also in Ugo- lini Thesuur. xix); Lamy, De tabernac. fad. iii, 6, 7, p. 460 sq., and table 10; Vilalpandus, On Ezek. li, p. 492; L'Erapereur in Surenhusius's Mi.irhna, v, 3fi0 ; Schaacht, Anim.ivlr. ad I ken. antiq. p. 297 scj. ; Ziillig, Chcrubim- vai/i'ti, \). 50 sq. ; Griineisen, in the Shiltijart. Kunstbl. 183 1, No. 5 sq. ; A. Clants, Scription. biblic. (Groningen, 1733), p, 05; Scacchi, Mgroth. sacr. thuochrism. p. 41; and the various commentators on the passages of Scrip- ture, especially Kosenmiiller, and Ilengstenberg'sPcwta^ ii, 133. See TiiMPi.E.
Laverty, Wii.li.vji W., an American Presbyterian minister, was born in Union Comity, Pa., June 15, 1828; was educated at Wasliington College, Pa. (class of 1849), and studied theology iu Princeton Theological Semi- nary. In the fall of 1853 he was ordained and installed pastor of 15ig Sjiring and New Cumberland churches, Ohio. In connection with his ministerial duties he also filled the position of principal of Hagerstown Academy. In 1857 he accepted the pastorate of the Wellsville and
East Liverpool churches, Ohio, and in the spring of 1864 he was elected principal of Mongolia Academy, at Mor- gantown, West Va., where he died Oct. 28, 1805. Mr. Laverty was especially adapted to the training and in- struction of youth, and he always devoted himself with untiring assiduity to whatever he undertook. — Wilson, Presb. Historical Almanac, 1800, p. 107.
Lavialle, Piekre Joseph, a Roman Catholic prelate, was born in jMauriac, France, in 1820, and received both a collegiate and theological education in the universities of his native city. In 1843 he came to the United States, and was ordained priest the following year. Af- ter a year's service in New York City he was made pro- fessor of theology in St. IMary's College, Lebanon, Ky., and in 1855 was appointed president of the same insti- tution. In 1859 he declined the proffered bishopric of Savannah, but in 18G5 accepted that of Louisville. He died May 11. 1807. Bishoj) Lavialle was a man of great zeal and energy. He founded several educational and benevolent institutions in his diocese. His character was such as to win him the esteem not only of his own people, but of the citizens generally. — .4 merican A nnual Ci/clopwdia, 1 807, p. 428.