RAINBOW
887
RAINES
failing witness to the truth of God. Was the rainbow, then, we ask, never seen before the flood? Was this "sign in the heavens" beheld for the first time by the eight dwellers in the ark when, after their long impris- onment, they stood again upon the green earth, and saw the dark, humid clouds spanned by its glorious arch? Such seems to be the meaning of the narrator. Y3t this implies that there was no rain before the flood, and that the laws of nature were changed, at least in that part of the globe, by that event. There is no reason to suppose that in the world at large there has been such a change in meteorological phenomena as here implied. That a certain portion of the earth should never have been visited by rain is quite conceivable. Egypt, though not absolutely without rain, very rarely sees it. But the country of Noah and the ark was a mountain- ous country ; and the ordinary atmospherical conditions must have been suspended, or a new law must have come into operation after the flood, if the rain then first fell, and if the rainbow had consequently never before been painted on the clouds. Hence, many writers have supposed that the meaning of the passage is, not that the rainbow now appeared for the first time, but that it was now for the first time invested with the sanctity of a sign; that not a new phenomenon was visible, but that a new meaning was given to a phenomenon al- ready existing. The following passages, Numb, xiv, 4 ; 1 Sam. xii, 13 ; 1 Kings ii, 35, are instances in which "jro, nathdn, literally "give" — the word used in Gen. ix, 13, "I do set my bow in the cloud" — is employed in the sense of " constitute," " appoint." Accordingly there is no reason for concluding that ignorance of the natural cause of the rainbow occasioned the account given of its institution in the book of Genesis. — Smith. See Noah.
The rainbow is frequently seen in Palestine in the rainy season, and thus it furnishes a common image to the sacred writers. There is a reference to the rain- bow, though not named, in Isa. liv, 9, 10 ; and it is men- tioned in other passages. "As the appearance of the bow which is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about" (Ezek. i, 28). "And there was a rainbow round about the throne in sight like unto an emerald" (Rev. iv, 3). "And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head" (x, 1). These three passages correspond with and reflect light upon each other. The rainbow in all of them is the designed token of God's covenant and mercy, and of his faithful remembrance of his promise. " Look upon the rainbow," says the son of Sirach (Ecclus. xliii, 11, 12), "and praise him that made it: very beautiful it is in the brightness thereof; it compasseth the heaven about with a glorious circle, and the hands of the Most High have bended it." Among the Greeks and Romans, the personified rainbow, Iris, became the messenger of the gods, and the natural rainbow seems to have been con- ceived as the passage-way on which Iris came down to men (Serv. on Virgil's .]■'.». v, 610). The Indian my- thology made a yet nearer approach to the Biblical view (Von Bohlen, India, i, 237) ; but the Edda repre- sents the rainbow as a bridge connecting heaven and earth (see, in general, Menzel, Mythol. Forsck. p. 235 sq.). On the physical views of the ancients with re- gard to the rainbow, see Forbiger, ffandb. d. nit. Geog. i, 59G sq. See Schlichter, De I ride ejusque EmhU m. (Hal. 1739); Ausfeld, De hide Dilurii non redituri Signo (Giess. 1756). See Bow.
Scientifically considered, the rainbow is a natural phenomenon which is formed by rays of light from the sun (occasionally the moon) striking drops of falling rain, being refracted in entering them, reflected back, in part, from the opposite side of the drops, and refracted again on leaving them, so as to produce prismatic col- ors, some of which meet the eye. In the inner or pri- mary bow, the light is refracted downwards, and under-
goes but one reflection : while in the outer or secondary bow the light, striking the lower side of the drop, is first refracted upwards, and reflected twice within the drop before leaving it; hence its light is fainter. Both pre- sent the colors of the prismatic spectrum; but in the primary bow the tints gradually ascend from the violet to the red, while in the outer the violet is more elevated. The colors of the rainbow are the result of the decom- position of white light in its passage through the glob- ular drops of water forming a shower of rain.
Rainbow, Edward, D.D., an English prelate, was born at Bliton, Lincolnshire, in 1608. was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and Magdalen College, Cambridge, and, after taking holy orders and filling minor appointments, was made master of Magdalen Col- lege in 1612. In 1650 he was deprived on account of nonconformity, but in 1660 was restored. In 1661 he was appointed to the deanery of Peterborough, and in the following year became vice-chancellor of the Uni- versity of Cambridge. In 1664 he was elevated to the episcopacy by being made bishop of Carlisle. He died in 1684. He published three separate Sermons (1634, 1649, 1677). See A theme Oxon.; Life, by Jonathan Banks (Lond. 1688, 8vo) ; Funeral Sermon, by the Rev. Thomas Tully (1688, 12mo).