5. Ciiuu ("lin, from its u-hiteness) occurs Esth. i, 6; viii, 15, where the Auth. Version renders "white," Sept, jivaaoc, besides other passages where it signifies a " hole" risa. xi, 8 ; xUi, 22, etc.) ; once I'lH, chor, plural poet, -inin, Isa. xLx, 9 (Auth. Vers, "net-works," Sept. /3t'r(T(Toc,Vidg. sH&^tVw, Kimchi while garments). This term likewise appears to designate fine and white Unen,
or in general byssus, although Saadias and other inter- preters understand silk (see Schroder, De Vest. Mul. Heb. p. 40, 245). See No. 2 above.
6. Etltn' ("i^^N, from an obsolete root perhaps signi- fying to bind, referring to the use of the material for ropes) occurs only in Prov.vii,16, as a product of Egypt, " I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with^«e linen of Egypt." As Egypt was from very early times celebrated for its cultivation of flax and manufactures of linen, there can be little doubt that elUH is correctly rendered, though some have' thought ihat it may signify rope or string of Egypt, " funis iEgyptius," " funis salignus v. intubaceus;" a sense that it bears in Chaldee, for the Targums employ "i^wX in the sense oirope for the Heb. ban and "irT'p (Josh, ii, 15 , Numb, iv, 32 ; 1 Kings xx, 32 ; Esth. i, 6, etc.). But, following the suggestion of Alb. Schultens, Celsius {Ilierobot. ii, p. 89) observes that eliui designates not a rope, but flax and linen, as even the Greek o^ovi] and o5vviov, derived from it, sufliciently demonstrate. "So ]\Ir. Yates, in his Texli-iniim Antiquorum, p. 265, says of oSsuvt] that ' it was in all probability an Egyptian word, adopted by the Greeks to denote the commodity to which the Egyptians themselves applied it.' For "(^-i?, put into Greek letters and with Greek terminations, be- comes o^oi'i) and 65i6viov. Hesychius states, no doubt correctly, ' that 63i6vi] was applied by the Greeks to any fine and thin cloth, though not of linen.' Mr. Yates fur- ther adduces from ancient scholia that o^ovai were made both of flax and of wool, and also that the silks of India are called o^ovai ai]piKai by the author of the Periplus of the Erythrcean Sea. It also appears that the name o^oviov was applied to cloths exported from Cutch, Ougein, and Baroach, and which must have been made of cotton. ]\Ir. Yates moreover observes that, though o^^ovT], like aivcwv, originally denoted linen, yet we find them both applied to cotton cloth. As the manufacture of linen extended itself into other coun- tries, and as the exports of India became added to those of Egypt, all varieties, either of linen or cotton cloth, wherever woven, came to be designated by the origi- nall}^ Egyptian names '0^6v>; and llivSibv' (Kitto). Forster {Ue bysso aniiquor. p. 75) endeavors to trace the Egyptian form of the word, and Ludolf (Comment, ad hist. ^Elhiop. p. 204) renders it by the Ethiopic term for frankincense. But these eftbrts, as Gesenius remarks ( Thesaur. lleb. p. 77), are wide of the mark. Among the Hebrews the term "thread of Egypt" (D^Ti:?'? 'i^-^) may properly have designated a linen or even cotton material, similar to silk or byssus in fineness, such as we know was manufactured in Egj'pt (Isa. xix, 9; Ezek. xxvii, 7 ; Barhebr. p. 218), q. d. Egyptian yarn, not less famous among the ancients than "Turkish yarn" has been among moderns. Kimchi, the Venetian Greek, and others understand /"««2c«/;«n, and apply it to cords hanging from the side of a bed, or something of that sort ; rabbi Parchon, a girdle woven in Egypt — evident- ly mere conjectures.
" h\ the N. T. the word oSroviov occurs in John xix, 40 ; ' Then took they the body of Jesus and wound it in Unen clothes' {obovioic) ; in the parallel passage (iMatt, xxvii, 59) the term used is crivdovi, as also in Mark xv, 46, and in Luke xxiii, 53. We meet with it again in John XX, 5, 'and he, stooping down, saw the linen clothes lying.' It is generally used in the plural to denote 'Unen bandages.' 'O^ovrf, its primitive, occurs in Acts X, 11, 'and (Peter) saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth," and also in xi, 5, where this passage is repeated" (Kitto). In Homer it signifies either the matriae {Odys. vii, 107), or ^\TOught veils and under-garments for women (//. iii, 141; xviii, 195) ; in later writers linen clotlis (Lucilius, Bial. Mori, iii, 2), especially for sails (^lel. 80 ; AiUh. x, 5; Luc. Jup. Trag.AG). From the preceding observa- tions it is evident that cSioviov, whether answering to
LINEN"
442
LINEN
the Heb. elvn or not, may signify cloth made either of linen or cotton, but most probably the former, as it was more common than cotton in Syria and Egypt. In cla.ssical writers the word signifies linen bandages (Luc. PliUiips. 34), espec. lint for wounds (Hipp. p. 772, etc.; Ar. Ach. 117G) ; also sail-cloth (Polybius, v, 89, 2; Dem. 1145, G). See Cotton; also Nos. 7 and 10 below.
7. S.vdin' ('■'"13, from an obsolete root signifying to loosen or let down a garment, as a veil) occurs in Judg. xiv, 12, 13 (where the Auth.Vers. has "sheets," margin "shirts"), and Prov. xxxi, 24; Isa. iii, 23 (A. Vers, "tine Unen"). From these passages it appears to have been an ample garment, probably of linen, worn under the other clothing in the manner of a shirt by men (Judg. xiv, 12, 13), or as a thin chemise by women (Isa. iii, 23). The Talmud describes it as made of the tinest lineu (" the sinclon is suitable for summer," Meiuich. xli, 1). The Targums similarly explain Psa. civ, 2 ; Lam. ii, 20. The corresponding Syriac is employed in the Peshito for aovcapiov, Luke xix, 20; \kvTiov, John xiii, 4. The Sept. has (Tii/cTaij', Vulgate sindo ; but in Isa. iii, 23 the Sept. appears to have a paraphrase Ty)v jivaaov avv \<jv(yuij Kctl iiaKivSr({i (TvyKa^v(paafiivr]v. The passage in Prov. seems to refer to the manufacture of the cloth or material, probably linen, but possibly sometimes of cotton; in Judges shirts or male under-apparel are evi- dently referred to; and in Isaiah we may infer that fe- male under-clothing is iii like manner alluded to.