Lineage (Trarptd, paternal descent, "kindred," Acts iii, 25; "family," Eph. iii, 15), a family or race (Luke ii, 4). See Genealogy.
Linen has been made in the A. Version or elsewhere the representative of a considerable number of Ileb. and Greek terms, to most of which it more or less nearly corresponds. The material designated by them in gen- eral is no doubt principally, and perhaps b}' S(3me of them exclusively, the product of the flax-plant ; but there is another plant which, as being a probable rival to it, may be most conveniently considered here, name- ly, HEMP. See also Silk; Wool.
Hemi^ is a plant which in the ]irescnt day is exten- sively distributed, being cultivated in Europe, and ex- teniling through Persia to the southernmost parts of India. In the plains of that country it is cultivated on account of its intoxicating product, so well known as hang ; in the Himalayas both on this account and for its yielding the Ugneous fibre which is used for sack and rope making. Its European names arc no doubt derived from the Arabic kinnab, which is supposed to be con- nected with the Sanscrit shanapee. There is no doubt, therefore, that it might easily have been cultivated in Egypt. Herodotus mentions it as being employed by the Thracians for making garments. " These were so like linen that none but a very experienced person could tell whether they were of hemp or flax ; one who had never seen hemp would certainly suppose them to be linen." Hemp is used in the present day for smock- frocks and tunics; and Russia sheeting and Russia duck are well known. Cannabis is mentioned in the works of Hippocrates on account of its medical properties. Dioseorides describes it as being employed for making ropes, and it was a good d™ cultivated by the Greeks for this purpose. Though we are unable at present to prove that it was cultivated in Egj'pt at an early period, and used for making garments, yet there is nothing im- probable in its having been so. Indeed, as it was known
to various Asiatic nations, it could hardly have been unknown to the Egyptians, and the similarity of the word husheesh to the Arabic shesh would lead to a belief that they were acquainted with it, especially as in a language like the Hebrew it is more probable that dif- ferent names were applied to totally different things, than that the same thing had two or three different names. Hemp might thus have been used at an early period, along with fiax and wool, for making cloth for garments and for hangings, and would be much valued until cotton and the finer kinds of linen came to be known. — Kitto.
1. PisHTEii' (ilfiliJQ, or, rather, according to Gese- nius, W13Q, pe'sheth, from ddS, to cajxl) is rendered " linen" in Lev. xiii, 47, 48, 52, 59 ; Deut, xxii, 11 ; Jer. xiii,l; Ezek. xliv, 17, 18; and "flax" in Josh, ii, 6; Judg. XV, 14; Prov. xxxi, 13 ; Isa. xix, 9; Ezek. xl, 3; Hos. ii, 5, 9. It signifies (1.) /lax, i. e. the material of linen, Isa. xix, 9 ; Deut. xxii, 11 ; Prov. xxxi, 13, where its manufacture is spoken of; also a line or rope made of it, Ezek. xl, 3; Judg. xiv, 4; so "stalks of flax," i. e. woody flax, Josh, ii, 6 (where the Sept. has \ivoica\dfii], Vulg. stijndce lini,hut the Arabic Vers, stalks of cotton); and (2.) wTought flax, i. e. linen cloth, as made into gar- ments, e. g. generally. Lev. xiii, 47, 48, 52, 59 ; Deut. xxii, 11 ; Ezek. xliv, 17; a girdle, Jer. xiii, 1 , a mitre, a pair of drawers worn by the priests, Ezek. xliv, 18. A cognate term is itU'012, pistah', the plant "flax" as growing, Exod. ix, 31 ; spec, a tvick; made of linen, i. e. of " flax," Isa. xhi, 3, or " tow," Isa. xliii, 17. To this exactly corresponds the Greek \ivov (whence English linm), which, indeed, stands for pishteh or pishtah in the Sept. (at Exod. ix, 31 ; Isa. xix, 9; xliii, 3). It signi- fies properly the Jiax-plant (Xenophon, .4^/j. ii, 11, 12), but in the N. T. is only used of linen raiment (Rev. xv, 6 ; comp. Homer, II. Lx, 661 ; Od. xiii, 73), also the wick of a lamp, as being composed of a strip or ravellings of linen (Matt, xii, 20), where the half-expiring flame is made the sj-mbol of an almost despairing heart, which will be cheered instead of having its religious hopes ex- tinguished by the Redeemer. In John xiii, 4, 5 occurs the Latin term linteum, in its Greek form Xsvriov, liter- ally a linen clothj hence a " towel" or api-on (comp. Ga- len, Comp. Med. 9 ; Suetonius, Ctdig. xxvi).
This well-lmown plant was early cultivated in Egypt (Exod. ix, 31 ; Isa. xix, 9 ; comp. Pliny, xix, 2 ; Herod, ii, 105; Hasselquist, Trar. p. 500), namely, in the Delta around Pelusium (" linum Pelusiacum," Sil. Ital. iii, 25, 375; "linteum Pelusium," Phrodr. ii, 6, 12); but also in Palestine (Josh, ii, 6 , Hos. ii, 7 ; compare Pococke, East, i, 260), the stalk attaining a height of several feet (see Josh, ii, 6 ; compare Hartmann, Ilebr. i, 116). Linen or tow was employed by the Hebrews, especially as a branch of female domestic manufacture (Prov. xxxi, 13), for garments (2 Sam. vi, 14 ; Ezek. xliv, 17 ; Lev. xiii, 47 ; Rev. xv, G ; comp. Philo, ii, 225), girtUes (Jer. xxxi, 1), thread and ropes (Ezek. xl, 3; Judg. xv, 13), nap- kins (Luke xxiv, 12 ; John xix, 40), turbans (Ezek. xliv, 18), and lamp-wick (Isa. xl, 3; xliii, 17; Matt, xii, 20). For clothing they used the " fine linen" ("13, o^ovij, 1 Chron. xv, 27, where the Sept. has '^vaaivoq : see Hart- mann, iii, 38 ; compare Lev. xvi, 4, 23 ; Ezek. xliv, 17), perhaps the Pelusiac linen of Egypt (see Mishna, Joma, iii, 7), of remarkable whiteness (comp. Dan. xii, 6 ; Rev. XV, 6 ; see Plutarch, Isis, c. 4), with which the fine Bab- ylon linen manufactured at Borsippa doubtless corre- sponded (Strabo, xvi, 739), being the material of the splendid robes of the Persian monarchs (Strabo, xiv, 719 ; Curt, viii, 9), doubtless the karpas, DS"i3, of Esth. i, 6 (see Gesenius, Thesaur. Ileh. p. 715). Very poor persons wore garments of unbleached flax {w/iioXn'ov, linum cru- dum, 1. q. tow-cloth, Ecclus. xl, 4). The refuse of flax or toio is called in Heb. n-li'D, neo'reth (Judg. xvi, 9; Isa. i, 31). (See generally' Celsius, Uierobot. ii, 283 sq.)^ Winer, i, 375. See Flax,