Native tuee is probably the meaning of the Heb. word ri~]IS, ezrach (Sept. KiCpoQ rov Atfiavoi', Vulg. cedi-us Libani), in Psa. xxxvii, 35. It is difficult to see upon what grounds the translators of the A. V. have understood it to signify a " bay-tree :" such a rendering is entirely unsupported by any kind of evidence. Most of the Jewish doctors understand by the term ezrach "a tree which grows in its own soil"— one that has never been transplanted; which is the interpretation given in the margin of the A. V. Some versions, as the Vulg. and the Arabic, follow the Se|it., which reads "cedar of Lebanon," mistaking the Hebrew word for one of somewhat similar form. Celsius {IJitrob. i, 194) agrees with the author of the sixth Greek edition, which gives ahrox^wv (indigena, "one born in the land") as the meaning of the Hebrew word: with this view rabbi Solomon and Hammond (Comment, on I's. xxviii) coincide. Dr. Royle (Kitto's Cgcl. liib. Lit. art, "Ezrach") suggests the Arabic yl.</i;!/X-, which he says is described in Arabic works on materia medica as a tree having leaves like the ghar or " bay-tree." This opinion must be rejected as unsupported by any author- ity. Perhaps no specified tree is intended by the word cz/oc//, which occurs in several passages of the Hebrew Bible, and signifies "a native," in contradistinction to "a stranger" or "a foreigner." Comp. Lev. xvi, 29: "Ye shall afllict your souls , . . whether it be one of your own country (Pl"iTXn, hd-ezrdch) or a stranger that sojourneth among you." The epithet "green," as Celsius has observed, is by no means the only meaning of the Hebrew word ; for the same word occurs in Dan. iv, 4, where Nebuchadnezzar uses it of himself—" I was Jlovrishing in my palace." In all other passages w here the word ezrach occurs it is evidently si)oken of a man (Cels. IJierob. i, 196). In support of this view we may observe that the word translated " in great power" more literally signifies "to be formidable," or "to cause terror," and that the word which the A. V. translates "spreading himself," more properly means to "make bare." The passage then might be thus jiaraphrafcd : "I have seen the wicked a terror to others, and behav- ing with barefaced audacity, just as some jiroud native of the land." In the Levitic.al law the op]>rcssion of the stranger was strongly forbidden, perhaps therefore some reference to such acts of oppression is made in these words of the Psalmist.— Smith. Sec Bay-tree. Nativity, Jeanne le Royek, de la, a French fe- male fanatic, was born at I-a Chapelle Janson, near Fou- geres (Brittany), Jan. 24. 1732. Received as lay sister in the convent of the Urbanists de Fougires. where she had been admitted as a domestic at the age of eighteen, this girl, without education, believed she had divine vis- ions and revelations. Her successive confessors, to whom she related them, sought to calm her troubled imagina- tion ; but one of them, less enlightened or more credu- lous, confirmed the sister in her pious reveries. The abbot Genet wrote at her dictation what she pretended to have seen or heard; and on the deatli of this ecclesi- astic, which occurred in 1817, the manuscripts that ho possessed were sold to a bookseller, who published them under the title of ]'ie tt lievikitions de la suiir de la
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NATIVITY OF CHRIST
Nativite. (1817, 3 vols. 12mo). In it are found nume- rous and extraordinary revelations, in which she pre- dicts many things concerning the Church and the end of the world ; also a Recueil <Tautorites in support of these revelations. The abbot Tresvaux placed the name of Jeanne Le Royer in his Galerie des saints et autres persoimes pieuses de la Bretagne. making a contin- uation to the work of don Lobineau on this subject. A new edition of the work of tlie sister de la Nativite was made in 1819 (4 vols. 8vo and 12mo). The 4th volume, supplementary, was dictated by the sister to some nuns who enjoj-ed her confidence ; like the others, it contains details which might be severely criticised. The author of L'A ml de la religion et dn roi gave an analysis and an extract from this work, warning his readers " that not all the revelations of the sister are to be believed as implicitly true," a precaution which seems superfluous. She died at Fougeres Aug. 15, 1798. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s. v.
Nativity of Christ. The birth of our Saviour was exactly as predicted by the prophecies of the Old Testament (Isa. vii, 14; Jer. xxxi, 22). He was born of a virgin, of the house of David, and of the tribe of Judah (Matt, i; Luke i, 27). His coming into the world was after the manner of other men, though his generation and conception were extraordinary. The place of his birth was Bethlehem (Mic. v, 2 ; Matt, ii, 4, 6), whither his parents were wonderfully conducted by Providence (Luke ii, 1, 7). The time of his birth was foretold by the prophets to be before the sceptre or civil government departed from Judah (Gen. xlix, 10 ; Mai. iii, 1 ; Hag. ii, 6, 7, 9; Dan. ix, 34). The exact year of his birth is not agreed on by chronologers, but it was about the four thousandth year of the world ; nor can the precise season of the year, the month, and day in which he was born be ascertained. See Chronology. The Egyptians placed it in January; Wagenseil in February; Bochart in March; some, mentioned bj' Clement of Alexandria, in April ; others in May ; Epi- phanius speaks of some who placed it in June, and of others who supposed it to have been in July ; Wagen- seil, who was not sure of February, tixed it probably in August; Lightfoot on the 15th of September; Scaliger, Casaubon, and Calvisius in October; others in Novem- ber ; and the Latin Church in December. It does not, however, appear probable that the vulgar account is right; the circumstance of the shepherds watching their flocks by night agrees not with the winter season. Dr. Gill thinks it was more likely in autumn, in the month of September, at the feast of Tabernacles, to which there seems some reference in John i, 14. The Scripture, however, assures us that it was in the " fid- ness of time" (Gal. iv, 4) ; and, indeed, the wisdom of God is evidently displayed as to the time when, as well as the end for which Christ came. It was in a time when the world stood in need of such a Saviour, and was best prepared for receiving him. — Henderson's Buck. The date of the Nativity is discussed in most treatises on chronology. See also Jarvis, Infrod. to Hist, of the Church; Strong's Harmony and Exposition, Append. ii; Stud, und Kritiken, 1846, iv, 1007; New-Englander, 1847, p. 215 sq. ; Anon. The Month of the Nativity (Lond. 1848, 24mo) ; and the monographs cited by Vol- beding, /Bf/ex Programmutum,^. 10, 12, 13; ii&s&, Lthen Jes7i, p. 45, 46, 50. See Jesus Christ.