farmed of the government the revenue from the importation of salt, brought over a great quantity from the marshes of Cyprus —enough, in fact, to supply the whole province for many years. This he had transferred to the mountains, to cheat the govern- ment out of some small percentage of duty. Sixty-five houses were rented and filled with salt. Such houses have merely earthen floors, and the salt next the ground was in a few years entirely spoiled. I saw large quantities of it literally thrown into the road to be trodden under foot of men and beasts. It
was ‘ good for nothing,’ ”
15. A bushel (rdv pddvov). Rev., rightly, “the bushel; ” since the definite article is designed to indicate a familiar ob- ject—the grain-measure which is found in every house.
A candlestick (rv Avyviav). Reyv., the stand. Also a part of the furniture of every house, and commonly but one in the house: hence the article. The word, which occurs four times in the Gospels and eight times elsewhere, means, in every case, not a candlestick, but a lamp-stand. In Heb. ix. 2, the golden “ candlestick” of the tabernacle is called Avyvia; but in the description of this article (Exod. xxv. 31, 39), we read, “ Thou shalt make the seven amps thereof ;” and in Zech. iv. 2, where the imagery is drawn from the sanctuary, we have a “ candle- stick” with a bowl on the top of it, “and his seven lamps there- on, and seven pipes (for the oil) to the lamps which are upon the top thereof.”
16. So shine (ots). Often misconceived, as if the mean- ing were, “ Let your light shine in such a way that men may see,” etc. Standing at the beginning of the sentence, it points back to the illustration just used. “ So,” even as that lamp just mentioned, let your light shine. Wycliffe has apparently caught this correct sense: So shine your light before men.
17. To destroy (xatadiaar). Lit., to loosen down, dissolve ; Wye., undo.
40 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Crave
18. Jot, tittle ((éra, xepaia). Jot is for jod, the smallest let- ter in the Hebrew alphabet. Ztéle is the little bend or point which serves to distinguish certain Hebrew letters of similar appearance. Jewish tradition mentions the letter jod as being irremovable; adding that, if all men in the world were gathered to abolish the least letter in the law, they would not succeed. The guilt of changing those little hooks which distinguish be- tween certain Hebrew letters is declared to be so great that, if such a thing were done, the world would be destroyed.
22. Hell-fire (ry yéevvav tod upds). Rey., more accurately, the hell of fire. The word Gehenna, rendered hell, occurs out- side of the Gospels only at James iii. 6. It is the Greek repre- sentative of the Hebrew Ge-Hinnom, or Valley of Hinnom, a deep, narrow glen to the south of J erusalem, where, after the introduction of the worship of the fire-gods by Ahaz, the idola- trous Jews sacrificed their children to Molech. Josiah formally desecrated it, “that no man might make his son or his dangh- ter pass through the fire to Molech ” (2 Kings xxiii. 10). After this it became the common refuse-place of the city, into which the bodies of criminals, carcasses of animals, and all sorts of filth were cast. From its depth and narrowness, and its fire and ascending smoke, it became the symbol of the place of the future punishment of the wicked. So Milton:
‘*The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence And black Gehenna called, the type of hell.”
As fire was the characteristic of the place, it was called the Gehenna of fire. It should be carefully distinguished from Hades (@8ns), which is never used for the place of punishment, but for the place of departed spirits, without reference to their moral condition. This distinction, ignored by the A. V., is made in the Rev.