Necusia (viKvcrta), a name for the offerings among the ancient (irecks and Romans on the anniversary of the day of the death of a relative. According to some the Necusia were the same with the Genesia.
Nedabi'ah (Heb. Nedahyuh', Sl^^^D, moved of Jehovah ; Sept. T^afiaciaQ v. r. Af J't^tt ; Vulg. Nadabia), the eighth and last mentioned of the sons of Jeconiah; a descendant of David, and nephew of Zedekiah, king of Judah (1 Chron. iii, 18). B.C. cir. 5G0.
Nedarim. See Tai.mud.
Nedusia is a surname of A thene, derived from the river Nedon, on the banks of which she was worshipped. See MiNKitvA.
Needham, John, an English dissenting minister who flourished in the first half of the last century, was for some years pastor of the Baptist Church at Hitch- am, Suffolk, and afterwards removed to Bristol (in 1746), where he remained until 1787. He is of inter- est principally as the author of tlic pleasant liarvcst hymn, " To praise the ever-bonnteous Lord," found in many of our best collections of hymns.
Needham, John Turberville, an English Ro- man Catholic divine, noted as a scientist, was born iu London in 1713, and educated at the College of Douai, where he entered into orders. He removed to the Con- tinent after having attained celebrity as a scientist, and finally became rector of the Academy of Sciences and Belles-lettres at Brussels, where lie died in 1781. Mr. Needham wrote observations inserted in Buffon's Sat- ural History: Inquiries conceririny Nature and I.'di;/- ion .—Idee sommaire, ou rue yenerale du systenu' phy- sique et metaphysique sur la yeneration, etc. See his lile, by abbe Mann, in the memoirs of the Koyal Academy of Sciences at Brussels ; LomL .Monthly Review, vol. Ixx: Hutton, Mathematical and I'hilos. Diet. s. v.
NEEDLE
915
NEEDLEWORK
Needle (Gr. pa<pic) occurs in the Bible only in the proverb " to pass through a needle's eye" {Tpv(prijia) (Matt, xix, 24 ; Mark x, 25; Luke xviii, 25) ; for which see Camel. Among the ancient Egyptians some needles were of bronze, from three to three and a half inches in length ; but as few have been found, we are not able to form any opinion respecting their general size and qual- ity, particularly of those used for tine work, which must have been of a very minute kind (Wilkinson, Anc. Eg. ii, 345). See Nekdlework. The use of the needle as
Ancient Egyptian Needles of Bronze. (In the Museum of Alnwick Castle.)
a female accomplishment may be traced up to the ear- liest times. It was an art in which the ladies of ancient Egypt particularly excelled, as do their descendants at the present day ; and the Hebrew females also no doubt acquired great perfection in it during their residence in that coimtry, as we read of the embroidery of the sacer- dotal robes and curtains of the tabernacle (Exod. xxviii, 39; xxvi, 3G) ; and also of "a prey of divers colors of needlework, of divers colors of needlework on both sides" (.Judg. V, 30). That the ladies of Assyria and Baby- lonia also excelled in various kinds of needlework Lay- ard has shown from the recently exhumed monuments of Nineveh {see Nineveh, etc., ii, 315 sq.). In the British Museum may be seen some needles for sewing, made of bronze, taken from the Egyptian remains; there are likewise some spindles and netting-needles made of wood, nine inches to nine inches and a half in length ; and also some skeins of thread, a portion of which is dyed of a reddish color. See Ejibkoidery,
1
Ancient Egyptian Netting-Needles. 1, of wood ; 2, head of another of bronze.
Needlework occurs in the Auth. Ver. twice (Judg. V, 30 ; Psa. xlv, 14) as a translation of the Heb. nr;p"i, rikmah', properly variegated work (elsewhere " broi- dered work") ; and also of the cognate DJ?~i, i-okem' (Exod. xxvi, 86; xxvii, 16; xxviii, 39; xxxvi, 37; xxxviii, 18), properly an embroiderer (as elsewhere rendered). In Exodus the embroiderer is contrasted with the "cunning workman," chosheb' (SuPI); and the consideration of one of these terms involves that of the other. Various explanations have been oifered as to the distinction between them, but most of these over- look the distinction marked in the Bible itself, viz., that the rokem wove simply a variegated texture, without gold thread or figures, and that the chosheb interwove gold thread or figures into the variegated texture. We conceive that the use of the gold thread was for delin- eating figures, as is implied in the description of the corslet of Amasis (Herod, iii, 47), and that the notices of gold thread in some instances and of figures in others were but different methods of describing the same thing. It follows, then, that the application of the term " em- broiderer" to rokem is false; if it belong to either it is
Ancient Egyptian Embroidered Dresses. (From Cham- polliou, Monuments de VEjypte.)
to chosheb, or the "cunning workman," who added the figures. But if " embroidery'' be strictly confined to the work of the needle, we doubt whether it can be afipliecl to either, for the simple addition of gold thread, or of a figure, does not involve the use of the needle. The patterns may have been worked into the stuff by the loom, as appears to have been the case in Egypt (Wil- kinson, iii, 128 ; comp. Her. 1. c), where the Hebrews learned the art, and. as is stated by Josephus {avit) tvv(pavTat, A nt. iii, 7, 2). The distinction, as given by the Talmudists, and which has been adopted by Gesc- nius {Thesaur. p. 1311) and Biihr {Symbolik, i, 266), is this, that 7-ikmah, or "needlework," was where a pat- tern was attached to the stuff by being sewn to it on one side, and the work of the chosheb when the pattern was worked into the stuff by the loom, and so appeared on both sides. This view appears to be entirely incon- sistent with the statements of the Bible, and with the sense of the word rikmah elsewhere. The absence of the figure or the gold thread in the one, and its presence in the other, constitutes the essence of the distinction. In support of this view we call attention to the passages in which the expressions are contrasted. Rikmah con- sisted of the following materials, "blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen" (Exod. xxvi, 36; xxvii, 16; xxxvi, 37; xxxviii, 18; xxxix,28). The work of the chosheb was either " fine twined linen, blue, purple, and scarlet, with chentbims" (Exod. xxvi, 1, 31; xxxvi, 8, 35), or "gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen" (xxviii, 6, 8, 15 ; xxxix, 2, 5, 8). Again, looking at the general sense of the words, we shall find that chosheb in-