Reptile, a word not used in the A. V., which des- ignates this class of animals by the term "creeping thing" (q.V.), but covers thereby a much wider range of creatures. The following are the true reptilio. men- tioned in Scripture. They almost exclusively consist of various unknown species of serpents and lizards. ( )f course both these classes were unclean to the Hebrews. "Leviathan."
t batrdchoa " frog."
' 't tsephardid " frog."
I chmnel "snail."
! kddch " chameleon."
! leta&h " lizard."
1 ' semamith "spider."
imsiit meth " mole."
U6b " tortoise."
akshdb "adder."
cupia '• a-p."
drakon " dragon."
echidna " viper."
1 I'll' h " viper."
)»'tli.n "adder."
shephipMn "adder."
[taipha " cockatrice."
Requiem, a musical mass for the dead in the
Frog.
Serpent
REREDOS
1047
RESENTMENT
Church of Rome, so called from the words of the In- troit, " Requiem geternam dona eis, Domine," Give them eternal rest, O Lord, etc. (2 Esdr. ii, 34, 35) ; and the antiphon for the psalms in place of the Gloria Patri.
Reredos (written also lardos, from Fr. Farriere- dos~), the wall or screen at the back of an altar, seat, etc. It was usually ornamented with panelling, etc., espe- cially behind an altar, and sometimes was enriched with a profusion of niches, buttresses, pinnacles, statues, and other decorations, which were often painted with brill- iant colors. Reredoses of this kind not unfrequently ex- tended across the whole breadth of the church, and were sometimes carried up nearly to the ceiling, as at St. Al- ban's Abbey, Durham Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral, St. Saviour's Church, Southwark ; Christ Church, Hamp- shire, etc. In village churches they were generally sim- ple, and appear very frequently to have had no ornaments formed in the wall, though sometimes corbels or niches were provided to carry images, and sometimes that part of the wall immediately over the altar was panelled. Remains of these, more or less injured, are to be found in many churches, particularly at the east ends of aisles, as at St. Michael's, Oxford ; Hanwell and Enstone, Ox- fordshire; Solihull, Warwickshire, etc. ; and against the east wall of the transept, asinSt.Cuthbert's, Wells. It was not unusual to decorate the wall at the back of an altar with panellings, etc., in wood, or with em- broidered hangings of tapestry -work, to which the name of reredos was giv- en : it was also ap- plied to the screen between the nave and choir of a church. The open fire-hearth, fre- quently used in ancient domestic balls, was likewise called a reredos. — ,cir. 14-20. barker, Glossary of A re// itect.s. v. Rescissory Act, an act of the Scottish Parlia- ment passed on the restoration of Charles II, annulling all acts passed between 1G38 and 1G50 for religion and the Reformation; denouncing the Solemn League and Covenant and the Glasgow Assembly of 1638, and de- claring that the government of the Church, as an es- sential royal prerogative, belongs alone to the crown. — Eadie, Fecks. Cyclop, s. v.
Rescript, or Codex Rescrittus, a manuscript, the original writing of which had been virtually wiped out, and the works of some saint or father written over it. A codex of this class is that called Codex Ephra- emi in the Imperial Library of Paris. Several works of the Syrian father were written on portions both of the Old and New Testaments. It has been published by Tischendorf, with a curious fac-simile of the older and newer handwriting. By the application of a chem- ical tincture, the original writing of a rescript can now be well deciphered. — Eadie, L'ccles. Cyclop, s. v. See Palimpsest.
Resemblance to God. See Image of God. Res'en (Ileb. id. "~~, a halter, as in Isa. xxx, 20; Sept. Ar«xf/i v. r. Aacn)), an ancient town of Assyria, described as a great city lying between Nineveh and ■ Calah (Gen. x, 12). Many writers have been inclined to identify it with the Rhesina or Rhescena of the Byz- antine authors (Amm. Marc, xxiii, 5; Procop. Bell. Pers. ii. 19; Steph. Byz. s. v. 'Fioiva), and of Ptolemy (Geograph. v. 18), which was near the true source of the western Khabour, and which is most probably the j modern Ras el-A in. There are no grounds, however, 1 for this identification except the similarity of name (which similarity is perhaps fallacious, since the Sept. evidently reads "3T for "JCJ1, but not the Samar.), while it is a fatal objection to the theory that Rescena or Re- sina was not in Assyria at all, but in Western Mesopo- tamia, 200 miles to the west of both the cities between which it is said to have lain. Biblical geographers have generally been disposed to follow Bochart (Phaleg, iv, 23) in finding a trace of the Hebrew name in La- rissa, which is mentioned by Xenophon (A nab. iii, 4, 9) as a desolate city on the Tigris, several miles north of the Lycus. The resemblance of the names is too faint to support the inference of identity; but the situation is not irreconcilable with the scriptural intimation. Ephrem Syrus (Comment, ad loc.) says that Rassa, which he substitutes for Resen (the PeshitohasTfasw?), was the same as Rish-A in (fountain-head) ; by which Assemani understands him to mean, not the place in Mesopotamia so called, but another Rish-Ain in Assyria, near Saphsaphre, in the province of Marga, which he finds noticed in a Syrian monastic history of the Middle Ages (Assemani, Biblioth. Orient, iii, 2, p. 709). It is, however, still uncertain if Rassa be the same with Rish- Ain; and, whether it be so or not, a name so exceed- ingly uncommon (corresponding to the Arabic Ras el- Ain) affords a precarious basis for the identification of a site so ancient. The Larissa of Xenophon is most cer- tainly the modern Nimrud. Resen, or Dasen — which- ever may be the true form of the word — must assuredly have been in this neighborhood. As, however, the Nimrud ruins seem really to represent Calah, while those opposite Mosul are the remains of Nineveh, we must look for Resen in the tract lying between these two sites. Assyrian remains of some considerable ex- tent are found in this situation, near the modern village of Stlamiyeh, and it is perhaps the most probable con- jecture that these represent the Resen of Genesis (see Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, i, 204). No doubt it may be said that a "great city," such as Resen is de- clared to have been (Gen. x, 12). could scarcely have intervened between two other large cities which are not twenty miles apart; and the ruins at Selamiych, it must be admitted, are not very extensive. But perhaps we ought to understand the phrase "a great city" rela- tively— i. e. great, as cities went in early times, or great, considering its proximity to two other larger towns. If this explanation seem unsatisfactory, we might perhaps conjecture that originally Asshur (Kileh-Sherghat) was called Calah, and Nimrud Resen ; but that, when the seat of empire was removed northwards from the former place to the latter, the name Calah was transferred to the new capital. Instances of such transfers of name are not unfrequent. The later Jews appear to have identified Resen with the Kileh-Sherghat ruins. At least the Targums of Jonathan and of Jerusalem explain Resen by Tel-Asar (lobn or IDSbn), " the mound of Asshur." — Kitto: Smith. See Assyria.