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WEEKS, FEAST OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

buted to the increased importance attached to the Besides the articles in the various dictionaries of the Bibli.,
Sabbath ; what is certain is that the week soon followed and sections in the handbooks of Benzinger and Nowack, see
Schr. 'Der Bab. Urspr. d. siebentagi en Woche '
a development of its own, and it became the custom, 4. Litem- in Sf. Kr. 1874, p. 343fi.and KAT% i g f l ; , E.
without paying any regard to the days of the month that twe. Mayer, 'Ursprung der sieben Wochentage, in
did not fit in with the four weeks, to reckon by regular ZDMG, 1883, pp. 4 5 3 8 ; cp W. R. Smith's note
in same volume, 476 ; Lotz, Quaest. de historia Sab6nti li6ri
periods of seven days so that new moon no longer duo, 1883 ; We. ProL.2 1 1 6 8; Heid..(l)173. K. M.
coincided invariably with the first day of the week.
After this the week of course, having no fixed point of WEEKS, FEAST OF (niu?@ XI), Ex.3422. See '

attachment, became quite unsuited as a measure by PENTECOST.


which the dates of events could be fixed ; on the other WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. In view of the
hand, however, it became useful for the measurement position of Palestine, lying between Egypt, Phoenicia,
not only of comparatively brief intervals of time but also and Assyria, it was to be expected that the systems of
of periods exceeding a month ; thus we not only have weights and measures there in use would harmonise
the week of marriage festivities (Gen. 2927$), and with one or other of the systems belonging to the
periods of two weeks (Lev. 1 2 5 ) and of three (Dan. neighbouring countries. According to C. H. Toy,l
lozf:), but also of a space of seven weeks (Dt. 1 6 9 5 ' from Amos 8 5 we may perhaps infer that, as early as
[Ex. 34221, Lev. 2315). the eighth century B . c . , the Israelites had a legal
When it was desired to specify the precise day of the standard of weights and measures ...
it is possible,
week on which an event had happened or was expected indeed, that the Babylonians had introduced this system
3. Specifics- to happen, the ordcnal numbers had to be into Canaan in or before the fifteenth century' [cp
tion of da~ys, used as long as the days remained un- the Amarna correspondence as a proof of Babylonian
provided with special names. Friday predominance in Canaan]. The literary evidence from
and Saturday &e the only days that have names of the& Palestine itself, however, is often very unsatisfactory, and
own ; in the OT-if we leave the Apocrypha out of we are accordingly reduced to choosing between aieie
account -Saturday only. probabilities.
Thus for Friday in OT we have merely '@qU? O h , 6ayyam The most important measure of lehgth is the C U B IT
haS& 'on the sixth day' ( E x . 16522) and for Sunday in the ( ' ~ m m d hnm),
, which contains 2 spans (ztreth, m) or 6
N T , [& 4 W L ~ ^T ~ UO@@&TUV
V (Mk.lhz Lk. 241 Act5207 cp
I Cor. 162 Mt. 28 I ) or r r p J ua@@&ov
~ (Mk. 169). palms (($ha&, &, or 24 fingers' breadths ('e@d,

Bible. Rab. Planet


Names. Latin. French. German. 1 English.

Samag Dies Solis Dimanche Sonntag Sunday


Sin ,, L u n z Lundi Montag Monday
Nergal ,, Martis Mardi Diem( = Zivis)- Tuesday
tag
Nabu ,, Mercurii Mercredi Mittwoch Wednesday
(Wodanstag)
Marduk ,, Jovis Jeudi Donners( = Thursday
(Bel) Thors)tag
,,
I
IStar (Bel- Veneris Vendredi Frei( = Freias)- Friday
tis)
Ninib ,, Saturni Samedi tag
Samstag Saturday

Saturday is, in the OT, called nsw, :a66aU, or ilzW? 0i3? YXSH).
- :<-
Above the cubit was the reed or kdneh
yam h&?aMZtlr ( e g . , a m . 8 5 Ex. 208); in the N T [ ~ bu6&9arov
l of 6 cubits (Ezek. 405). T h e
(e.g., Mk.6 z), +pipa TO^ ua&9&ou (Lk.13 I6), [ T a l u63para
+
(Mt.28 I Col. 2 16) or +pipa T ~ UVQ @ ~ T L U V (Lk. 4 16). Friday,
as preceding, or as preparing for, Saturday is called either
$2)and the fathom, characteristic of
Of length. so many other systems, are foreign to
x O U C + ~ ~ ~ ~ T(as
(hk. 15 $2 Mt. 27 62 In.
O Yearly as udlth 8 6. cp Mk.1542)or aapameui
;1 31; 'cp also Lk. 23 54 +p@a
rapaurewp, and Jos. Ant. XVL 6 2).
the early Jewish scale.
The old Hebre-v literary data are as follows :-
The bedstead of Og was measured ' after the cubit of
The naming of the days of the week after those of a man' (Deut. 311)-which gives us no exact indi-
the seven planets (of which no instance occurs in OT cation.
or N T ) has its explanation simply in the coincidence of Solomon (z Ch. 33) laid out his temple in cubits
number. The allocation of particular planets to par- ' after the first ( =ancient) measure.' Ezekiel (405
ticular days was, no doubt, determined by astrological 4313) describes the cubit of the temple of which he
considerations ; the planet that presided over the first foresees the restoration, as being ' a cubit and an hand-
hour, presided over, and so gave name to, the whole breadth.' It may be presumed (Hultsch, Metr. 440)
day. Amongst the Sabians of Harrgn in Mesopotamia that this longer cuhit is identical with the cubit of
we already find the seven planetary deities recognised Solomon's temple, and that the common cuhit of
as the deities of the days of the week in the order still Ezekiel's time was only Q of the cubit of Solomon's
current with ourselves : thesun, the moon, Nergal(Mars). time.a Certain views of Talmudic writers which conflict
Nabu (Mercury), Bel (Jupiter), Beltis (Venus), Kronos with this explanation may be satisfactorily explained ;
(?turn).l It is worth noticing also that Jewish tradi- for instance, the idea that the short cubit contained only
tion assigned the care of a day of the week to each of 5 hands breadths (Zuckermann, Das j k d . Mans-system,
the seven archangels (Raphael, Gabriel, Sammael, 17)is due to an inverted conception of Ezekiel's meaning.
Michael, Izidkiel, Hanael and Kepharel). The divine The idea of a cubit of one finger's breadth more than
names of the day passed from the East to the various the long cubit is also mistaken. This (to argue on the
nations of Europe, native deities in some instances basis of the royal Egyptian cubit) would be .547 m.,
taking the place of foreign ones, just as among the Jews which is nearly a ' simple' hand's breadth (.0792 m.)
the names of archangels were substituted. See the
above table. 1 Note on Prov. 1611 (Internat. C r i f . Comm.).
1 See K A TP)21. 2 In Egypt the short cuhit (450 m. or 17.72 in.) was similarly
2 Weber, AltsyMg.)aZ. Tlreol. 164 ; (2) (1897), p. 169. 4 of the royal cubit (.525 m. or 20.67 in.).
5291 5292
WEIaHTS AND MEASURES WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
more than the ' simple ' cubit according to Julian of There can be no doubt that the 30w cubits (4500 ft.) which
Ascalon (see below). This 25-finger cubit was there- make u p the mile according to 9 (6) are the royal Egyptian
cubits of ,525 m. We thus obtain the following values for the
fore due to an attempt to interpret Ezekiel as speaking two scales (geometric and simple) according to Julian.
in terms of the a simple ' cubit.
It would be futile to discuss in detail the various
-
GEOhlETRIC. SIMPLE.
___
1
attempts which have been made to ascertain the exact
length of the Hebrew cubit. Since in Egypt the two I
I-
-
--
Metres. 1 Inches. Metres. 1___
Inches.
cubits stood in the same relation to each other as the
Hebrew ( 6 : 7) and were similarly divided into 24 fingers' Finger's breadth. 0.022 .86 0.020 .79
breadths, it is natural to make an attempt to identify Palm . . . .
I 0.088 3.44 0.079 3. I1
the two systems. Supposing the length of the Siloani Span . . . .
1 0.262 10.33 0.236 9.3'
canal, as stated in the inscription, to be really 1200 Cubit . . ,. 0.525 20.67 0.473 18.62 1
. . .
~

cubits, and accepting Conder's measurement (537.6 m. ) Fathom 1 2.100 82.68 1.890 74.49 1
we obtain a short cubit of .525 to .527 m.l Unfor-
tunately, the distance stated in the inscription of Siloam In this table, the span is taken as half the cubit, as in the earlier
system ; the passage in Julian (5) which equates g spans to the
is doubtful, and there is some reason to suppose that it fathom is either corrupt, or an attempt to express the fathom of
is not 1200 but 1000 cubits (see, e.g., PEFQ, 1890, p. one system in spans of another.
zogf.), which yields .5376 m. for the short and Of the measures longer than the cubit, the ksneh
.6272 m. for the long cubit. Among other attempts to (&Katvu)is equated by Ezek. 4 0 5 to 6 cubits (3.150 m.
deduce the cubit we may mention Petrie's measure- or I O ft. 4 in.). It will be noticed that in $ 6 Julian
ments of tombs at Jerusalem (PEFQ, 1892, p. 28f.). gives the dKarva g ft., whereas in 8 he equates 60
One set of tombs seems t o be planned on a cubit which is the &Kaivac to 600 feet. In the latter case he must be
same as the Egyptian ; another cubit which he deduces measures
22.6k.03 in. (about .575 m.) ; while there is one chamber which thinking of the ordinary Greek foot of .315 m., in the
suggests 25.2 in. (about .641 m.). we must remember in dealing former of the Ptolemaic Egyptian foot of .350 m., the
with deductions of this kind that it is not certain that buildings two standing to each other as 9 : IO.
were always planned so as to contain an exact number of cubits Julian's plethron and stadion must be regarded as
in their various dimensions.
being on the Ptolemaic scale-ie., 100 x .350 m. and
The method of ascertaining the length of the cubit
from the measurement of grains of barley which, accord- 600 x ,350 ni.--i.e., 38 yds. I O in. and 228 yds. 5 ft.
ing to a recent attempt (PEFQ, 1897, p. Z O I ) , gives a respectively. The stadion thus corresponds very nearly
cubit of 17.77 in. (.451 m.), is liable to objections (see to our furlong, by which it is generally translated. The
mile of 7&stadia on the same system is 1575 _ m. . or 1722
Hultsch, Meti: pp. 434, 435) ; nevertheless the result
yds. I ft-5 in.
helps to make the balance of the evidence incline in
The ' pace ' of Julian is a fixed measure of 2 cubits ;
favour of the Egyptian cubit, although there may well
have been other systems in use in early times. [For hut it probably did not belong to the original Hebrew
other discussions of the length or the cubit, see e.g, scheme, and the pace (ip)of 2 S. 6 13 is probably not
PEFQ. 1879, p. 181: ; 1880, p. 98 ; 1899, p. 226f.l intended for a definite expression.
Assuming the short cubit to be .450 m., and the long The ' Sabbath day's journey ' (Zuckermann, 27f. ; cp
cubit .525 m., as in Egypt, we obtain the following SABBATH, col. 4175, n. 4) is equated by most Hebrew
values for early Jewish long measures. authorities to 2000 cubits ; thus, too, Josephus gives us
5 stadia (=zoo0 cubits) as the distance of the Mt. of
LONGER SYSTEM. Olives from Jerusalem, a distance which in Acts 1 1 2 is
u ~ , B P ~ T b6bs.
ou
Metres. I Inches. Metres.
___
Inches.
On the other hand the Talmud (Zucker-
mann, 27) equates Sabbath day's journey and miZ-i.e.,
the plhtov of 3000 cubits or 79 furlongs ; and we meet
Finger's breadth. 0.022 .86 0.019 .74 with measurements (such as the ' threescore furlongs ' of
Palm . . . . 0.087 3.44 0.075 2.95 Lk. 24 13) which contain this distance an exact number
Span . . . . 0.262 10.33 0.225 8.86 of times. Hultsch (445) accordingly thinks that this
Cubit . . . . 0.525 20.67 0.450 17.72 (1721.475 yds. ) was the distance originally permitted for
a Sabbath day's journey, and afterwards shortened by one
The Hebrew measures of length of later times are third. There was probably much vagueness in the term.
explained in the Table of Julian of Ascalon, a Byzantine ' Some way' (RNP-nmm, Gen. 35 16 48 7 2 K. 5 ~ g )if, the text
writer of uncertain date ('ElrapXiKci d a b TGY TOO is correct [for criticism 'see R ACHEL 5 21 is still vaguer than
'Amahwvhou ' I O U h l a V O f i TO6 dpXlTdK~0V0S&K TDY V 6 p W V the preceding ; the fact'that it was cdmpared by the Syrian and
Arabic translators with the parasang hardly justifies us. even if
fro1 dRGv rGv Pv IIahararivy: Hultsch, Metr. Scr. we adhere to MT, in regarding it as a fixed measure (Hultsch,
1L W ~ ). It appears that that table, or its original, was 446). T h e same, or even greater, indefiniteness attaches to the
drawn up for the purpose of legally defining the expression ' a day's journey' (I K. 194 Lk. 244, etc.).
measures of the province. From it we obtain the follow- Of measures of area, the only one which receives a
ing measures and equivalents :- special name in the OT is the TPrned (. 1I~? 3 ,
I S. 1 4 r 4 Is.
I. The G l ~ ~ v h or o s finger's breadth. 2, Measures 510) or yoke of land, translated 'acre'
2 . T h e rraharori or palm=4 GolrrvAoor.
3. The n<xus or cubit = 16 ft. = 6 palms.
4. The pijpa or pace==. cubits=3 f t . = ~ zpalms.
of ~ a -i.e.,.
as much as could be ploughed
in one day with a yoke of oxen (on
5. The o6pyia (opyu~o:)or fathom=2 paces=) cubits=6 ft.= Winckler's different view, see ACRE). The Egyptian
g spans 4 fingers' breadths.
6. The Piarva or reed==+ fathoms=6 cubits=9 ft. =36 palms. llpoupa of 100 royal cubits sqiiare was equivalent to
7. The rrACBpov=ro reeds=Ij fathoms=gd paces=6o cubits ,2756 hectares, or ,6810 acre ; but we have no authority
=go ft. for identifying :&zed with aroura.
8. The oi&lrov or fur!ong=6 plethra=bo reeds=lw fathoms i. SZ'&h.-In Is. 5 10 @ translates a?" (ephah) by
= z o o paces=4oa cuhits=hw ft.
9. (a)The &Arov or mile, 'according to Eratosthenes and 'three measures' (cp Mt.7333, and the Talmud.
Straho'=8f stadia=833 fathoms [more exactly, 8339 fathoms].
(6) T h e , ~ U r o v ,'according to the present use'=7+ stadia=7go
fathoms= 1500 paces=jooo cubits.
IO. The present piArov of 7 f stadia=750 'geometric fathoms'
'' Zuckermann, 42f: 44). The 'measure'
Measures Of p a r excelZence, or Hebrew modius, here
capacity' mentioned is the sP'h ( ~ H D ,~ J T ~ o v ,
= Bqo [more exactly 831111 ' simple ' fathoms ; for 100 geometric
. T : . .
fathoms=ir2 simple fathoms, or more exactly, 9 geometric=m cp 6Jp7pov [BA in 2 K.], &TOY [Hag. 217 (16), cp Mt.
simple fathoms. 13331; Gen. 1 8 6 I S. 2518 2 K. 7116). This is described
~ _ -- _ _____--.- by Epiphanius (Hultsch, MetroL SCY.1260) as a p661os
1 Cp the dimensions of the grave in Rar. ArcLioL, 1886, p. 6alpyopos-a modius of extra size-and is equated
Z25J by him to I& Roman modius-ie., 20 sextarii. Josephus
5293 5294
WEIGHTS AND MEBSURES WEIGHTS AND MEXSURES
on the other hand (Ant. ix. 45) gives U ~ T O V = I + There is evidence (from Epiphanius and Eusebius) of
mod. = 24 sestarii. Elsewhere, Epiphanius and other the existence in later times of a sacred hin (bytov Ilv)
authorities equate the Hebrew modius with 2 2 sextarii. =I of the ordinary hin, and a large hin ( h y a b)=+ of
This last squares with the estimate of the Babylonian the ordinary hin.
ephah at about 66 sextarii (Hultsch, 412). The s&h v. ‘0mer.-The ‘6mer (my, ybpop, Ex. 16 16 36, etc.)
was used both as liquid and dry measure, hut more was & ephah and hence ‘is called assaron (‘iiiirJn,
commonly mentioned as the latter, especially in the piby, Ex. 2940 Lev. 14 IO 23 13 17 Nu. 154 9). Epiphanius
biblical W&iigS. 7 .

puts it at 7% sextarii (=& ephah of 72 sestarii).


ii. Ephah.-Like hin (see below, iv.) the word @huh
Eusebius at 7 sextarii (amere rough statement). [The
is said to be of Egyptian origin (on which cp Hommel’s
last calls it ybpp p ~ p 6 v ;as such it must be distiu-
remark, A H T 293, n. I ) . The E p h a ( n p , Lev. 1936,
guished from the pwpdv y6pop of 12 modii, itself so
etc., see E PHAH ), as we have seen, was three times the called in distinction from the ‘ large gomor’ of 15 modii,
sPZh ; the naine was confined to dry measure, the cor- a s Epiphanius calls the lethek-see above.] Josephus
responding liquid measure being called 6uth (ns,@CMOS, is apparently wrong once more when he makes it = 7 attic
pdror, etc., Is. 5 IO [ ~ ~ p d p o vEzek.
] 45 11 [ x o S + - - ‘ the kotylae (Ant. iii. 66). The name ‘omer is confined to
ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the dry measure.
bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the
ephah the tenth part of an homer ’). The ephah cor-
... 2 K. 625 l ) was used for
vi. Crib.-The cab ( 2 2 , K@OS,
both liquid and dry measure. Josephus (Ant. ix. 4 4 )
responds to the artabe (cp Is. 510 where, however, equates the fourth part of the cab‘with the @un/s or
aiprcipac 8#=a homer), or Attic metretes; and it, or sextarius ; thus the cab would be 3 of the hin (so in
rather the bath, is equated by Josephus (Ant. viii. 2 9 ) the Talmud, see Levy and cp Zuckermann, 37, 40).
to 72 sextarii, in accordance with his estimate of the The cab is divided into halves, quarters, and eighths.
udrov. The bath was divisible into tenths (Ezek. Other values given for the cab are : (u) 6 sextarii-
45 14) ; but the name for this division is not mentioned. i e . , the Ptolemaic x o h (Heronian fragm. m p i ,drppwv.
It corresponded, of course, to the dry measure ‘u’mer Hultsch, Metr. SCY. 1258; Eusebian fragm. zbid.
(see below). On the other hand, we find the ephah 277) ; ( b ) 5 sextarii : ‘ great cab’ of the Talmud given
divided into sixths (Ezek. 45 13 46 14), which have no as I& cab, Zuckermann, 3 7 ; (c) Epiphanius calls
name, but correspond to the liquid hin (see below, iv. ). the cab f modius (Hultsch, Metr. Scr. 262), which
iii. @ h e r and ‘c&.-The &mer (i$ Ezek.,451114 may mean 4, 5, 54 or 6 sextarii according to the sense
Hos. 32 etc.) was ten times the ephah or the bath, being in which he uses ‘ modius ’-it-., the Roman modius. or
used for both dry and liquid measure. The name c6r any of the three values given to the Hebrew modius
(15, Kbpos, Ezek. 4514 [not in 61 Lk. 167, etc. ; see (see above, s88h).
C O R ) is an alternative, though this term is used more vii. hg.-The Zdg ( j\, Lev. 14 IO 12) is mentioned as
especially for a liquid measure.’ Epiphanius equates a measure of oil, and in the Talmud (Zuckermann, 49)
the Kbpos, which he derives from Hebrew xop, with 30 is made=& hin or & sPHh; if this is correct, it is the
(Hebrew) modii. Josephus’ Statement (Ant. xv. 9 z ) 2 cab.
that it = IO attic medimni contains a slip for metretae ; Finally we may erhaps mention the v@ch obou, given by
cp iii. 15 3. C. H. W. Johns (Assyr. Deeds and Docu- @ in Hosl3 2 insteaxof the lethek ofbarley.2 All the authorities
ments, 2 245) suggests a connection between cdr and the agree in making it= 150 sextarii ; hut whether they mean ordi-
Assyrian gurru. nary sextarii or the larger Syrian sextarii of which 50 went
to the bath iHultsch, Metr. Scr. 261, 271, etc.), so that the
The half hbmer (dry measure), according to the vd@A ($23)would=3 baths, it is difficult to say. On 523, ‘wine-
tradition adopted in Vg. and EV, was called b t h k
skin,’ ‘ wine-jar,’ see BOTTLE.
(qn!, X E B ~ K ) . But the only occurrence is in Hos. 32,
where @ reads differently ; indeed, the whole passage W e thus obtain the following systems of dry and
labours under the suspicion of corruptness (see below, liquid measures :-

DRY MEASURES. L IQUID MEASURES. I


Homer (Cor) .
I’kthek . . ..
Ephah ..
. .. .. .
t h . .
ih..
.. ..
S2ih
fephah . n
pat6
.. .. ..
Omer (Issaron)
Cab
-
. ... i n . .
b . . . .
. .
-
+cab.
$cab.
.. .. .. g . .
. . -. ..
. .
#cab. . . . 1
-

on v e p d ) . Epiphanius gives large omer ’ as another I t is obvious that we have here a mixture of two
name for the X&&, and equates it to 15 modii. systems, the decimal and sexagesimal. The foundation
iv. Hin.-Of measures smaller than the ephah-bath, of the whole seems to have been the sexagesimal portion,
we have first of all, for liquids, the hin (I??, [e]Iv, Lev. the ‘dmer (with the corresponding & bath), and also
1936 [xoGs]--( a just ephah and a just hin’), a name the lethek (the dccurrence of which, indeed, as we have
apparently of Egyptian origin (see above, ii.). It is seen, is doubtful), being foreign to the original system
equated by Josephus (Ant. iii. 8 3 94) and Jerome (on (Nowack, H A 202 f.).
Ezek. 411) to 2 Attic choes=12 sextarii=& bath=& s8Hh To obtain the modern equivalents of these measures,
= 12 16g (cp Talmud, Zuckermann. 49). The hin was there are two equations which may be chosen out of
divided into halves, thirds ( = cab), quarters, and sixths
(Nu. 15gf. 156 Ex. 2940 Ezek. 4 11, etc.). 1 [The statement (in 2 K.), however, depends on later notices
and elsewhere (see C AB) a more probable reading of 2 K., Lc.,
1 [Apart from Hos: 3 z,where, as shown in Crit. Bd.,the text
is indicated.-T. K . c.]
2 [Here, as always, we are dependent on later notices, and
is disputable, the darner is mentioned only in writings of late
date.-T. K. C.] elsewhere (Crii. Bi6.) it is maintained that both o y y ins ~ (‘a
2 ‘Neither is the text secure, nor, if ,n$ is genuine, do we lethek of barley ’ 1) and 1: 521 (‘a nebhel of wine ’1) are corrup-
know the capacity of the measure’ (Nowack, on Hos. 3 2). tions which conceal something very different.-T. K . c . ]
5295 996
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
the many set forth by Hultsch (pp. 453f:). These are [Cp Winckler in KAT($)1337-342 and on the Ass.-Bab
( I ) the equation of the liig with the Graeco-Roman
metrology Johns, Assyrian Deeds, 2 r;4-281.1
sextarius, of the bath with the metretes, of the 6-l6g As regards the extant weights, it must be admitted
cab with the Ptolemaic ~ 0 6 s . Assuming liig and that the evidence is somewhat unsatisfactory. A number
sextarius to be exact equivalents, we should have an of them have been discussed by Clerrnont-Ganueau
ephah of 72 leg-sextarii = 39.39 litres = nearly 8# gallons. (Rec. d’Arch. Orient. 4 24J ). They are :-
( 2 ) On the other hand the connection of Hebrew with ( a ) 3 stone weights from Tell ZakariyZ readingap-
Babylonian and Egyptian measures makes it probable, parently n&ph :--
in the eyes of many metrologists, that the 15g is only A, 10.21 grammes= 157.564 grains troy.
roughly equivalent to the sextarius, and is really the B, 9.5 ,, =146.687 ., ,I

same as the Babylonian unit of .so5 1. From this we C, 9.0 ,, =138.891 ,, ,,


obtain an ephah of 36.37 l., or very nearly 8 gallons, (6) A weight with the same inscription from ‘AnBti
or about 66.5 sextarii.l It must be remembered that near Jerusalem :-
it is perhaps more common to confound closely re- D, 8.61 grammes= 134 grains troy.
sembling measures in cases of capacity than in cases of (c) A weight from Samaria (now in the Astmolean
length, and that for most purposes the equation log= Museum, Oxford) reading apparently p 3 (k neseph)
sextarius was near enough. and ’mym.
Assuming, then, the 16g to be .so5 I., we obtain E, 2.54 grammes= 39.2 grains troy.
the following values in 16gs, sextarii, litres, and B and C are somewhat broken, D is pierced, and if
gallons. this piercing was not an original feature of the weight,
something must be allowed for the material removed.
I
~ ~ g s Sextarii.
. Litres.
-- Gallons. The meaning of the inscription on E, and even the
genuineness of part of it, have been hotly canvassed,
HSmer (Cor) . 720 660 363.7 80.053 Acad., Nov. 18, 1892, pp. 4 4 3 8 ( = P E F Q r . S t . , 1894,
LCthek. . . 360 330 181.85 40.026 pp. 2 2 5 8 ) ; Driver, 1ntr.N 449, n.*; (see PEFQu.Sf.
Ephah-bath . 72 66 36.37 8.005 1894, pp. 210 f: 284 f:, and especially Konig, Bid.
SEBh . . . 24 22 12.120 2.668 425, n. I ; Lidzbarski, Ephem.f: Semif. Epigr. 1, pp.
Great Hin . . 18 16.5 9.090 2.001 13 J , cited in Ann. BY. Sch. Athens, 7, p. 13); hut
Hin. . . . 12 11 6.060 1,334 the fact that the weight represents a quarter of some
Sacred Hin . 9 8.25 4.545 1.000 denomination is not disputed. The denomination in
‘Omer . .. 7.2 6.6 3.637 .800 question must be not less than 4 x 39.2 grains-i.e.,
$ hin . . . 6 5.5 3.030 .667 156.8 grains. W e need not concern ourselves with
Cab. . . . 4 3.66 2.020 .445 the meaning of the much-disputed word 7x1, which has
2 hin . . . 3 2.75 1.515 .333 also been read 1x1 and 703 ( L e . , silver). The highest
t cab . . . 2 1.84 1.010 .222 weight represented by these pieces is about IO grains
L6g. . . . I 0.92 0.505 .I11 below the light Babylonian shekel; at the same time
Q cab . . . 0.5 0.46 0.252 .os5 they are too high for the Egyptian standard (in which
the Ref weighed about 140 grains), and we must there-
The chief standards of weight in use in the East, fore assume that they are meant to represent either the
outside of Egypt, are explained elsewhere (SHEKEL). Babylonian shekel or a local standard approximating to
It is there shown that coins struck on it. If the latter, it is a heavy standard corresponding to
*’ Weight6’ the thrss standards, the gold shekel stan- that which Petrie (Nebesheh and Defenneh, published
dard, the Babylonian. and the Phoenician, circulated in by Eg. Expl. Fund, 1888, p. 92) describes as being
Palestine, and these standards must therefore have usually ‘ smothered over ’ as a low variety of the Persian
been understood by the Jews. It is curious that the unit ; he prefers to recognise in his 80-grain standard
influence of Egypt does not seem to have made itself (which would be the light standard corresponding to
felt in this sphere. the one we are concerned with) a separate standard,
As already explained, the Phoenician and the Baby- possibly ‘ Hittite,’ from the fact that the tribute of the
lonian system both used the same scale of denominations S e t a in the lists of Thotmes 111. and Ramessu 111.
--i. e . , (a)for ordinary purposes, the shekel as unit, the appears to conform to it.
BABYLONIAN. PXCENICIAN.

Heavy. Light. Heavy. Light.


-
Grains. Grammes. Grains. Grammes. Grains. Grammes. Grains. Grammes.
__-
Shekel. 336.6 21.81 168.4 10.91 224.4 14.54 112.2 7.27
Mina . 20,196 1,308.68 10,098 654.34
Talent.
1 1,211,760 I
78,520.77 605,880 39.260.38
13,464
807,840
872.45 6,732
52,347.18 403,920
436.23
26,173.59

mina, although it must have been well known, was, so


far as we can judge from literary sources, not employed
by the Jews until post-exilic times. The weights of the S TANDARD . I No. of
Specimens.
Average Value
in Grams Troy.
1
shekels of the Babylonian and Phcenician standards
having been ascertained by the method already ex- (u) Phoenician . . 27 7
plained (S HEKEL ), we obtain the following weights (in (6) Aeginetan . . 18
21
192
grains troy, and in grammes) for the three denomina- ( c ) Attic. . . . 6 65.6
tions, reckoning 60 shekels to the mina, and confining (d)Egyptian . . 4 ‘51
ourselves to the common norm, as this would presum- (e) Assyrian . . . 3 128
ably be used for ordinary transactions. (f) Hittite . . . 3 80.5
1 Cp Epiphanius’ equation of the sEZh, or 6 ephah, with zz
sextarii. In estimating the value of such results, it must be
5297 5298
WELLS WIDOW
remembered that, in dealing with ancient weights, it is Syria, which exports its produce through the markers of
not so much the average of a number of specimens, as JaWa, Beirtit, Haif&, etc. In ancient times Galilee was
the highest, which must be taken as representing the regarded as the most fertile district ; but Tyre (or possibly
normal. It is just possible that the ‘ Aeginetan ’ weights the N. Arabian MuSri [Che.]) imported corn from Judah
(6) are merely low examples of the Phcenician standard in the time of Ezekiel (Ezek. 2717) ; cp also Acts 1220,
( a ) . ; that ( d ) and (f) are to be classed together as the though here there is express mention of wheat. In the
unit and the half of the standard of something under Sidon inscription Dora and Joppa are termed 111nxiK,
168 grains arrived at above; that ( e ) and ( c ) are the ’ur@h digin,‘ lands of grain ’ (CISi. 3 IS), thus testify-
unit and the half of the gold-shekel standard of nearly ing, if we adopt this highly probable rendering (cp col.
130 grains, or, if of comparatively late date, belong to 984 n. I, and see D OR, 3), to the early fertility of the
the slightly higher Attic- Euboic standard to which S. maritime coast.
Petrie attributes (c). In any case, he justly calls atten- WHEEL. I . Of the words so rendered in EV,
tion to the weakness of Egyptian influence in the very piK, Liphan ( JIBK, ‘ t u r n ’ ? ) is of most frequent
S. of Palestine.
occurrence ; it is used of chariot wheels (Ex. 1425, etc.),
Most of the extant weights are of stone, a fact which
and of the wheels of threshing wains (Is. 2827 Prov.
illustrates the well-established use of is! ( ‘ stone ’), for
2026) ; also in the description of Ezekiel’s vision (11 5 8
o weight ’--e.g., z S. 1426, ‘after the kings stone‘ (EV 102 6 IZ), and in that of the ‘bases’ of Solomon’s
weight); Pr. 1611, ‘all the stones (RV weights) of lavers ( I K. 730 etc.).
the bag.’ Further, many ancient weights were made The component parts are: (a) 22, ga6; VGTOV,VGTOO;AV
in the form of living creatures, such as lions and
‘nave ’ or ‘ back ’ ; RV ‘ felloe ’ ; I K. 7 33 Ezek. 1 18 10 12. (6)
ducks. Probably this is the explanation of the fact pen, ?zit&+ ; m p a y p z r s i a ; AV ‘ felloe,’ RV ‘ spoke ’ ; I K. 7 33
that kssitah (Gen. 3 3 1 9 Jos. 2432, etc.) is translated
(c) lWn, $iSir, a & j v [AI ; AV ‘ spoke,’ RV ‘nave ’; I K. 7 33 ;
‘lambs’ by 6. Ridgeway (Originof MetaWc Currency,
271)considers that the name was due to its representing - (a‘) l;,y d d ; x e i p ; EV ‘axletree’ (AV in Ezek.1012 ‘hand’);
an old unit of barter.l I K. 7 32f: Ezek. 1012.
See especially F. Hultsch, GriecAische 1.rbm. Mefrolop2(‘4 2. $&, gaZgagn((J$$i‘ roll ’), is applied to the wheel
(ISSZ), and the Greek and Roman authorities in his Metrologi-
c o m m .ScrzjVwum Reliquik! 2 vols. (1864-66). of a war chariot (Is. 5 28 Jer. 47 3) and in Ezek. 23 24 26 TO
6. Literature. Also, B. Zuckermann, Das’]tddische Maas- may perhaps mean ‘ wagon.’ So RV. In Ps. 83 13 for
system (1867); C. F. Lehmann, Alt.-baJy- ‘ like a wheel ’ render rather ‘ like stubble’ (see T HISTLE ,
Zonischs Mnas u. Gewicht (Verhundl. d. Berliner Gesellsch. end).
J Anfhrojolopk, 1889) ; W. Ridgeway, Origin of Metallic
Cuwency and Weight-Standards (189~);C. F. Lehmann, Das 3 and 4. For the potter’s wheel ( p * j x , obndyim ;
altbabylon. Maas- u. Gewichts-system (8th Oriental Congress Jer. I 8 3 t ) see POTTERY, 8, and in Judg. 528 ( . ~ y s )
e.
of 188 ) 1893. W Nowack Lehr6uch~~hebraischen Archd-
ologie ?&94) ; H. W. J o h k Assyrian Deeds and Pocuments,
2 (1901); A. E . F i g a l l ‘dome Egyptian Weights in Prof.
read ‘ steps’ ( RVmg.)--i.e., ‘ hoofbeats’ (Moore).
Three passages, not yet mentioned, deserve separate
Petrie’s Collection (Egbtian, Assyrian, Attic, Phcenician, notice: ( a ) Eccles. 126, (6) Ecclus. 3 6 ( 3 3 ) 5 , ( c ) Jas.36.
Persian, Aeginetan), P S B A 23 378-395 [1901l. G. F. H. ( a ) ‘ The wheel ($152) breaks down at the pit ’-Le., the
WELLS (Ye?), Gen. 2615. See S PRINGS; also * machinery’ of the body (likened to a water-wheel)
5 4.
CONDUITS, J 1 I , and NATURE-WORSHIP, comes to a stop. (6) ‘The heart (urrXdyxva)of a fool is
like the wheel (rpoxhs) of a cart’-Le., he never con-
Lev. 22mf. See DISEASES, 5.
WEN (n>3~,ya66t!leth), tinues long in the same mind. ( c ) The tongue is that
WEST, WEST WIND. See E ARTH , FOUR QUARTERS member which ‘ sets on fire the wheel of nature ’ sbv
OF, 5 3, and WINDS. rpoxbv r i j s yevhuewr--i.e., the whole course of the events
of life may be disturbed, ruined, by an unbridled
WHALE ([or D’]i’?n). The ‘whale’ of AV has tongue.
become, in RV, ( I ) ‘ sea-monster ’ (Gen. 111 Job 7 I,), In Ps.7718,[19] AV ought to have given in marg.
( 2 ) ‘ dragon ’ (Ezek. 322) ; cp the ‘jackal ’ of Lam. 4 3.
’ Heb., wheel, to justify its very peculiar rendering of
See D RAGON , J ACKAL . In Mt. 1240, however, RV $151. Its text runs ‘ T h e voice of thy thunder was in
retains ‘whale’ (K*OE) for the ‘great fish’ (ki?19, the heaven ‘ (RV ‘ in the whirlwind ’). This is a
diggdd5Z. K ? ~ X p6-p) in Jon. 1 1 7 [22], though this is as development of the sense of ’ wheel,’ the heavens being
inappropriate as the rendering ‘ a whale ’ in ..\Vmg. of regarded as a round arch ; it is an exegetical curiosity
Job 41 I for leviathan.’ ‘ How,’ says Hasselquist, derived from Kinihi. The variety of explanations of
‘could he (the author of Job) speak of an animal which SI$I in this passage may well excuse AV ; RV’s ‘ whirl-
never was seen in the place where he wrote, and at a wind ’ is itself a precarious rendering (see W IND ).
time when he could have no history of Greenland and The variations in Hab. 3 I O II 15 suggest the probability of
Spitzbergen ? ’ ( Voyages and Travels. 1766, p. 440). corruption. Read probably ;i’)lYp$ Oy? %?. God’s ‘wheels’
The same remark applies to the author of Jonah. It no one could understand ; but the phrase ‘God’s tracks (or
may be doubted, however, whether we need trouble our- paths)’ is plain enough in the description of a theophany.
selves to make these obvious, but superficial criticisms, WHIP (Did, S@, pdas~:), Prov.263 I K. 1211 14
nor is it more to the point to remark that the Cetacea 2Ch. 10 I I 14 Nah. 3 2. Figured in art. C HA RIOT , fig. 7. A s an
are represented by numerous species in the Mediter- Egyptian emblem of royalty, see Erman, Anc. Eg-. 60, 63. See
SCOURGE, SCEPTRE, $ I.
ranean, and that Elasmobranchs (including sharks) are
also to be found there. What we have to do is to find WHIRLING DUST (5352) Is. 1 7 1 3 Ps. 8313[14]t
out to what class of narrative the Book of Jonah belongs, RV. See W HEEL , 2 , THISTLEDOWN, end.
and to interpret the ‘ great fish’ accordingly. See WHIRLWIND (7l>qp, etc.), z K. 2 I etc. See
J ONAH (B OO K ). W IND , 6.
WHEAT2 (?IFF. etc. ; Dt.88 etc.) has always WHITE. For 175, Zi6dn, Gen.3035 37, and $0,
formed one of the staple products of Palestine. In 5 g ( a ) ; and for l h , srifiar,
4i7war, Dan. 7 g, see COLOURS,
modern times the districts most suitable for its cultiva- Judg. 5 IO, $ 7 . For n~l$,WHITENESS,see CoLouRs, 5 9 (a).
tion are Philistia, Esdraelon, the Mukhneh to the E.
of Niiblus, and, above all, Haursn, the granary of WIDOW’ ( x ~ p ~ )The
. earliest mention of widou-s
in the Christian Church is in connection with the daily
1 [Cp KESITAHwhere the ‘lambs’ of @ is otherwiPeaccounted meal in Jerusalem (Acts6 I ) , when the Greek-speaking
for, and the passlges where &&‘Jitalr(perhaps a fictitious word) Jews murmured against the Hebrews because ‘their
occurs are examined from the point of view of textual criticism. widows were being neglected in the daily ministration.’
-T. K. C.]
2 Cp CORN, also FOOD, g I (a). 1 For ‘widow’ in the OT, see M ARRIAGE , 5 7.
5299 5300
WILD B U S T WIND, WINDS
Here the widows come before us at the outset as the Job4022 Ps. 1372 Is. 1 5 7 444t). In each mention of
pensioners of the Chnrch ; but we are told no more this tree there is reference to its growing by river banks ;
about them. In Acts939 41 we catch another brief and there can be little doubt that eitper a willow or a
glimpse of them in connection with the good deeds of poplar closely resembling a willow (such as Populus
Dorcas, who had supplied them with clothing. Peter euphratica, O h . ) is intended.
is here spoken of as ‘ having called the saints and the The various renderings of 6 point in this direction :-%as
widows,’ the word being clearly used in a technical iai dyvou rAd8our Lev.2340; ~ A b c sdyvou [i+a AI, iyp00
sense. In I Cor. 78 this technical sense is not equally [BN*],Job40zz; lriaic Ps.137 z, and 1da Is. 444.1
clear ; and we hear no more of widows till we come to The word is found in Arabic as karnb and in Syriac
the regulations regarding them in I Tim. 53-16. [Cp as ‘arbJthd (MH n1-1~).The evidence as to species is
~fISISTRY. 41.1 Here we find that the church of conflicting. Thus both gar& and ‘arbJthi are ordinary
Ephesus was liable to be burdened with pensioners of renderings of Isba, willow ‘ (Low, 300f., cp Cels. 1304
this kind who had no right to claim public support. F ) , and the Arabic word is so explained by native
Widows who had chi1,clren or grandchildren should be lexicographers. On the other hand travellers find that
supported by them and not thrown upon the Church. in modern Palestine the name is that of Populus
A Christian woman who had widows-i.e. a woman of euphratica ( Z D P Y Zzog), and branches of j a m b ,
property with aged dependants-should recognise her brought to Europe and examined, proved to belong to
individual responsibility to maintain them. ‘ Widows this plant (Wetzstein, ap. Del. Gen.(4)568),which is very
indeed’-Le., destitute and worthy of the name-the common in Palestine, being found on the ‘ banks of the
Church must support; but for admission to the roll Jordan and all other rivers’ ( F F P ~r~)--including
various qualifications were necessary-destitution, piety, those streams E. and SE. of the Dead Sea, of which
and prayerfulness, the age of sixty years, besides the o q. Ti y- : Tn h ~n@aZ
, hE‘Znibim, of Is. 1 5 7 (Brook of
evidence of purity of life, and a record of good works the Willows; see ARABAHii. and cp J EROBOAM , z,
such as women might be expected to perform for the Che. Zntr. Is. 84), is believed to be one. Willows are
common benefit. Younger widows were to have no not very characteristic of the oriental region. Boissier
recognition : they were a source of calumny to the gives only two as certainly indigenous in Syria proper :
Church for their idle and dissolute habits; they were --SaZixfra~iZis and S. aZba. and the former may not
to marry and bear children and rule their families. improbably have been introduced. On the whole,
X o definite duty is assigned to widows, unless it be therefore, there can be little doubt that the Jordan tree
the service of continual prayer: they were aged is Populus euphruticu, which often greatly resembles a
pensioners, whose activity of service was past. At a willow by the length and narrowness of its leaves.
later time more seems to have been expected of them in The o - m p , ‘Zru6Zm of Ps.1372 have been in com-
certain quarters of the Church ; and a confusion con- paratively modern times identified as weeping willows
sequently arose between widows and deaconesses. In (SaZix babyZonicu)--a tree which is originally a native
the earliest period, however, the two orders were wholly o f Japan and could not have existed in Syria in
distinct, the one consisting of pensioners, the other of biblical times. If it be true that it is in Palestine now
active servants of the Church. This distinction is ’ frequently found on the coast overhanging wells and
clearly maintained in the ApostoZic Constitutions as late pools‘ (Tristr. N H B 415), it must have been intro-
as the fourth or fifth century, and indeed never seems duced into Syria, as it has been into the Caucasus, at
to have been lost in the Greek and Syrian churches. a later time. Here again it is most probable that
In Egypt, however, and in the Latin churches there is popu.?us euphratica is meant.2
no trace of deaconesses, except sporadically, and even 2. mfB, p#hpiflhrih (&$3he&pwov 3 Ezek. 17 5), the Ar.
so mainly for Gaul : and the work which deaconesses sajhs@h,4 may denote the willow, or more probably the Poflrdus
did in the East was done to a large extent by widows. eu#hrafica (see above). N. M.-W. T. T.-D.
Ultimately both orders were swallowed up by the
monastic system. WIMPLE (obsolete, originally a covering for the
For details, and for the clearing up of the common confusions neck, chin, and sides of face), AV for nlllpp, mitpd-
on this subject, see The Minisfry of Deaconesses by Deaconess bath, Is. 322, RVSHAWL. See M ANTLE , $ 2 [3]; V AIL .
Cecilia Robinson (1898). J. A. R.
WILD BEAST (?V), Ps. 5011.]I[ See BEAST, 6.
WIND, WINDS (nn;
ANEMOC ; TTNEYMA [in 6,
Job3015 Ps. 1044 Wisd. 1 3 2 ; in NT.
Gen. 81 Is. i’z
WILD BEAST OF THE REEDS (n2p n,n), PS. 1. Hebrew only in Jn. 38 Heb. 1 7 1 ; TTNOH [Acts
6830 [37]. See CROCODILE ; REED, col. 4024f. conception. 221 ; ventus, aura,6 spiritus). The four
‘ ends ’ of the earth, in the Hebrew mind,
WILD BEASTS OF THE DESERT ( n y , IS. 1321. correspond to the four ‘ ends ’ of the heaven (see EARTH,
See C AT , end ; DESEF.T,5 2 (5). 5 I ) ; and it might equally well be said that the four
winds came from the ends of the earth and from the
WILD BEASTS O F THE ISLANDS (wq, I ~ . ends of heaven, the earth being a disk surrounded by
1322 AV. See J ACKAL (4). an ocean, and the heaven a vault overarching that
WILD BULL (&I), Is. 5120 AV, RV ANTELOPE ocean. Hence ‘ Enoch’ tells ns (Enock, 7 6 ) . ‘And at
(u. v.1. the ends of the earth I saw twelve portals opened for all
the winds, from which the winds proceed and blow over
WILDERNESS ( @ 9 ~ , etc.), Dt. 3210 etc. See
DESERT.
the earth. .
. . Through four of these came winds of
blessing and prosperity, and from those eight came
WILDERNESS OF WANDERINa. See WANDER-
INGS,WILDERNESS OF. 1 In Is. 15 7 it is taken as a proper name-’Apaaas.
2 The text, however, is disputed (see Che. Ps.P), whoreads in
WILD GOURDS. See GOURDS (W ILD ). v. I inpfl?; n>&Y and in v. z, ’13 mn? n$nq D’?ly, referring
WILD OLIVE (;@ yp), ECcluS. 5010. See OLIVE, to the N . Arabians). Tristram’s identification of the 0‘?-Ill
Tr-: with

oleanders (Nerium Oleandey) labours under this difficulty-that


§ 2.
&rad is not used in this sense. Winckler’s view (AF3417) that
WILD OX(P&y),NU. 2322 RV, AVUNICORN
(q.v.). the ‘arbhi?ndhal of Lev. 23 40 are synonymous with the Lrilias
of Neh. 8 15 ignores the arguments mentioned above.
WILD VINE (nl@ 1 ~ 8 ) . 2 ~ . 4 See
~ ~GOURDS
. , 3 Implying an erroneous derivation from 75s.
4 Acc. to Frhkel (143) this is a loan word.
WILD. 5 Heb. 17 = Ps. 1044 ; in Jn. 1 7 T U . is suggested by symbolism.
WILLOW, WILLOWS. occur in EV as the rendering See SPIKIT.
6 Gen. 3 8, ‘ adpuram post meridiem’ ; EV ‘in the cool (Heb.
of two Hebrew words. I. o q y , ‘d’~E6im(Lev.2340 wind) of the day. Cp Cant. 2 17 46.
169 5301 5302
WIND, WINDS WIND, WINDS
hurtful winds.' This notion (on which cp D EW, R AIN) simple idea that something was occasioned by a NE. or
illustrates a number of biblical passages. a SE. wind (see Is. 4125 Ps. 7826).
See, e.g., Jer. 10 13=5116 (cp Ps. 1357) 'he causes mists to In the two following passages N;=NW. and in the second,
ascend from the ends of the earth, ... and'brings forth the
wind out of his store-chambers'; Jer. 49,36, I will bring the
S. =SW.: (a)'The north wind bringeth foith rain' (Prov. 25 z?
RV): (6) 'Awake, 0 north [wind], and come, thou south [wind],
four winds from the four ends of heaven : Dan. 7 2, 'the four Cant. 4 16 See below, 8 5 , and, for parallels, 5 3.
winds of heaven burst forth upon the sea' ; Rev. 7 I, ' I saw four
angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the The norfh wind proper is called by Josephus (Ant.
four winds of the earth, that ;io wind should blow on the earth, xv. 96, 0 338) dvipwv alOprdjSmov, ' the wind which
or on the sea, or on any tree. most produces clear weather, as contrasted with the
This, then, wouldseem to be the Hebrew idea-that the impetuous south winds on the coasts of Palestine which
winds are stored in chambers at the point where heaven prevent ships from finding commodious anchorage.
and earth join. For though the circle down to which Still, it could be boisterous without being rainy;
the vault of heaven reaches is 'marked on the surface mariners passing near Joppa called it peXapp6pcov ' the
of the ocean ' (Prov. 827 ; cp Job 26 I O ), yet ocean and black N. wind' (Jos. BJiii. 93, 422). So d in
earth are not rigidly separated in the Hebrew mind, as Prov. 27 16 gives the emphatic words poplar U K X ~ ~ ~ S
we see from the (probable) fact that the Bah. apse, G v ~ p o s and
, ~ Jerome, describing the wind from many
'ocean,' has become in Hebrew 'aphsZ in the phrase years' acquaintance, calls it ventus d~uvissirnus.~
'uphsZ '6ref.l (ends of the earth '), which has arisen by a Jerome was even misled by his local knowledge into a false
process of Hebraising adaptation. The idea in Rev. 7 I rendering of isinn in Prov. 25 23 dissipat@luvias) AV 'driveth
away (rain)'. The meaning of ' I north ' is explaiied elsewhere
seems to be that the angels placed over the respective (see E ARTH AND WORLD). Cold comes from the north star (Job
store-chambers of the wind keep back the winds which 379 emended text)-i.e. from the rough N. wind, which, as Ben
are impetuously pushing forward, somewhat as IHtar is Sira tells us, covers wa'ter with a 'breastplate' of ice (Ecclus.
said ( I R 2 9 3 Karppe) to hold together the vault of 43 20). H e adds that it 'burns up ' the grass ; cp Milton (PL,
heaven and earth (so that the upper waters cannot burst
forth in excess).
2 595).
. . . .
Bums ~.
the parching air
fierce. and cold uerforms the effects of fire.
Very different ideas were awakened by the thought of Ezekiel, in his great vision, speaks of a 'whirlwind ("!YO c91,
the wind. As ' Enoch ' says, the wind might be either niah si*Zni,G) coming out of the north' (Ezek.14). This
a blessing or a curse. Two of its characteristics were suggestsa correctionof the Hebrew text of Ecclus. 43 176, where
the Oxford editors render,
specially depressing : ( I ) its immense power, and (2)its
'The hot wi#+ of the north, the tempest, and the
apparent irregularity. ( I ) The early disciples of Jesus
exclaim, ' W h o then is this, that even the wind and
whirlwind .
but where a reading &en in the margin of the MS is surely
the sea obey him' (Mk. 441 cp Ps. 1072g), and a poet, preferable
unable to find a worthy name for God, asks, ' W h o has ' The h i X w i n d J of the north, the hurricane, and the
tempest.'
gathered ( =can gather) the wind in his fists ' ? (Prov. For though soon after the parching effect of the cold does seem
304). Certainly human power was baffled in presence to be referred to (v. zo), yet nr&, ziTEj&th, a word used of
of the wind. ( 2 ) And not less powerless here was the simoom (see below), could hardly be used of the N. or NW.
human wisdom. Once allow the belief in God's love- wind, especially in combination with npo, s d j k h , 'hurricane,'
directed wisdom to be obscured, and it becomes a most and i l p , s2'drEh, 'tempest.'
depressing thought that the wind is perpetually ' going The parallel to the line with ' t h e whirlwind of the
toward the south,' or ' turning about to the north,' in a north ' Ecclus. 43 17 should probably be
series of revolutions devoid of apparent reason (Eccles.
At his will the south wind blows.4
7 6 ; cp 114). But there are more comforting associa-
tions of ideas than these. God ' created the wind' Just so in Job379 the whirlwind is said to come from
(Am. 4 13), and the cosmogonist who says that all God's
works were attested by him to be ' very good ' ascribes '' the chambers of the south' (E ARTH
wind. [FOUR QUARTERS], 8 2); Cp IS. 21 I
the growth of order and of life to a 'wind of God' Zech. 9 14. Either the SE. or the SW. (strictly SSW. )
which ' hovered' (the wind is imagined as a mighty wind may be meant ; both these winds are called sirocco
bird) over the primeval waters (Gen. 12 ; see CKEATION, by travellers in Palestine, though etymologically the term
5 Io)-an old myth which has become a symbol of the only belongs to the E. wind.5 In Ps. 7826 the SE.
highest spiritual energy (cp Jn. 38), and which was in wind is called first a S., and then an E. wind ; in d
the mind of Ezekiel when he wrote, ' Come from the (see Ex. 1013 1421 J o b 3 8 2 4 Ps. 7 8 2 6 ~Ezek. 2726) it
four winds (=parts of heaven), 0 breath (ym), and becomes v 6 m s or the S. wind. This is because a hot,
breathe upon these slain, that they may live' (Ezek. parching wind analogous to the sirocco b l o w in Egypt
379). See S PIRIT , 5 I$ And if the wind ever does from the S. ; it is there called Rhamsin, because it blows
harm, it is only at God's command (Is. 2 9 6 Am. 1 at intervals during a period of fifty days. In Palestine,
Ecclus. 3928) ; indeed, ' he makes winds his messengers't however, in the south of which the ' sirocco' is very
(Ps. 1044 ; cp 1488). troublesome, it does not often blow directly from the S.,
Such compound expressions as ' north-east ' (efipa- so that when in Job (which was hardly written, as
2. Terms. K ~ X W ; see E UROCLYDON) being impos- Hitzig and Herz have supposed, in Egypt but in
north wins, sible in Hebrew, the four great terms for Palestine), we find the sultry heat of the ' south wind '
winds had to be used freely. It was not described (Job3717) in terms appropriate to the
always convenient to take two clauses to express the 'sirocco,' we must suppose the SE. and the SSW.
wind to he meant ' Lk. 1255 ( ' when ye see the S. wind
1 (The phrase does not happen to occur in our oldest records blow, ye say, Kaduwv hurar), requires a similar ex-
[cp GEOGRAPHV, $ I], but is evidently a&haic.) So Hommel, planation. In Babylonia the SW. wind was represented
and Gunkel, Schajj: 46. Halevy (Recherches, 2 4 , however, as a ferocious demon, images of which are to be seen in
derives Bab. a j d from a Semitic root DBN : c p Jensen, KosmoZ. museums. This does not, however, illustrate Is. 21 I,
244. The original vocalisation of the above Heb. phrase may
have been 'a)Asi Z q . In course of time 'a@hsiwa5 interpreted which refers to the S. of Palestine (cp Zech. 9 14).
as meaning 'ends(of)'='D:N, as if syn. with nix?. But even if This wind blows from the Syrian and Arabian desert
'a?? or nix? is used in the sense 'ends (of the earth) ' the old
id;a has not entirely gone. ' The creator of the ends (nix?) of 1 Q5.s form of the text however was like MT's corrupt.
2 The Targ. (Prov. Zd 23 27 16jgive; the north) wind the ex-
the earth ' (Is. 40 28) means 'the creator, not merely of the most pressive title Hn*zil, the scouring, or sweeping (wind).
distant ciuntries hut of the confines of earth and heaven, where
the storehouses bf the winds and the rain are,' unless, indeed, 3 Reading hlJ>p (see below). @ ral rcasaryls Popku.
we suppose that the writer does but repeat an old phrase taken 4 Reading as .@. The text is disarranged (see Levi and
from hymns to YahwL., the sense of which he has forgotten. So Halevy).
Karppe, 1.As. 9g.x [r8g71. 5 Sirocco from Ar. Sar&&ya' easterly.'

5303 5304
WIND, WINDS W I N E AND STRONG DRINK
(Ter. 411 1324 Hos. 1.315 Is. 211, cp j o b l q ) , and, as
. .
in imaginative descriptions, has an affinity to the storm-
4. East wind. 6 ’ s rendering KU~;UWU suggests, brings gods of neighbouring countries. It has in fact become
extreme heat, a t any rate when it blows (in no unworthy sense of the term) a commonplace to
for a length of time in the spring ; -in the winter, how- say that Yahw6 moves in the whirlwind (Ps. 1810972
ever, it brings agreeable, bright, and warm days between Nah. 1 3 ; cp CHERVH, § 4, THEOPHANY, 2). This
the times of rain. For its parching effect on vegetation, to accounts for passages like Is. 66 15 Zech. 9 14 (see a),
which 6 ’ s name refers see Gen. 41623 27 Ezek. 1; IO 19 12 and also, if we look closely, for Is. 1713 Hos. 8 7 Prov.
Jon. 4 8 (where n.F?n, hdriEth, RV ‘sultry,’ is obscure; 1025 Ps.589, where the ’whirlwind’ spoken of certainly
see J ONAH [BOOK], 5 I [I], n. 2). It is also common1y means the divine wrath. Prov. 1025, however, should he
found by critics in njiy>! on, ruib d u p h a t h (AV understood as in RV ; it states that when the whirlwind
of judgment has passed through the land (cp Is. 2817
‘horrible [mg. burning] tempest’ ; RV ‘burning wind’)
30;0), the wicked will be swept away, but the righteous
in Ps. 1 1 6 ; see e.f., Baethgen, but on the text cp 2‘s.P) will stand unmoved. And with this we may compare
I n the Lebanon the E. wind is still used as a simile the fine parallelistic similitude which closes the sermon
for anything very disagreeable ; there, as in Arabia, it on the Mount (Mt. 7 24- 27). The winds that ‘ blew and
is called the Fainrim from Farnrnua ( ’ poison ’). fell upon (rrpou&reoau V . 25, W ~ O U ~ K O $ U VV . 27) that
Its effects are thus described by a traveller in the desert.
‘When this wind blows the atmosphere assumes a yellowish house ’ are the winds of the Messianic judgment.
appearance, fading into gray, and the sun becomes of a dusky 2. niyo, st‘dnih, is synonymous with sz2ph.uh (cp, e.g.,
rT:
red. The smell is nauseating and sulphureous, the vapour
thick and heavy, and, when the heat increaies, one is almost Zech. 9 14 nilFD with Is. 21 I, 2 I g niwo), and when it
suffocated.’= See Wetzstein’s instructive statement in Del. stands alone is usually rendered ‘whirlwind’ ( 2 K. 2 I I I Job 38 I
Wioh,P) 349, n. I. 406 Is.4024 4116 etc.) in E V but sometimes ‘storm’ (Ps.
This wind, and the NW. wind, are prevalent in 10729 Js.296 [RG whi;lwindl);’as also in the compound ex-
Palestine in summer : we have already mentioned the pressions ,l?qD !??, rgah se‘rivah (Ps.107 25 148 8 Ezek. 14)
5, West wind. beneficent mists which they bring from or nile? ’1, nia& si‘dvoth (Ezek. 13 II 13). 717’ illy0 in
the Mediterranean. These are gener- Jer. 23 19 ( o e ~ u p k )3023 (6pYi) is rendered ‘whirlwind of the
ally known as D EW ( 4 . v . ) ; in Prov. 252; they are Lord’ by AV and ‘ tempest of ;he Lord’ by RV. Q renders
called o y w ~ nksi’im
, (so we should read, with Grh., rararyk, U V ~ ~ T C L W ~Aa;Aa$
~ F , [in Job? ha;&$ Kai v6+s(oc)
38 I Y+OS 4061 ; Ecclus. 43 17, murpo++i r v d w a r o s (nlvol nzllD);
for ow; : gi v&q ; cp Prov. 2514 6).In Cant. 416 489 AalAarr m p d s my^] ; ieinjestas, turbo.
the bride calls the N . and the S. winds, by which she 3. According to RV we have once an expression for
means the NW. and the SW., to spread abroad the i%nn?lyD, Jer. 23 19
‘whirlwind’ in the technical sense-viz.,
fragrance of her garden.3 Both winds in summer ( ..
. cis ~ v o c r q ~ 6u vu u~~ p + o p d q ; tem#estas eruncpens:
RV ‘whirling tempest ; AV wrongly ‘grievous tempest ’). But
would be agreeable, and if at times they bring rain
the existence of iqn, II., though recognised by Ges.-Buhl, is not
(especially the SW., called in Arabic, the father of quite certain. In all the passages where it occurs, the text IS
rain’), yet rain is one of Gods best gifts (Ps. 10413 doubtful. Here, e.g., it is possible to read 1,iSnF ‘sweejing
1478) ; in Arabian style, it is ‘ the father of life.’ O n (tempest)’ as in Jer. 33 19(RV) bpyil m ~ m p + p i q ; Vg.jrocelZa
the ‘ strong west wind ’ of Ex. loI9, see LOCUSTS, R ED rums; if $$jfp ‘rolling itselfalong’ should not be preferred
S EA, and on the relative prevalence of winds throughout (so Gra.).
the year. see PEFQSt. 1900,pp. 296 f. 4. lyw, sd‘ar, Dan. 11 40 (03 Theod. om.; puasi t.mpPstas);
Reference has already been made to the ‘ whirlwind ’ 9 Ass. Sam (Del. Ass. N W B 635), Is. 28 P ( m p iyw, ‘destroy-
seen by Ezekiel ( 1 4 ) . and to the ‘ whirlwind of the ing storm ’; Si? ,ara+spo(*&q?).
6. Whirlwind. north,’ as we should probably read in 5. i?);, ga(gaZ, Ps. i T r g [IS] RV (AV ‘heaven’). The
Ecclus. 43 17. rendering has some good authority (Ges., Hitz., Del., Kau.).
Ezekiel’s word is ; n y ~ ,se-drcih: Sirach‘s (if we are correct) But nowhere elsedoes ilil mean ‘whirlwind’ ; the Vv. adhere to
’ny>Y, ‘al‘fZ,an Aramaic word, used in Targ. for n D D , sajhdh, the sense ‘ wheel. See further WHEEL, and THISTLE, ad$%
and niyo, sE‘iivnh, and read by Perles [AnaZekten, 381, in Job T. K. C.
36 33, for nhy $ y WINDOW. The words so rendered are :
W e will now survey the use of the Heb. words I. mlu, ’amZZalr,Is. 60 8. See LATTICE, $ 2 , I, and COAL, 8 3.
rendered ’ whirlwind.‘ 2. lib?, &aZZ8%, Gen. 2G 8. See LATTICE, D 2 2.
I. n ~ i sziphih,
~ , is in AV rendered ‘whirlwind,’ in 3. i ? kawwin
~ , (PI.), Dan. F IO [II]. See LATTICE, 0 z , 3 . On
Job 37 9 (6bSdvai) Prov. 127 10 25 Is. 5 28 17 13 21 I 66 15 Jer.
f 13 Am. 114 (@ uuvre‘Ahara, and in Nah. 13) Nah. 13, but these three words, cp HOUSE,8 3.
storm’ in all the other places where it occurs (Job2118 Ps. 4. lek, gohay, Gen. 616. See LATTICE, P 2, 7.
83 16 6, b yfj) Is. 296 Hos. 8 7 (Q xa7ampoQi). RV substitute: On the le$, 2&#h, and O‘???, 5E&Fjhint,of I K. 6 4 74x,
storm I$r whirlwind’ in Job379 Is. 17 13,and ‘whirlwind
for ‘storm’ Is. 296. see LATTICE, $ 2 , 6. On WGt, idmeS; in Is. 54 IZ see PINNACLE.
That the Hebrew word is not always used in the
strictly technical meaning of the English expression
seems evident (63 uses Kumryis; also XaiXuq, mu-
ueruphs (?) ; Vg. tempestas, turbo). The whirlwind sug-
WINE AND STRONG DRINK
gested itself as an apt figure ( a ) for the rapid attack of Terminology (8% 1-92 Varieties’(s$ 25-27).
Winepress ($8 11-16). Mixing (8s 28-30).
great conquering powers, like Assyria, Babylonia, and Wine making (0% 17-24). Metaphors (0 31).
the Syria of the Seleucidz. Thus, in Am. 114f., the Use of wine (0 32).
‘ day of the whirlwind.’ is parallel to the ‘ day of battle,’ I n this article it is proposed to examine the terms
and the next verse speaks of captivity. In Is. 528 rendered wine or strong drink in EV,’ and to discuss
Jer. 4 13, the wheels of war-chariots are like the whirl- the methods adopted by the Hebrews in the preparation
wind,’ and in Dan. 1140 ‘ the king of the north ’ (Syria) of these beverages. For the cultivation of the vine in
comes out ‘ like a whirlwind ’ (but cp 6). Palestine reference must be made to the articles
( b ).The whirlwind also symbolises the suddenness of VINE, and N EGEB , 5 7, and for the various stages in
the divine judgments : nor can we forget that Yahwk, the growth of the fruit to the article GRAPE.
1 Ka6m.w or xaduwv Lvqios in Q corresponds to three Hebrew The first place in our study of the relative terminology
words, O’lp, ‘east wind,’ 2 1 ~(Is. 4910, see MIRAGE), and 1.yt;yin; belongs to 1;; ydyin, OLJOS, apparently a
27h (Gen. 31 40 [AI ; cp Lk. 12 55). loanword in Semitic (see BDB, s.v., with
2 Fuadpuben des Orients, 6 396 (Rosenmfiller, Bi6l. Geogr.
otos.
references there, to which add 0. Schrader in
of Asia Minor etc. rz6). Dr. Geikie illustrates the effects Hehn, KuZturpjancen u. Haustltiere,W pp. xiv 9 r 3 , also
of the sirocco c y thdstory of Jonah.
3 So Magnus and Gratz. The words are not a summons to 1 For a complete list of passages with the renderings of the
the N. and S. winds properly so-called (Del.), nor yet to all the principal versions (to be used wlth caution however) see Lees
four chief winds, represented by N. and S. (Siegfried). and Burns, The Temjerance Bi6Ze-Comme~tary, 412.428 (1868).
5305 5306
WINE AND STRONG DRINK
Muss-Arnolt, ' Semitic w o r d s i n G r e e k a n d L a t i n ' in and Bartenora; cp also Levy, NHWB, s.n @-i.e. from the
PubZications of A m e r . PhiloZog. Ass. 1892, pp. 142- moment when it begins tofemzent. The result IS th; same if,
146). Occurring over 140 times i n t h e traditional text of with later editions, we read the piel 3Fe; and render: 'from
O T , ydyin denotes, like its G r e e k a n d L a t i n congeners, the time one begins to skim the froth' Uost, Sammter. cp
also Jastrow Dirt. o f the Targumim etc s.D.). Even) the
oivos and vinum, t h e juice of t h e g r a p e , fermented a n d inferior wine 'made by pouring water on'the 'iefuse of the press
m a t u r e d i n appropriate vessels. I t is represented as i n had to ferment (f"t3n7) before becoming subject to tithe (Ma'risir
daily use, whether a t the ordinary family meal a n d t h e Sh.13' cp for the heave-offering, T&im. 3 1 where the
m o r e ambitious b a n q u e t (M EALS , 5 12),or a t t h e sacri- referenie :I to wine that had passed through 6 e stage of
ficial feast a n d i n t h e ritual of the sanctuary (R ITUAL , alcoholic fermentation and had become vinegar (acetous
5 2 ; S ACRIFICE, col. 4193 etc.). Vdyin is uniformly fermentation)). Hence when it is said that t i r Z shall be drunk
in the.courts of the sanctuary (Is. 628f.) the conclusion is un-
rendered b y ' wine ' in EV, b y oivos in @ (except Job avoidable that fircis is not here the unferkented must, but true
3219. where t h e sense is correctly given b y YXFDKOS fermented wine. The wine of the drink-offering (7DI Nu. 15 5,
sweet [fermenting] m u s t ) , a n d b y vinum i n t h e L a t . etc. ; see under S ACRIFICE , 5 31 a ) is never described otherwise
verss. I n O T ydyin is confined t o grape-wine ; b u t i n than as ydyin, except once when it is described as S i K Z r (see
later H e b r e w i t is extended t o include both t h e freshly- below, 8 8). The tWZ, finally, which in an early passage
(Judg.913) is said to 'cheer God' a s a libation, and to
expressed juice or m u s t (see t i d below) a n d the exhilarate man in the accompanying sacrificial feast, must he
fermented juice of various fruits, s u c h a s the apple-wine understood in the light of what has just been said, as a
frequently mentioned i n t h e M i s h n a (see $26). T h e fermented 'wine. (3) The evidence of the versions in this
corresponding oivos is found over 30 times i n N T , question must not he overlooked. With two exceptions (Is. 65 8,
'grape-stone' ; and Hos. 4 11, for which see foot-note above)
n o t reckoning its presence i n c o m p o u n d s such as @ has uniformly rendered t i r G by oluoc. The Targums and
oluorr6Tqs ' w i n e b i b b e r ' (Mt. 1119 L k . 734). In w i y n the Peshitta with almost equal uniformity give 1Qp N!Fn
ti&, w e have a word of uncertain etyniology,l fermented wine (see $ 4 below), whilst Jerome, with ve'iy few
a. occurring 3 8 times i n O T . A convenient exceptions renders by vinuni, not as we might expect by
s u m m a r y of t h e various qualities predicated of tirZ is rirustuin (:xcept hlic. 6 IS), even where, as in Pr. 3 I O Joelb 24,
the sense seems to require mustum.
given in Driver's Joe( and Amos, 79J ; for m o r e
detailed discussion see A. M. W i l s o n , The Wines ofthe T h e word 'dsis (q)
is f o u n d five times i n O T and
BibZe [1877] 301-339. In 1 1 places tirG is associated is rendered in A V twice b y ' new wine,' twice b y ' sweet
w i t h c o r n as a valued product of the soil, a n d i n 19 3. t5sis: w i n e ' a n d o n c e ( C a n t . 8 2 ) b y 'juice.' R V
o t h e r passages with c o r n a n d fresh oil (yishEr, the ykcirKos. renders uniformly b y ' sweet wine ' except
r a w , unclarified oil a s it flows from the oil press, s e e i n the p a s s a g e cited, where it appears only
O IL). H e n c e b y analogy w e o u g h t t o regard t i r 2 as i n t h e margin.
primarily the freshly -expressed and still unfermented Derived from the verb D D ~ ,to crush by treading, '&is is
grape-juice, technically k n o w n as m u s t , the L a t i n apparently a poetical synonym of tinit, denoting primarily the
mustzrm (Mic. 615 Vg.). I t is also applied, however, freshly-expressed juice of the grape or other fruit (so Am. 9 13 ;
proleptically t o t h e juice while still i n t h e g r a p e , a s i n 'sweet wine' ; imitated Joel 3 [4] 18). In Joel 1j and Is. 49 26,
however, the context shows that, like tirci;, 'risis might be an
Is. 65 8 ( ' t h e new wine i s found in t h e c l u s t e r ' E V ; intoxicating beverage, as it doubtless is in Cant. 8 2 , where it is
cp the L a t i n phrase vinum pendens), a n d b y a n o t h e r made from pomegranates (8 26). I n this passage 4'6BNA renders
figure t o t h e g r a p e s i n t h e press-vat (Mic. IC. ' t h o u by v t p a , whence EV 'juice ' ' in Is. 49 26 by o?mr v i o s . Am. 9 13
shalt t r e a d t i r i f [ R V the vintage], b u t shalt n o t d r i n k Joel3 [4] 18 by yhvroapdr: which recalls the yhraror (EV
'new wine') of Acts 2 13. Gleukos is used of the 'sweet' grape
the wine ' [ydyin]). On t h e other h a n d i t is important, juice through all the stages of its passage into fermented wine,
i n view of the controversies t o which the t e r m 2iri.F Thus the lexicographer Hesychius defines yAsirros as 'the
has given rise, to n o t e t h a t i n certain passages i t clearly juice which drops ( r b Llr6uraypd) from the grape, hefnre it is
d e n o t e s the product of fermentation, or wine properly trodden' (cp the ex lanation of Ex. 22 29 [281, D 15 below). Again
the word i;used o f m u s t in the process of fermentation, as Job
so called. I t s application i n this respect, however, w a s 32 19 (@B auxor rhnixovs <&v), whilst in the passage before us
a p p a r e n t l y limited t o ' n e w wine,' a s frequently rendered (Acts 2 13) the re erence is clearly to the strongly intoxicating
in AV a n d R V , 2 either while still i n the fermenting qualities of new and immature wine-in this particular case
wine of the preceding vintage. Here may be taken the referenc;
stage or d u r i n g the next few m o n t h s , while the process
in Neh. 8 IO, to eating the fat and drinking the sweet (O'j?QQQ
o f m a t u r i n g was still incomplete. The g r o u n d s on
@ yhvr&para), evidently a variety or varieties of sweet wine
which this conclusion is based are these :-
recalling the pin? 1;: of Mind& 8 5.1
( I ) !n one passage where ti& is associated with whoredom Another poetical designation of wine is hhzmer (mn)
and wine (ybyin)as 'taking away the understanding'(H0s. 4 11
RV),3 intoxicating properties are unmistakahly assigned to it. which occurs o n l y in t h e p o e m D t . 3214 ; for in Is. 272
(2) Tiras'is repeatedly mentioned as subject tn the laws of tithe
and of the first fruits (Dt. 12 17 1423 18 4 Neh. 1027 $ and
elsewhere). Now the later Jewish code specifies the precise
'' we m u s t read, for the M T pn
'red wine'), with RVmg. i ~ na a
. . (AV
moment when the ex ressed grape-juice becomes subject to the pleasant vineyard. ' In A r a m a i c , however, as frequently
law of tithe : 'Mustfis tithable from the time that it throws up
h a p p e n s , the H e b r e w poetical terni is the ordinary w o r d
scum' (Ma'user. 17, reading a??: ; so evidently Surenhusius'
unpointed edition, as shown by the explanations of Maimonides for wine ; so six times in the Aramaic portions of E z r a
( 6 9 7 zz] a n d Daniel ( 5 I z 4 23). T h e etymology f r o m
inn,f e w e r e , t o foam, ferment (cp '""1: :1 Ps. 758 [9] 'the
1 The usual derivation from y&&, ' t o take possession of,' wine foameth,' R V ) shows t h a t &?mer a n d its cognates
though supported in Aramaic by the cognate mMth from i n Aramaic a n d Arabic specially d e n o t e wine a s t h e
yeatfi, is not convincing. Recently it has been susgested that
tircizis a loan-word from Sumerian through Assyrian (see Ball product of fermentation.
and Haupt SBOT Gen. note on 27 28). Sib! (N$) occurs only i n Is. 1z z (EV ' w i n e ' 6
2 According to ?em#.' Bib. Co?nm. (ut supr. 415) tirS '5
translated in AV 26 times by 'wine,' T I t i m y by 'new wine oivos), H o s . 418 (their drink,' RVmg. ' their c a r o u s e ' ) ,
... and once (Mic. 6 IS) by 'sweet wine. A table of all
the occurrences with their renderings is given in Eadie's
Cyclopedia, s . 2 ~ 'Wine. RV adds to these the rendering
'' a n d Nah. 1IO ( ' their d r i n k ') ; b u t the text of
sdbi' t h e last t w o passages i s very uncertain (BUB
S.V. a n d the Comm.). T h a t s&Z was some strongly
'vintage' Nu. 1812 Mic. Z.C. and in several other passages in
the margin. The American revisers would consistently render intoxicating beverage t h e root-word, sib& ' t o d r i n k t o
by 'new wine throughout. excess,' a b u n d a n t l y proves (see e.g. Pr. 2 3 2 0 5 ). T h e
3 It is possible, however, that Wi1.F is here a clerical error c o g n a t e sabu, a synonym of Kurunnu. d e n o t e d in
for 72@ which the context certainly leads us to expect. 4'6's Assyrian a d r i n k from sesame (Del. Ass. H WE?,s. v.).
rendering piOvupz, a frequent equivalent of Zkdr, but not I n a s m a l l n u m b e r of post-exilic passages, w e m e e t
elsewhere of tirZ, supports this view. T h e other ancient
versions follow 6.
4 The original has I*>, ydyin, ti& having now become 1 For the methods adopted to increase the sweetness of wines,
obsolete. see $$ 15 22 below.
5307 5308
WINE AND STRONG DRINK
with a group of allied terms derived from the verbal aqua pinguior coloratur ’ (Ep. ad Nepotianum, ed. Yallarsi,
1266).
root qpp, to mix (wine) with spices (Pr. 92 5 ) , From this specification, it will be noted, wine is apparently
m”ek3 and the cognate j ! ~ which , in the Hebrew excluded, and for this exclusion there is a certain amount of
justification. Thus in the priestly legislation affecting the
mLT:ak’ of the Mishna ptriod signified ‘ to mix with Nazirites (Nu.63J) vinegar of ycfyia is distinguished from
water ‘-viz. mksek qDn (Ps. 75 8 [9] EV vinegar ofSSkZr,2which shows that by theearlypost-exilic period,
in certain circles at all events, yiyin was no longer included in
’ mixture’),l mimsiik qpnp (Prov. 2330, EV ‘ mixed the category of S+ir or ‘strong drink.’ We are not justified in
wine,’ Is. 6511 AV ‘drink offering.’ RV ‘mingled inferring from this, however, that the two categories of wine
and strong drink were at all periods mutually exclusive. Thus
wine’ [~kpaupa]‘unto Destiny’), and m h g , 1Ip (Cant. when the term Sikaru is first met with on the soil of Palestine,
7 2 , AV ‘liquor,’ RV ‘mingled wine,’ 6 @@a). The it is used for ‘drink’ generally, and is repeatedly associated
nature of the mingling or mixing here implied will be with food oil, honey, etc. (see the Amarna letters, KB 5, index
s . ~ ) . O j e has hut to recall the enormous number of jars of
fully discussed later (§ 29). wine which Thothmes 111. received from Syria at an earlier
In Is.256 the word o’ind Si‘miirim, properly the period to see that the Sikan’ or ‘drinks’ of the Amarna letters
must have included wine. In the Assyro-Babylonian contract-
- - .Jer.hT8ir Zeph. I I Z ) is
lees of wine (Ps. 7 5 8 -rql , used for tablets Sikam denotes intoxicating beverages generally, and in
., lYIiscella~eous the sake of the assonance with particular wine made from dates (Del. Ass. HWB, h v ; see
and figurative <rmZnim, ‘fat things,’ to signify wine further, $ 25). Indeed it is extremely probable that in pre-
( E V ‘wines on the lees’) in a historic times, while the Semitic races were still confined to
their primitive home in Arabia, the principal, if not the sole,
-
expressions‘ figurative sense. For the obscure or intoxicant was obtained from fermented date-juice.8 TO this
perhaps corrupt term n$,ve which AV. following an first of all the name Gkar would be given. When at a later
erroneous tradition, has rendered a ‘flagon of wine‘ period the Semites spread northward and became acquainted
with the vine and its fruit, it is only natural that the term
( z S.619; cp I Ch. 167 Hos.31 Cant. 25) see the should he extended to include fheferntenfedjuice of the graje,
discussions under FRUIT (1 5 ) . In Nu. 6 3 wine and for which however the loanword yiyS was by and by adopted
strong drink are both distinguished from the un- to distingksh grape wine from the older date wine or i@kZrin
the strict sense, as well as from the fermented juices of other
fermented juice ( n l @ n )(EV ‘liquor ’) of the grape.2 fruits such as pomegranates, quinces etc. (see $ 26) included
Our list of the’words rendered wine in EV may unde; Z k d r in its wider application
The distinction which has just been drawn between these
close with a reference to three figurative expressions varying applications of the term &kZr receives ample confirma-
which are met with at very different stages of Hebrew tion from a closer study of the OT data. Thus in the many
literature. In the early book of the covenant we have -
poetical and semi poetical (prophetical) passages where the
word occurs in the parallelism alongside of ydyin (Pr. 20 I 31 6
the unique expression v p . ~(literally ‘ tear’ Ex. 2228), Is. 5 1 1 22 28 7 etc.) it is unlikely tha: S k i ? - is more than a
which includes the first flow of the juice of olives as synonym of yriyin denoting ‘strong ‘heady ’ wine or such
well as of grapes (for a new suggestion as to the origin like. Perhaps alsd ‘ spiced wine’ (for Lhich see %,zg), as state!
in Suidas’ definition, S.V. &spa: U K W ~ U T ~ V aopa. rai r a p
of this term see 5 15). In the Gospels we find wine ‘EBpaLors a i h w h+psvov p<hupa, o h s uuppryilr <S6mpamv.
designated ‘ the fruit of the vine’ ( ~ y6vqpu b T?~S The Targums and the Peshitta frequently render SZkdr by
d p h X o u Mt. 2629 Mk. 1425 Lk. 2218), a periphrasis ‘old wine,’ whilst the hiidrash records the tradition that it
donbtless already current in Jewish speech, since it is denoted wine in the natural state (‘0) as distinguished from
found in the time-honoured benediction over the wine- y i p n or wine diluted with water (1W); in both cases,
cup in BZnikh. 6 1 ( p s .??-for the words of the however, we hare probably nothing more than exegetical
guesswork. Of much greater importance for our argument is
blessing see M EALS, 5 7, end). In all periods, finally, the fact that in the unique passage, Nu. 2 8 7 the mat:rial of
we find the poetical designation ‘ blood of the grape’ the drink offering is expressly designated Sdar (AV strong
from the red colour of the expressed juice (Is. 632) wine ’ RV ‘strong drink’). Now it is difficult to believe that in
the distorical period any liquor other than the juice of the grape
derived from the stalks and skins of the fruit (Gen. was accepted for this purpose,j and still more difficult to admit
49 I I Dt. 32 14 Ecclus. 39.6 50 15, cp Rev. 1420 and the that any other liquor than wine was intended in this passage of
Arabic damu-z-zikk. blood of the wineskin). the Priests’ Code. In other legislative passages, such as Nu.
6 3 J , cited above, and Dt. 1426, SZk3r must be distinguished
There still remains for examination the important (from ydyin) in the direction suggested by Jerome, as a general
term i!d Y k i r (from the root i3d, common to all term for all fermented beverages other than ydyin and in
*.9t;kar, Semitic dialects, which supplies the Hebrew particular-though of this we have no positive O T evidence-
for date wine. A land whose produce of dates was beyond
‘ strong words for ‘drunk,’ ‘drunkard.’ and ‘drunken- reckoning ( d r i s i e e Ejist., ed Wendland, 112) was certainly
ness ’). In @ the word has assumed the form not ignorant of the methods of manufacturing wine from their
drink., &€pa -but occasionally translated pk- juice, although the name date wine is first met with in the
Talmudic period (see further, $? zj).
Buapa, twice p&. and once oh- through the influence
of the Aramaic iikrii, ~ i 3 d ; and in Jerome, sicera. The Last ofall,mention may be made ofone or two more com -
T i . prehensive terms. From the root npj, ‘ to drink ’ we hare
etymology warrants the inference that 5kir is to be
regarded as a comprehensive designation for every sort
of intoxicating deverage from whatever source derived,
or, as Terome has it, ‘ onine quod inebriare potest ’ (Vg.
’’ nndo, miSteh, as a general termfor beverages,
Some especially wine. Thus workmen, receiving
wages and ‘everything found,’ have an
. -
Lev. 1 6 9 N U . 6 3 I s . I ~ ~ ) . terms’ allowance of ’ meat and drink (n+). . and
In one ofhis letters Terome exoands his definition as follows :- oil ’ (Ezra 3 7 ; cp the parallel aka& &kart, SuinnP of
‘ Sicera hebraeo se&one ornn:s potio, qua: inebriare potest, Am. Tab. 209 r z J and elsewhere ; also Dan. 1IO with
sive illa quae fruniento conficitur, sive pomorum succo, aut
quum favi decoquuntur in dulcem et barbaram potionem aut vv. 5 8 16, where the iniSteh is said to consist of wine).
palrnarum fructus exprimitur in liquorem, coctisque frukibus From the associated root nprj, we have both Sikkuy,
(Hos. 2 5 [7]. where bread, oil, and ‘ drinks’ are parallel
1 Q has here the apparent contradiction aorijp~ov alvau
& ~ p d r o v rrA<per Kepduparos (cp Rev. 10 14 roc KPKpaUpbOU
to the ‘ corn, oil, and wine’ of v. 8 [IO] ; Ps. 1029 [IO], and
&pdrov), the explanation being that obos &paror is the usual
designation of wine undiluted with water, whilst Kipampa 1 With this definition of GkZr may he compared ‘Omar’s
denotes the addition of aromatic herbs (see 5 29). definition of /Iamras including wine from grapes, dates, honey,
[a In Cant. 2 13 etc. Sym. renders 1 1 (RV ~ ~ ‘in blossom’ ; wheat, and barley’(Jacob, AZiara6. Beduinenleben, 97, quoting
Ges., following Syr. authorities,flos vitis) by olvdvOq. It has Buhiri).
been suggested that the ‘impossible’ nime in Is. 168 should 2-Tbe distinction here so clearly drawn between the two
kinds of vinegar is fatal to our acceptance of the tradition,
be corrected into (G RA PE , 3), and a special reason for the represented in Onkelos and approved by Rashi (Comm. i n loc.),
mention of the vine-blossoms may he found in the use of these that the S k d r is old wise.
blossoms in flavouring new wine (cp Duval, R E f 14277). Such 3 For the importance of the palm among the early Semites
flavoured wine was called OTVOC olvdv0rvoc. Hasselquist thus see Barton, A Sketch of Semitic Origins, 7 5 3 ; cp also P ALM,
describes the method employed, viz., ‘hanging the powder pro- 5 1.
duced by drying the flowers of the vine in the cask, when the 4 Date juice was of course acce ted in the earliest times ; in
new wine begins to ferment’(Voyager and Travels, 1766, pp. Babylonia indeed in all periods ligations of date wine (n+i Sa
4’-’rJ).] Siknn’) were common (see R ITUAL , 8 2).
5309 5310
W I N E AND STRONG DRINK
figuratively Pr. 38)and n vp: d- ~ nza?&?h.
. il4aFkeh is used the grape-baskets were first emptied. This trough
comprehensively, a s in Lev. 1134. for ‘ every drink that at once recalls the ?rpoX.i)urov by which d renders the
may be drunk,’ and in the later plural form ( j p i F ) it v@eb of Is. 52, and is probably the ‘dit,w q , of the
becomes, in the Mishna, the general term for all sorts Mishna ( E b . &I&. 5 7 [where it occurs alongside of the
of beverages-water, wine, milk, etc. (see TPrim. 11 2 ) . md&?in, ipp;l, or trough for the olives ; see O IL, 21
Hence n ~ q ph s p is Delitzsch‘s rendering of the Gk. TohJr. l o 4 [the grape juice here trickles in drops from
BoGuis K U ~d u r r (Col. 2161. whilst their resoective the ‘i6i( into the gath] Jer. M6‘Zd F@. 281u [grapes

I
, I I

The use of grapes in and;ent, as in modern TheproDnio;r, a,is connected by a channel in the rock with the
larger trough, 6, IO ft. by 8 ft., the floor of which is lower by 3 ft.
times, was The grapes be eaten in than that of a. From 0. aeain. t w o channels lead into two vats
their natural state in.&. , _ Nu. 6 2 .
$- <I
AV I at a still lower level. connected with each other hv a third
channel; the smaller of the two vats, c, is about 7.4 it. square
10. U30 Of moist ,), or they might be exposed to the and 4 ft. deep, whereas d measures Over 5 ft. square and is
grapes‘ sun and used as raisins (F RU I T , § 4). or
~

6.4 ft. deep. In the floor of the larger vat, a circular hollow has
finallv ,
the”
,
miFhto
be trodden in the Dress and the i&e been sunk at one side, easily recognisalAe in the sectional plan,
converted either into grape-syrup or dibs (H ONEY , § I to allow the last drops of the must to he scooped out. This is
( 3 ) ) or into wine. The last of these processes alone evidently the ‘little xat’(fia?;? lb) of the Mishna. A some-
concerns us here. what similar arrangement of three vats, the floors of which were
paved with a mosaic of ‘ rough white tessersz set in plaster’ was
The ancient winepresses, traces of which are found in unearthed with several other presses in 1889 at Tell-eg-Safi
every part of Palestine, ffom Dan to Beersheba, have (PEFQ ,600, p. 34 with plans, 32f: ; ’see this volume jassiwz
ll. Two- proved the most permanent memorials of for numerous vats laid bare by the explorers).
troueh the Hebrew occupation, and show that the In vineyards where the nature of the ground or other
land of promise was indeed a ‘ land of wine considerations did not permit of rock excavation, pits
press’ and vineyards’ ( 2 K. 1832). Two adjoin-
ing vineyards might have one press in common (DZmai
67). The typical winepress consisted of two troughs
of varying dimensions, at different levels, hewn out
(q~, Is. 5 3 RV) of the solid rock, the upper of the two
having the larger superficial area, the lower the greater
depth.l In the upper trough, which we shall call the
pressvat (na,gath, in AV variously rendered press, wine-
press [sometimes in one word, sometimes in two] and
winefat) men and women trod (SI?) the grapes, the
expressed juice flowing by a channel (Ti+ Ma*&Zr.1 7 )
through the intervening rock into the lower trough or
winevat ( 3 2 yPke6 ~ ;see Schick‘s diagrams reproduced
below). This distinction between the gath and the
y&6 is not always observed by the O T writers, yt?@e6
being occasionally used to denote the pressvat (Is. 16 IO
Job241r) whilst either may be used by metonymy for
the whole winepress, as may be seen from the names of
localities now wifh gath (Gath, Gath-hepher, etc.), now
with yC&6, as Zeeb’s winepress (Judg. 725) and the
king’s winepresses (Zech. 1410)in the neighbourhood of
Jerusalem. A third term, q s , pzirih, which may be
rendered winetrough, is used as a synonym both of
gath (Is.633) and of y&b (Hag. 2 16 reading as in AV
n:ig?-the RV rendering ‘ vessels,’ following d and
Vg., is not an improvement). By N T times yP&6 as
the name of the winevat had become almost, if not
altogether, obsolete, its place being supplied by lis, 6 6 ~
(Mishna passim)-guth, however, remaining for the
pressvat. Occasionally, however, we find gath used in
the Mishna for the winepress as a whole, with the two
troughs or vats designated respectively the ‘ upper’
vat (n$\y: n!) and the ‘lower’ vat (n$nnng n!, TPium.
8 9 Ma‘&?. 1 7 etc. ). In &$ the uniform rendering of
Rath is X ~ v 6 s(also Mt. 2133 Rev. 1419f: 1915), which I

is also used to represent y 4 e 6 in some passages, whilst


in others we find for y@eb the more exact 8aoX.i)vrov
__
(Is. 16 IO Joel 3 r41 13 Hag.
Mk.121).
- 2 17 Zech. 14 I O ; also l FIG. I.-Ancient wine-press. (From the Palestine
Exploration Fund, QS,1899.)

were dug in the ground (Mk.12 I RV, ‘ a pit for the


Whilst a press with two vats seems to have been in winepress,’ Mt. 2133),l which were then lined with
general use, several instances are known of an arrange- masonry or cement and coated with pitch (see ‘Kb6dih
12. Three- ment with three and even four. Thus the Zirih, 6 1 1 , where the name Euth SeZ &dyes3 D;! 5w n?, or
troup~ late Dr. Schick has given a description cement-vat, is given to this kind of press). An excellent
press* (PBFQ, 1899, p. 41 J ) ,with plans here re- specimen, probably of the thirteenth century B.c., was
produced, of an elaborate press discovered discovered by Bliss at Tell el-Hesy ( A M o u n d of Many
by him at ‘Ain KSrim, to the SW. of Jerusalem. Cities, 6 9 5 , with illustr.). The vats, of which there
Here we have a trough a,about 7 ft. square, into which were three, were CircuZar. The uppermost had a
1 Of the modem Syrian winepresses it is said that ‘if the 1 That the Avvdr of this parable was not rock-hewn as k
upper trough be 6 ft. long by 5 broad [and a foot and a halfdeep] generally assumed, is evident from the context of Mt. 25dwhere
the lower :ne will he about 4 ft. long by z ft. broad, hut about the same expression, ‘dug the ground,’ ;pu[rv y+ (so BN) is
3 ft. deep. G. M. Mackie, B i W Manners and Clcstonrs, 1898. used.
531’ 53’”
W I N E AND STRONG DRINK
diameter of 6 3 ins., walls of mud, and a floor of has, in the writer’s opinion, recently been laid bare at
cement sloping gently towards a cup-like hollow, the Telles-SHfi(PEFQ, 1900.p. 31f: with plans). It consists
little vat ’ described above. The second vat of the of ’ a floor of rock, roughlyrectangular, about 42 ft. long
series had also a diameter of over 5 ft. and walls of by 1 6 ft. 8 ins. broad. It has been smoothed level and
brick with a floor of cement consisting of pebbles sunk to a maximum depth of 5 ins. below the surround-
imbedded in lime, sloping rapidly towards the outlet ing rock outcrop.’ The many cups scattered over the
into the lowermost of the vats, a small pit lined with floor (cp a similar series of cups at Tell-el-Judeideh, ib.
rough stones and in the side of which was a stone spout. 249. with illustrations) were evidently for receiving the
A third species of press was used from time im- juice expressed from the grapes by their own weight.
memorial in Egypt, and is attested for Palestine, where This has always been considered to produce a quality
it bore the name gath ?el ‘Z!, yy
13. Wooden wooden press (‘AbJd. Z i r . 2.c.). As re-
s$np. or of wine superior to that obtained by treading the grapes,
and was termed ~ p 6 ~ u by p a the Greeks, and protropum
press. presented by Wilkinson (op. cit. 1385) this by the Romans (Geopon. 6 16, Pliny HN 14 85 ; cp
was simply a large wooden trough raised considerably Hesychius’ definition of YXEGKOS cited above, 3).
above the ground and furnished with spouts through The many cup-like hollows in the floor of the mi+i& suggest
which the must flowed into the receiving-jars. In the a new explanation of the unique term ?4e7 (Ex. 2029 [z8] lit.
particuiar specimen reproduced by Wilkinson ropes are ‘ t h y tear’ [YO71 E V ‘ thy liquors,’ @ daapxZc AqvoC, so Pesh.).
seen hanging from a wooden roof, by means of which The hollows in question may very naturally have been termed
those treading the grapes supported themselves. A the ‘ eyes’ of the mi+ik (cp ‘ the seven eyes upon one stone ’ in
the difficult passage Zelh. 8 9), when the liquid collected in them
modern press of the same type is reproduced in Van would as naturally have been called the ‘tear. There are
Lennep. Bible Lands [1[875] 118. It is possible that the analogies in other languages for this application of the word
yLkeb of Is. 5 z is to be iinderstood not as a whole press, ‘tear,’ as in the Arabic dam‘atu-Z-Rami(Konig Stilistfk, etc.,
106) and the Spanish lagrima, the name for $ne made from
but as a rock-hewn vat (such as vat No. 4 at Tell-e:- grape juice which has exuded without pressure (Redding,
~

Safi, PEFQ, 1 9 0 0 , p.,33$), and the baoXdvrov of Mk. op. cif. 58).
121 as a cemented pit, both intended to receive the The treading of the grapes was accompanied by
juice expressed from a wooden press such as that now much merry shouting and singing on the part of the
described.l treaders (n*??$-in later Hebrew $ i y . women treaders
On the approach of the vintage season (fipkpar nhig, TPrzim:34), a proceeding several times referred to
rpvyqroD, Ecclus. 2427, 6 K U L ~ TGV ~ S KapaGv, Mt. 21 3 4 ,
in OT. The vintage-shout even received a special
’*’ nim? nyd, Chigigah 3 4 ) , which corresponded
G*pe fairly with our September, whole families
harvest* repaired to the vineyards for the more
name, the AZddd ( 1 ~ 2 , Is.1610 Jer.2530 4333). A
snatch of a vintage song is preserved in Is. 658 :
‘Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it.’ The Greek
expeditious gathering of the fruit, sleeping in booths, translators, as is well known, read the titles of Pss. 8 81
and living largely on the ripening grapes. I t was the and 84 as nk?? $p, which they rendered hakp TGY hqv&
most joyful time of all the Hebrew’s year (Is. 16 I O ).
The ripe clusters (nh3it;n) were either nipped off ( y ? ~ , (Jerome, p r o [or in] torcuLunribus), evidently regarding
the Psalms in question as vintage hymns, corresponding
Pi’&7 4 ) , or, more us&lly, cut off ( T a ) with a curved to the fipvor 6 n A ~ v r o cof the Greeks, a view adopted in
knife ($, Joel 3 [ 4 ] 1 3 , Ohdl. 181: Gplaavov, Rev. 1419 ; recent times by Baethgen ( H K 1 6 ) . l
E V ‘ sickle ’). Hence is derived the special name for The grapes having been trodden as thoroughly as
the grape harvest, i’a?, b@<r (cp 7x3, the grape- possible with the feet-the juice thus expressed was
gatherer, Jer. 69 499 ; rpuyGv, Ecclus. 3025 [%IS]), termed by the Romans musfum lixiuum
although s ~ e &dfir,, strictly the corn-harvest, is some-
16. - a further flow was obtained by piling
of wine. the husks and stalks in a heap (nmn, ‘Ab.
times applied to the vintage (Is. 169 1711 185 Joel3 [4] - ._ -
1 3 , ‘ put ye in the sickle for the harvest is ripe ’). %ir. 4 8 etc. ) in the middle of the pressvat. Flat stones,
The grapes destined for the manufacture of wine or planks of wood, were laid upon the top of the tuppzid&,
were carried in baskets (sg, Mishnapussinz, n?p?g, . . Jer.
1L Spreading- 69 AV, see, however, RVmg. and art.
BASKET) to the press where they were
immediately trodden out, or, as is still
a common practice in Syria and other wine-producing
countries, spread out for some days3 on the p i n or
spreading-place (cp F RUITS, § 4, with footnote), where
the grapes were laic1 either on the bare ground or on
vine leaves ( Tohsr. 104,f ). The mi&& was generally,
if not always, close to the press, so that the juice
exuding from the grapes, under their own pressure might
trickle into the vat (n>> qe?, id. 1 0 5 ) . The object of
this proceeding was to increase the amount of sugar
and diminish the amount of water in the grapes (see
Redding, A History . . , of Modern WinedJ)[1851],
55). with a view to the production of a specially sweet
wine, like the pi~h (.jhraur6v) of M&zE@th 8 5. An
ancient mi@k or spreading-place with its adjoining vat
F IG. 2.-Modern contrivance for pressing grapes in Palestine.
1 Is it possible that$&& (Is. 63 z ; seeabove) was the special
desi-nation for a press of this description? and the whole was subjected to pressure by means of a
a ?he unit of the prophet’sfigure in this verse has hitherto
been maired g y the commentators taking &&sir in its usual sense wooden press-beam (ngg h e y , Shubb. 19 ; TohJr. OS),
of corn harvest, and consequentlyrendering maggdl by ‘sickle.’ one end of which was fixed into a socket in the wall of
I n reality the reference is to the grape harvest and (6~ p ~ y l l r 6 s )
the gatherer’s knife. This view of the passage preserves the the pressvat, as shown in Schick‘s diagram reprodnced
unity of the figure and is confirmed by Q5 and the author of above, whilst the other end was weighted with stones (see
Revelation (14 19,f), and by the fact that the onlyother instance the illustr., fig. 2. of the same procedure at the present
of hj?, in the sense of ‘ tB3 be ripe,‘ refers to the ripening of day. Mackie, Bible Manners and Customs, 45). The
grapes (Gen. 40 IO).
3 At present from five to seven days, near Hebron even for 1 Specimens of modem vintage songs in Arabic are given by
sixteen days ZLJPV 11 170. Dnlman in his Palertinisclrer DizuGrr ( ~ p o r )z 8 , f i
53’3 53’4
WINE AND STRONG DRINK
wine obtained from this second pressing, which pro- modern red wine of Syria is said to complete its first
duced the musturn tmtiwurn of the Romans, was of fermentation in from four to seven days, and to become
course much inferior to that obtained from the mustum drinkable after the lapse of from two to four months
Zixivum. Still lower in the scale must be placed the (zDpV11171 ; see below, 5 21).
beverage termed in!, tdmed (so pointed by Dalman, The scum which was thrown up during the process
Arum. -Neuhedr. W$rterd.,s.w. who derives the word
~
of fermentation was removed from time to time. the
from the Latin ternturn), which was prepared by technical term for which was m p
pouring water upon the skins and stalks after they had
18. straining, ( & Z ~ - Y 1. 7 4 I etc.). The later Jewish
been pressed (Ma'&+-. 5 4 6), or upon the lees of legislation decreed that the new wine
generous wine (Shabd. 202) and allowing the whole to was not admissibie for the drink offering until it
ferment (y'm;, Ma'& Sh. 13), precisely as in the had stood for at least forty days in the fermenting-jars
manufacture of the (ora of the Romans. T h e d w a s ('Edziy.6 I ; Bid. Bath. 97 a ; Targ. / e m s . I [Pseudo-
also prepared from grapes that had become atrophied Jonathan] on Nu.287, where after rendering E k u r by
on the vine ('OrZZ 18). Some such wine of poor quality 'old wine' it adds : 'if old wine cannot be had, let
may be intended in some cases by the ynh, &ima, of wine forty days old be poured out before the Lord ').
On the expiry of this period, then, the wine was
the OT (AV ' vinegar '), which like Zora was the viaum
assumed to have sufficiently settled to allow of its being
qperariurn or workmen's wine (Ruth 2 14).
Proceeding now to the preparation of the ordinary racked off into smaller jars (is, I&, ic;2, 5;:, for all
varieties of wine, we are met by the somewhat reniark- which see Krengel, op. L i t . ) corresponding to the Roman
l,. Fernen- able fact that o f ,the two hundred or amphorze, and into wine-skins (1~3). The skins were
more biblical references to wine, only preferred to the jars where the question of transport
tation. two or three refer specially to any of the was concerned (Josh. 9 4 I S. l a 4 Judith 105 etc. ). In
many processes in its fermentation and maturing. We order to purify the new wine from the lees (D*@) or
are accordingly dependent on the more numerous and deposit of husks, stalks, etc., that had settled at the
more explicit statements to be found in the Mishna, bottom of the fermenting jars, it was poured through a
which apply strictly to the procedure of the second strainer (1;: sf nv&, KiZ. 253 and often), which might
century A.D. But the methods then in use are of so be of metal, as in the passage cited (see Becker's
primitive a character that they may safely be used to GaZZus, Eng. ed. 490, for illust. of a fine metal roiurn
illustrate the procedure of a much earlier period. In viaan'um).or of earthenware (KiZ.38), or more fre-
the case of small vineyards, it was perhaps possible to quently a plain linen cloth ( i p ~Shadb. , 202 =uouGdprov),
allow the must to ferment in the winevat, fermentation, the Roman saccus vinarius. T o strain wine was
in the warm climate of Palestine in September, com- termed p,?! (Is. 256 ' wines on the lees well strained')
mencing a few hours after the expression of the juice.
Thus in *qbJtk 426 the man that learns from a young and (Mishna, passim), in N T 6ruXf{u (Mt. 2324 also
and immature teacher is compared to one 'that eats d of Am. 66 rbv GruXiuphov oivov, which suits the
unripe grapes and drinks wine from his vat ' (in?! parallelism better than the MT).' A striking figure
After the first and most active stage of the fermentation, employed by Jeremiah to denote the even tenor of
technically known a s the ' tumultuous ' fermentation Moabite history informs us that it was the custom to
(Redding,09.cz't 62), was completed in the vat, the ' fine ' the new wine by pouring it at intervals from one
new wine was drawn off ( ~ b nHagg.
, 2 16, in the Mishna. jar to another. 'Moab has been at ease from his
I\!) and transferred to skins (Job 3'2 19 Mt. 9 17 and lis, youth, and has settled on his lees [cp the similar figure
Zeph. 1121 and has not been emptied (plrn &) from
see BOTTLE, I ) or jars for the so-called 'after-
fermentation.' It is impossible that the must could vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into captivity :
ever have been put into skins to undergo the whole therefore his taste remains in him, and his scent [the
process of fermentation, as is usually stated, the action modern " bouquet "1 is not changed. Therefore behold
of the gas given off in the earlier stages of the process the days come, says YahwB, when I will send
being much too violent for any skins to withstand. tilters [ P - N ~ ,from a?:, to tilt over a vessel in order to
Where a large quantity of grapes had to be trodden, it pour out its contents ; see RV'"g.1 and they shall tilt
was necessary to relieve the winevat by transferring the him, and they shall empty his vessels and break his jars '
must immediately to earthenware jars, of which the Jews (Jer. 48 I.$). Care had to be taken, on the other hand,
possessed a large variety (see Krengel. Das Hausgerut in lest this frequent ' tilting ' should set up acetous fer-
der MZnah, pp. 48fl). The most frequently mentioned mentation and turn wine into vinegar. The frequent
is the n.?~. +iibith, corresponding to the Roman doZium, 19, No old, references to this danger in the Mishna
a large full-bellied jar with a wide mouth, of the. type show that the Jewish wines were not
wines, calculated to keep for a long period.
represented under POTTERY, Fig. 3, No. I , intermediate
in size between the smaller 12, Rad ( K ~ G o E ) and the Indeed wine was already ' old ' when a year had passed
from the time when it had left the winepress. 'Old
larger D@, pi@ (&?os). T h e jars, which had previously wine ' (p; ; cp the similar use of ?raXarbs absolutely in
been lined with pitch, were placed beneath the spout of Lk. 539) we read in the Mishna (Biib. Bath. 63) ' is wine
the vat if it had one (see the Tell el-Hesy vat above of the previous year ' - i . e . , of the vintage last but one
described), or were filled-but not to the brim (MPnd+. -' very old wine (@) is wine that is three years old,'
86)-bymeans of the md+a;r (ynp, Toh&. 107) or dipper,
L e . , according to Jewish reckoning, of the vintage last
a bowl-shaped vessel like those used in Egypt for the but two, in other words from two to three years old.
same purpose (illus. Wilkinson, op. cit. 1 387 ; cp POT- ' New wine,' accordingly, would apply only to wine of
TERY , Fig. z , No. 6). Schick's diagram above shows
the immediately preceding vintage. Probably the
at e a special cavity in which the jar was placed to be ordinary custom is reflected in the statement in the
filled. The jars were then set aside for the contents to book of Jubilees ( 7 T f:) that Noah prepared the wine of
ferment. The active fermentation of the Roman wines his vineyard in the seventh month, and kept it in a jar
lasted about nine days, according to Pliny, whilst the
until he offered it on the following new year's d a y ;
that is to say wine which had begun to ferment, say, on
1 Here, and elsewhere in the Mishna, however,ydyin may be the first of October was considered ready for use about
used instead of the now obsolete tirG to denote the unfermented
must, in which case the aphorhm throws an interesting sidelight the middle of the following March.
on the Jewish appreciation of unfermented wine ! 1 Ignatins is fond of the metaphor from straining or filtering ;
a From Abdrilr Zdrrilr 4 IO we learn that the jars were left see,a$ Rom., salutation, 'filtered (&08rvhrap'vorr) from every
open ; see nDp) in Strack's glossary to this tractate. stain ; ad Philad. 3.
5315 5316
WINE AND STRONG DRINK
When the wine had been sufficiently refined and now described must not be confused with the much
clarified, the mouth of the amphora, which had more elaborate process of the manufacture of grape-
previously been lined (qni) with pitch, syrup, full details of which have been given under
"*
was closed with a lid ( 7 1 0 3 ) . probably in H ONEY , 5 I (3) (cp also PANNAG).
The 'doctoring' of wines, as it is now called, was
the shape of a hollow cone (Krengel. of. cit. 50, illustr.
not unknown to the Jews, since we read of the lees of
ap. Wilkinson, op. cit. 1387). or, if the jar had a 23. Doctored a more generous wine being added to a
narrow neck, it was corked (131) with a stopper ( n ? y ;
wine of inferior quality to increase its
Mishna oft.). Both lids and stoppers were carefully wine'
strength (see Brib. M & ~ I whereI, also is
luted with gypsum or clay, pitch, wax, etc. (see the list mentioned the familiar expedient of combining a strong,
in Kel lo*).' Wineskins were fastened with a knotted harsh [ a h ] wine with one of a milder [7?] quality).
cord (Shab6. 1 5 2 ; cp dultbs B E ~ E ~ V O Job S , 329 6). The method of hastening the maturing of wines by
The jars were now ready to be stored in the wine-cellars
fumigation (Henderson, op. cit. 5 4 8 , Wilson, op. cit.
(I;:? ni-,rft, I Ch. 2727, Vg. cella uinaria, by which 9 6 8 , Smiths Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Ant.(3),29676)
Jerome also renders the in. n*p of Cant.24 [AV was also practised ; but such 'smoked wine' ( p y p 111,
' banqueting house '3). Wine shops (nv!, BZb. J4&. Mln+. 85) was, like the 'boiled wine,' admitte".with
411,'A6. ZEr. 54) were common in Jerusalem in N T a grudge as the material of the drink offering (1Mpn6/2.
times. Those of Arabia-often kept by Jews, whence Z.C.). The poet's comparison of himself to ' a bottle
the name &-nzit-frequently had displayed a sign or in the smoke ' (Ps. 119 83) is generally supposed to refer
a bush,' with which some commentators have identified to the fumigation of the wine-skin (so RVnrg.); but the
the obscure e banner ' of the ' house of wine ' in the terms are not sufficiently precise for this special applica-
passage of Canticles just cited (cp ENSIGNS, 5 I b). tion, and the reference is more probably to any skin-
The process of wine-making as above described on the basis bottle exposed to the smoke of the hearth.
of the data of the hfishna may be illustrated by two brief Of the wines most esteemed in OT times, only two
accounts of the modern process in Eastern
21. Modern lands. Writing in 1824 Henderson in his are known to us by name, viz., the wine of Lebanon
process. History of Ancient and Modem Wines thus 24. various (Hos. 147 [SI. but see Nowack, who sus-
describes the method adopted in Persia (264) : pects an error in the text [see further
'When the grapes are gathered, they are brought to the cellar, 'brands., Crit. Bib., and cp L EBANON , 81) and
and introduced into a vat or cistern, formed of masonry, and
lined with plaster, about 8 ft. in length and breadth, and 4 in the wine of HELBON (Ezek. 27 18). a locality about three
depth, where they are trodden, and the juice which flows from hours distant from Damascus, to the NW. Its wine
them is collected in a trough at the bottom, from which it is was greatly prized by the Assyrians and is frequently
immediately removed into large earthen jars, to undergo the
requisite fermentation. . .. When the fermentation has fairly mentioned in the cuneiform literature (with nine other
commenced, the murk is stirred by one of the workmen with his varieties in the list R 449-13, Del. A SS . H W B , S.W.
arms hare ; and thin operation is repeated for eighteen or twenty karbnu'). The Persian kings are said by Strabo
successive days. The wine is then strained, through coarse
sieves, into clean vessels, which are filled to the brim, and (15735) to have drunk only wine from Helbon, and
covered with light matting. In these it is allowed to remain even a t the present day it is held in repute. In the
for thirty or forty days, and when the secondary fermentation Mishna treatise MZmi@8th (85 ) five obscure localities
is thought to be completed, it is racked into smallerjars or are mentioned by name as supplying the wine most
bottles in which it can be conveniently transported. The
following extract applies to the present day. ' I n Damascus esteemed in the Temple service (see for discussion of
th: Christians use principally red grapes in the manufacture of these Neubauer, Wogr. du TaZmmud, 84f:).
wine. After the grapes have been trodden, the must is trans-
ferred with the husks to large earthenware jars, the mouths of In discussing the signification of the term Ehir
which are closed with pieces of linen. Fourteen days after- (§
.. 8). . we found that both etymology. _. and history
wards when the fermentation is completed the wine is poured 25, Date-wine. pointed to its being originally a
into smaller jars, stirred daily for two months with a rod to comprehensive term for intoxicating
prevent acetous fermentation and then strained through a thick
linen cloth. The wine is now drinkable. I t is preserved in beverages of all sorts, including wine, but that, witG
jars which are stoppered and sent to the cellar' (Anderlind in the popularisation at an early period of the word ydyiin
ZDPV 1117' [ISSS]). as the exclusive designation for the fermented juice of
In what has been said hitherto of the Jewish methods the grape, the two terms came to be regarded as mutu-
of manufacture, the ordinary quality of wine has been
ally exclusive. It was further pointed out that of all
22. 'Boiled exclusively in view. W e have also seen the intoxicating liquors, other than wine, likely to be
wine.,
(5 15) that it was usual to expose some known to the early Hebrews as a branch of the Semitic
part, a t least, of the vintage, to the sun family, date-wine was historically the oldest. I t is not
before pressing in order to increase the sweetness and till the Talmudic period, however, that we meet with
strength of the wine ; but with this exception the mode its Hebrew name, D-??? I*;, ' wine of dates ' or ' date-
of manufacture was as above described. Another
procedure which aims at improving a must that is poor wine.' This beverage is said by Herodotus (1194) to
in sugar is still in vogue in Syria and elsewhere.2 The have been the principal article of Assyrian commerce
mnst is boiled in a caldron for a short time, until it is and is mentioned times without number in the cuneiform
reduced four or five per cent in volume (see the direc- contract-tablets (Del. Ass. N W B , S.V. ' Sikaru '). The
tions from the geoponic collection ap. Henderson, op. greater part of the wine of Arabia Felix in Strabo's
cit. 41),after which the liquor is set aside to cool and time was made from the palm ( 4 2 5 ; see, further, Low,
in due time to ferment. This is apparently the (boiled Arum. Pjanzennamen, for the Arabic sakr). The
dates were first steeped in water-a modius, or peck,
wine' (S@p 111, Terum. 2 6 ; MZmi@. 8 5 ) which the
of ripe dates to three congii (about 17 pints) of water is
context shows to have been inferior to wine made and Pliny's recipe ( H N 141g)-then submitted to the press,
matured in the ordinary way from the best quality of after which the juice was allowed to ferment. The
must. The authorities, however, differed in their wine which Pliny mentions as being made 'from the
attitude to 'boiled wine.' ' It is not permissible to boil pods of the Syrian carob' (see H USKS , F R U I T , 5 14)
the must (y) of the heave offering, because its bulk is was no doubt prepared in a similar manner.
thus diminished. But Rabbi YEhOda allows it, because Repeatedly in the later Jewish literature reference is
it is thereby improved ' (TZi%mCth 11 I). The process
1 There is a decided flavour of modernity about the precan-
made to a species of cider known as taDofi&h-wine
26. apple-&,
._
( W V ~ I.?;, T t ~ z i m .11z ; Art?'?. 6 9 ,
tions against ' broaching the admiral-' or tampering with the
wine-jars in transitu, as detailed in 'A68dLih WrSz 5 3 3
2 ' In some parts, eg. Portugal, must which is too watery is
pornenanate-etc. ). In the uncertainty that attaches
concentrated by ev.aporntion in a caldron;' Thudicum, A ..--.
=inn to the identification of the tafiflzidh
(see APPLE, and cp F R U IT , ii) we
Treatise on Wines, 50 (1894); cp Wilson, Tlu Wines of the
Bidle, I IO& cannot be sure whether we have to do with true cider-
53'7 5318
WINE AND STRONG DRINK
or apple-wine, or with the cydonnrm or cydonifes of the is in the late post-exilic period that we first meet with
classical writers, which was made from the juice of the a clear reference to the diluting of wine with water.
quince. In any case the beverage was intoxicating and Thus the author of 2 Macc. remarks that ‘ it is hurtful
therefore taboo to those who took a vow of abstinence to drink wine or water alone‘ whilst ‘ wine mingled
from wine (see Nldrir. 69). From the kindred ponie- with water (oZvos 8 6 ~uuvKEpauOds)
i is pleasant ’ (15 39 ;
granate was prepared the only fermented liquor other cp 6 rendering of Bel, 33). In N T times it may be
than wine mentioned by name in the OT (unless we are taken that the Greek custom had become firmly
prepared to render E h i r by palm-wine)-viz., the ‘&isis established, since the diluting of wine is assumed to be
rimm&zim, n?,in? D - D ~(so read Cant. 82, AV ‘juice,’ the usual custom in the Mishna (B&YLZK&. i 5 82 ; ‘ i b 5 d .
RV ‘ sweet wine of [pomegranates]).’ This beverage Zrir. 55, and oft.). Wine thus diluted was termed
is described by Pliny as ‘ vinum e punicis quod rhoiten ~ undiluted or ‘neat’ wine, ’g 1:; (lit. ‘living
n ? ill;
vocant ’ ( H N 14 16), and is the p 0 i 1 ~ ~opb o s of Dios- wine’). In Niddd 27 mizizzig wine is defined as con-
corides (534). Both these wines were prepared, like sisting of ‘ two parts of water and one part of the wine
the English cider, we may assume, by crushing the of Sharon.’ In the GSm5rZ and in the Midrash, how-
fruit, probably in the oil-mill, as described in detail ever, Sharon wine is said to have been weaker than the
under O IL, 3, and allowing the juice to ferment. ordinary sorts, which were usually mixed in the pro-
It is not surprising to find, in the later literature, portion of three parts of water to one of wine (see also
reference also to various novel beverages either imported the commentaries on Shabb. SI.). These are the pro-
2,. Foreign ffom abroad, or made at home in imita- portions recommended by Hesiod for peasants m the
beverages. tion of the imported article. Thus in dog-days ( CVorhs and Days, 596).’ A refinement of
the minute directions for the removal of this custom consisted in mixing the wine with snow
every trace of leaven in the Mishna treatise on the (Negri. 1z ) , a practice which some have fonnd referred
passovers (PZ&im 3 I ) , four foreign liquors are pro- to in Pr. 2513 (see Toy i n Zoc. with reff. there). It is
scribed on the implied ground that fermented grain in further attested that it was a common custom to mix
some form or other entered into their composition. wine with hot water, so perhaps always at the Passover
These are : ‘ Babylonian Kuttab, Median ZKdr. supper (see PZsih. 713, where the hot-water apparatus
Edomite ( L e . , Roman) vinegar, and Egyptian beer’ [pplp] is specially named). Even the must in the vat was
(oinv, s;^Sos). T h e Kutfub is said to have had sour drunk mixed with water, either cold ( p i s ) or hot (p?,
milk for its basis. The Median differed from the
Mu‘isZr. 44). The Arabs also, in the period before
Palestinian SZkdr, in not being pure fermented fruit-
Mohammed, mixed their wine with cold water (half and
juice, but having an admixture of malt. The Roman
half) or with hot (Jacob, AZtarub. Beduinenleben, 102).
vinegar was also suspected of containing a similar
A study of the O T passages in which reference is
mixture. The last of the four is the beer for which
made, either explicitly or by implication, to the ‘mix-
Egypt had long been famed. Herodotus (277) is the 29. With spices. ing’ or ‘ mingling’ of wine shows
first Greek writer to refer to the Egyptians’ fondness
that the mixing in question was not
for ‘ wine made from barley,’ whilst Diodorus styles it
with water but with various aromatic herbs and spices,
fi80s, declaring that its bouquet was little inferior to for the purpose of heightening the flavour and increasing
that of wine (134). This preparation, of which the
the strength of the wine. Thus the ‘men of might’
native name was hek, is said to be as old as the fourth
denounced by Isaiah (522) did not, we may be sure,
dynasty (Birch, a$. Wilk. op. cit. 1396) and to have dilute their strong drink with water, but mingled it
been at all times the favourite beverage of the common
with appropriate spices. Indeed, we have seen some
people. It was made from barley, and flavoured by ground for supposing that Gkir itself may have been
an infusion of various plants (for further details see the
sometimes nsed to denote wine when treated in this way
references, especially to modern investigations, in the
(see 5 8, and especially the definition of Snidas there
list of authorities cited by Schiirer, GJV((9,257, and for quoted). This ‘ spiced wine ‘ is plainly specified by the
the bziza of modern Egypt, see J. Death, The Beer of
name n p ? i’,! of Cant. S z and by the n@!p ;j! of Briba
the BibZe, 1887). The Alexandrian translators found
a reference to the manufacture of beer in Egypt in Buthri 63 (cp the special term p - n ? m?, to ‘spice’
the already corrupt text of Is. 19106 (01 roioOvres ~ b v the wine, Ma‘&?. Sh. 2 1 ) . Maspero thus describes
{ X o v ; see W EAVING , 5 5). the Assyrian practice : ‘ T h e wines, even the most
It is still an open question whether the Hebrews delicate, are not drunk in their natural state ; they are
under the monarchy drank their wine neat or, as was mixed with aromatics and various drugs, which give
28. With water. customary among the peoples of them a delicious flavour and add tenfold to their
classical antiquity, diluted with strength. This operation is performed in the hall,
water (see MEALS, 1 2 ) . From the quaint expression under the eyes of the revellers. An eunuch standing
used by Isaiah to symbolise the degeneracy of his con- before a table pounds in a stone mortar the intoxicating
temporaries (122, ‘ thy silver has become dross, thy substances, which he moistens from time to time with
wine mixed with water’ [ha?, lit. ‘circumcised’]), it some essence. His comrades have poured the contents
has been inferred that in the eighth century, at least, of the amphorz into immense bowls of chased silver
the addition of water was not the usual practice. That [cp Pr. 92, d tdpauev EIS Kparrjpa rdv o b o v ] which
this is the significance of the unique phrase ‘circum- reach to their chests. As soon a s the perfumed paste
cised’-the accompanying bammuyim in the original is ready they put some of it into each bowl and care-
is probably a gloss-is proved by many analogies both fully dissolve it. The cupbearers bring the cups, draw
in the Semitic and in the non-Semitic languages, of out the wine, and serve the guests’ (Ancient Egyp
which Pliny’s castrare vinzim is the most familiar (see and Assyriu, 3 7 0 8 , with illustrs.). This class of
Marti’s list of parallels in KHC, in Zoc. ). In this con- beverages is styled aromafifesby Pliny, who enumerates
nection it should be remembered that the ancient wines the various aromatics used in their composition-
were not, like the modern, ‘ doctored ’ or ’rectified ‘ by myrrh, cassia, calamus, etc. ( H N 1419). The same
the addition of a strong spirit, and the wines of authority has much to say of the fondness of the
Palestine, in particular, may be assumed on the whole Romans for the special beverage known as myrrhina
not to have exceeded the strength of an ordinary claret. or myrrh-wine ( H N 1 4 1 5 ; cp Smith, Dict.P), 5.0.
It may be taken as a result of Hellenic influence that it ‘ Vinum,’ 2g67a), the oTvos 4upvpiuphvos of Mk. 1523
(AV ‘wine mingled with myrrh’-see C ROS S, 5 5.
1 [Or we may read 5mn, which in MH means the dark turbid 1 For other pro rtions recommended by various classical
liquor pressed out from grapes. So Barth, Naldeke, Cheyne writers see Iwan %iiller, Hand& d. k h s . Altertumswiss.
(SEOT,‘Isaiah,’ Heb., III).] 4443 b.
5319 5320
WINE ANI) STBONG DRINK WISDOM LITERATURE
and cp 11 $It. 2734), and the i i 1 p 3 5 of later Jewish and strong drink : Lev. 109 ; cp Ezek. 4421).’ Even
literature (Shir Rabbc! 4 14). its use to the extent of exhilaration is implicitly approved
Here also may be classed another popular beverage (Gen. 4334 Judg.913 Ps. 10415 Pr.317), whilst the
of the first centuries of our era in Palestine, the foreign value of alcohol as a stimulant in sickness and distress
origin of which is betrayed by its is explicitly recognised (Pr. 316 ; cp I Tim. 5 2 3 ) . T h e
views of the biblical writers on this subject, in short,
30*with honey‘ name ],$+niiyl (variously pointed=
may fairly be summed up in the words of Jesus ten
E A LZgnat.
O I Y ~ ~ L L Bp. , ad T r a A 6 2 ) , the favourite muZsum Sira (about 180 B.C.) : ‘\Vine drunk in measure and
of the Romans. As the name also indicates, we have to satisfy is joy of heart and gladness of soul ’ (Ecclus.
here a mixture of wine and honey ( TZrzim. 11I ) , in the 3128 R V ; cp v. 27. and for the converse vv. zg,f)> or
proportion of ‘four by measure of wine to one of in those of a somewhat later, or it may be contemporary,
honey,’ to which pepper was added as flavouring (‘‘4b. Jewish writer, the Pseudo- risteas: TX+V 2u T ~ U L
Eir. 30a). p e r p b r 7 p m X b u (in all things tccording to the context :
It is a remarkable fact that the plain and literal eating, drinking, and pleasures] moderation is good ;
references in the Bible to wine and strong drink are ed. Wcndland, 223). Whilst this is so, the opposition
31. Metaphors. exceeded in number by the illustra- of biblical writers to immoderate indulgence in wine
tions and figures borrowed from
and strong drink is too explicit and too well known to
their preparation and use. Only a few typical cases
require further elaboration here.2 The problems raised
can be here adduced. Passing by the familiar designa-
by the very different conditions of the modern world
tion of Israel as a vine and as the vineyard of YahwB, were of course undreamt of by the biblical writers.
we have in the treading of the winepress a frequent and A. K. S. K.
expressive figure of the divine judgments (Is. 6325
Joel 3[+] q Lam. 115 Rev. 11 ~ g f .). The action of the
WINNOWING (”i ; F h h 32 Is. 3024). See AGRI-
must under fermentation suggests to a Hebrew poet CU L TURE , 5 9.
a novel metaphor to express agony of soul occasioned WISDOM LITERATURE
by the calamities of :his country (Lam. 120 211). The
folly of attcnlpting to force the ’ new wine ’ of the gospel Definition (5 I). Ethics ($3 g J ) .
Early philosophy (5 zJ). World-questions ($3$3 11-13).
into the ‘old wine-skins’ (Mt. 917 and lis), the worn- The Sages (I 4). Decline (g 14).
out forms and formulas of Judaism, is illustrated by the Their teaching ($s 5-8). Bibliography (0 1s).
familiar figure discussed above (I 17). We have also ‘Wisdom Literature ’ is the usual designation of those
seen how the treatment of the wine while maturing in old-Hebrew writings which deal, not with the Israelitish
the wine-jars supplied Jeremiah with an image for the 1. =emtion. national law and life, but with universal
easy-going Moab, who had not been ‘emptied from moral and religious principles of all
vessel to vessel’ (46I I ~ ) but , had settled contentedly human life. It is thus sharply distinguished from the
‘ on his lees,’ like the callous insouciant contemporaries PROPHETICAL LITERATURE [p.v.] (whose central theme
of Zephaniah (112). By the superiority of old wine to is the obligation to serve Yahwk alone and no other
new (cp Lk. 539) ben Sira illustrates his preference for go?), from the L AW L ITERATURE [p.v.] (which is
a n old and tried friend over one whose friendship has mainly concerned with ritual), and from the Liturgiral
still to mature ( ~ ~ X u r o i i p uEcclus.~; [a
915 IO]). Literature [see P SALMS, etc.] (which is the expression
Perhaps the boldest metaphor is that in which the In- of religious emotion). As its lower limit we may take
toxicating properties of wine, as contained in Yahwb‘s the beginning of the Christian era-after this the
‘ cup of reeling,‘ is employed by prophet and poet (Is. Jewish thought occupies itself with other things ; it may
5 1 1 7 8 Jer.25158 Ezek.2333 Hab.216 Pss.605 758) be considered to include all reflective writings before
as a frequent symbol for confusion, bewilderment, and Philo, who forms a new category. ‘Inasmuch as it
distress. ... Drunkenness may typify spiritual blind- seeks to discover what is permanent and universal in
ness or perplexity (Is. 1914 Jer. 239). It also supplies life (which is the aim of philosophy) it may be de-
the figure for sailors of a ship in a storm at sea, who scribed as the pre-Philonic Hebrew philosophy. The
reel about the deck in bewildered witlessness (Ps. books and psalms in which it is contained, arranged in
10727); and finally it is combined with the image of what is taken in this article to be the general chfono-
the wind-tossed booth to illustrate the convulsions of logical order, are : Job, certain Psalms (such as 6 19 29
the earth upon the Judgment-day’ (Is. 2 4 2 0 ) . ~ 37 49 73 90 92 103 104 107 139 147 146), Proverbs,
This symbolism may be said to reach its highest point Ben-Sira (Ecclesiasticus), Ecclesiastes, Wisdom of
in the institution of the Eucharist. Solomon, to which may be added the earliest sayings
With regard to the attitude of O T and N T to the of the heads of schools (reported in Pir@ A-hWz). For
general question of the use of fermented beverages. it is details the reader is referred to the articles on the
32. Ideas worthy of note that while tir2 in the O T several books.
sometimes denotes the unfermented must, The Israelites, like all other peoples, must have re-
rtbout there is no trace in Hebrew literature, from flected more or less, from the moment when they
drinks. the earliest period to the close of the
a. Early Jewish attained a settled civilisation, on
N s h n a , of any method of preserving it in the un- general questions of life. The lowest
fermented state. Indeed it has been maintained that p”lo??phy; form of such reflection amears in
’ with the total absence of antiseptic precautions uopular uroverbs and fahie;. which
L .

characteristic of Orientals, it would have been impossible express, usually in a one-sided and superficial way, the
to do so’ (Prof. Macalister in Hastings’ DB 2346. in result of the ordinary common-sense experience and
this agreeing with many modern authorities). Through- observation ; such are Jothani’s fable (Judg. 98-15), and
out the OT the use of wine as a daily beverage (See the proverbs cited in I S . 101s 2 S.5 8 201s Jer. 3129
MEALS, 12) appears as an all but universal custom (=Ezek. 182). Nathan’s apologue ( 2 S. 1 Z r - 4 ) and the
(for the exceptions see N AZIRITE , and R ECHABITE : allegories in Is. 51 f: Ezek. 1 6 17 23 are of a higher
priests also, while on duty, had to abstain from wine
1 It has often been remarked that Ezekiel in his ideal sketch
of the restored temple worship makes no provision for the use of
* This name, however, may have supplanted an earlier native wine, which had from time immemorial a recognised place in
designation, since honied wine was known to the Assyrians from the ritual. [On the.daily libation of wine at the morning and
anearlyperiod see Del. .4ss. H W B S.W. ‘da8pu’and ‘duSSupu.’ evening sacrifice, see SACRIFICE, 5 35, and cp Ecclus. 50 15Jl
2 Quoted frdm a most suggestive’ aper, entitled ‘ A Tentative 2 We may note in particular the deutero-canonical writers
Catalogue of Biblical Metaphors \y Claude G. Montefiore in (c.g., I Esd. 3 4 8 , and the frequent denunciation of excess in
I Q K 3662. Ecclesiasticus) : also Philo’s treatises ‘ on the planting of Noah *
Schiirer (GJVCS),2 569) combats the generally received view and ‘Drunkenness.’ In the latter occurs the fine saying (sect.
that the Essenes also were abstainers. 32) regarding 8Kparou K a i rrav ~ p o o v ’ n+Lpprarov.
~s
5321 5322
WISDOM LITERATURE WISDOM LITERATURE
literary and moral character ; but they are moral and so far as we have exact information, only from Egypt
religious discourses (such as form the staple of the that she could have learned gnomic lore in the earlier
prophetic books) directed against particular cases of sin period, and it is precisely from Egypt (if we may judge
rather than reflections on life.' from the religious history) that she seems to have
In the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Historical received the least intellectual stimulus. It thus appears
Books there is frequent mention of 'wisdom' (mi?, that the history, as detailed in OT, gives no warrant
+Jkmdh) and ' wise rr.en' (ovxn, &Zkdmimn): I n all for supposing that, down to the close of the sixth century
B.c., there was in Israel any universal or philosophic
these cases the connection shows that what is meant by
treatment of moral and religious problems.
' wisdom ' is either the skill of the magician (Ex. 7 I I ) ,
Though there were, however, no systematic discussions
or of the artisan (Ex. 2 8 3 3510 25 z Ch. 2 6 [7] Is. ~ O Z O ) ,
of these questions in the pre-exilic and exilic periods,
or the sagacity of the man of affairs (Gen. 41 33 Dt. 1 1 3
2 S. 1 3 3 142 Is. 33). or, with larger scope, the broad
3. Growth. there was the germ of larger thought. The
and high-minded intelligence of him who is in sympathy prophetic declaration that God desires men's
love, not their sacrifices (Hos. 66),the formulation of
with the divine law of right (Dt. 46 Is. 112). In the
the principle of individual moral responsibility (Dt.
passage Is. 112 the term seems to approach very near
the meaning it has in Job and Proverbs, and this it 2416 Jer. 31 30 Ezek. 184), and the announcement of the
obligation to love one's neighbour as one's self (Lev.
might well do if, as is probable, this passage is later
1918) contain the substance of what was afterwards
than the sixth century B.C. ; but here also the context
developed into a universal religion. To a man of the
shows that the wisdom of the king is manifested in his
sixth century B.C. who recognised the significance of
equitable administration of affairs, not in his reflection
these principles it might have seemed that the natural
on life. ' Wise men ' are spoken of as a class by some
process of national growth would carry Israelitish
of the earlier prophets (Is. 29 14 Jer. 88 f. 9 I T [IZ] 2 2 k 3 ]
thought beyond the limits of nationalism to a moral and
18 18. cp Ezek. 7 26) ; but their wisdom lies in practical religious system which would transcend all that was
acquaintance with the affairs of the state and of life. A
local and temporary. There is, in fact, every reason
fundamental difference between them and the sages of
to believe that the growth of the Israelitish people in
Proverbs appears in the fact that the prophets are
ethical and religious thought was sound and continuous.
hostile to them ; they were probably men of experience
After the heroic period of struggle for a unitary concep-
and practical sagacity whose views of public policy were
tion of the divine government of the world, in which
opposed to those of the prophets, and in this regard they
the fresh spontaneous prophetic feeling played a great
belong in the same category with the ' false prophets '
part, came a time of quieter reflection, when the nation
(see Jer. 811). The opposition to the great prophets
was obliged to face the question of orderly organisation
came from various sources-among others, it would
on the basis of definite written law. The attempt to
seem, from men who rejected the prophet's claim of a
formulate principles of organisation must have forced
divine revelation (Jer. 89), and interpreted the existing
the larger problems of life on the attention of the
ttnih in their own way (Jer. 88). These may have been
thinkers of the time. How far this process would have
patriotic, conscientious, and able men in spite of the
gone, and what direction it would have taken, if the
denunciations hurled a t them by Isaiah and Jeremiah :
Jews had been all massed in their own land under an
but their wisdom concerned itself not with universal
independent national government it is impossible to say.
human life, but with the political, legal, and moral
From the sixth century, however, they were never inde-
questions of Israelitish policy. Solomon's wisdom, in
pendent except in a partial way fpr a century of Macca-
the only example of it given in O T ( I K. 316-28). is
baean rule. Moreover, what is of more consequence,
administrative ; later Jewish legend (see Wunsche, op.
the old national isolation vanished for ever ; Jews were
cit.) represents it as skill in giving and answering scattered over the whole area of Western civilisation,
riddles. Of the proverbs and songs and sayings about
and Judaea was a petty province exposed on all sides to
plants and animals ascribed to him in I I<. 59-14
the inroads of new ideas. Israelitism was a single fact
(4,29-34), nothing has survived. His reputation for
hemmed in by great peoples, Babylonian, Egyptian,
wisdom rests, no doubt, on some real fact ; he was,
Persian, Greek-it maintained itself, but not without
very likely, a man of sagacity, and may have been the
modification. The Jews were persistent and sympa-
author of some shrewd o b s e d o n s on men and things ;
thetic, gave and took, wove into their own system what
afterwards it may have become the custom to ascribe to
they got from without, and lived i n an atmosphere of
him all anonymous songs and apophthegms, summed
comparison and adaptation. From Babylonia theyseem
u p by the editor of Kings in large round numbers. In
to have received suggestions of literary work and of a
a later age, when his fame was established, his name regular liturgical cultus. from Persia the form of an
w-as assumed in certain books (Ps.72 Pr. Cant. Eccl.
elaborate angelology and demonology and the doctrine
W. Sol., Pss. of Sol.) in accordance with a recognised
of a bodily resurrection, from Egypt and Greece the belief
literary habit of the times.
in the ethical immortality of the soul, and from Greece,
Outside of Israel the centres of wisdom mentioned in
further, a touch of philosophy. Out of all these influ-
01' are Egypt, Edom or the East, Babylon, and perhaps
ences sprang that attitude of reflection which produced
Tyre(1K.5lof:[43of.]Ob.8 Jer.41 497 Is.4425 Ezek. the Wisdom Literature. The experience of the Jews
283). Egypt, from a remote time, had its moralising repeated that of many other civilised peoples-they
sages.3 Babylon was the home of astrology (Is. 4710-13). were educated by contact with their neighbours. The
and Tyre was renowned for artistic and commercial skill post-exilian Jewish thought, whose basis and soul was
(Ezek. 27) ; of Edom we know only its repute (Ob. 8 the native intellectual force of the people, was constantly
Jer. 497)-from it, a t a later time, come apparently the stimulated and broadened from without, but received its
Three Friends in Job. Of all Israel's neighbours it was, direction from the course of the national fortunes.
1 The riddle, which is a mere exercise of ingenuity, does not In estimating the literature of the ost exilian Jews two
come into consideration here (see RIDDLE). The same word features of their social position should e! borne in mind : ( I )
Though, so far a s records 50, they were not persecuted by
(n??) it is true, is used for Cimson's riddle (Judg. 14 1z)and the their conquerors till t h e beginning of the second century B.c.,
moralising discourse of Ps. 78 ; hut the different application in their political dependence probably exposed them in some
the psalm is a n indication of the advance of thought. On degree to oppression and humiliation on the part of foreigners
Hebrew riddles see A. Wiinsche, ' Die Rathselweisheit bei den and apostate fellow-countrymen ; (2) While not giving up the
Hebraern'(inJPT, 1883). agricultural life in Palestine they came more and more to live
9 Hos. 1 4 I O [9]appears to be a late editorial addition. in cities-to no small extent'in their own land, h u t especially in
3 For the Egyptian gnomic literature see Records of the Past, foreign countries (see Job29 7 31 32 and Pr. and Ecclus. passim)
and Griffith,art. ' Egyptian Literature,' in the L d r u y of the -and thus had occasion to observe and acquire the virtues and
WorZd's Best Literufuw. For Babylonian magical texts and vices of urban life. Hence, in part, the prominence given in the
riddles, see RP,and Jaeger, in Bez'trige 8. Assyn>logG, 1892. wisdom books to the insolence of the rich, to sexual immorality,
5323 5324
WISDOM LITERATURE WISDOM LITERATURE
and to the duties and dangers of the business life ; and hence, among them, especially in regard to the nature of the
also, came fuller opportunity of contact with the philoyophical divine government of the world, and in regard to the
thought of the time.
dignity and possible happiness of human life. It is
The Jewish sages or philosophersformed adistinct class
probable that a sort of academic life gradually established
. . differentiated from prophets (see PROPHET).
sharply itself.
4, The sages. priests (see PRIEST),RndSCRlBES(q.v.). Whilst in Job (12 2 15 IO 32 7) the wisdom is that of experience
The difference between the point of and tradition there is in Proverbs (12-6 22 17-21), Ecclesiasticus
view of the sage and that of the prophet or the-priest is (58 24-39 IO;, and Ecclesiastes (12 XI ) a distinp recognition of
obvious, and he is no less distinct from the scribe, if professional study and. of a body of teaching. I n the second
century B.C. there existed an incipient University (Antigonus
this term is understood to mean ( o n e learned in the of Soko and his successors) and before this there must have
scriptures.' A meniber of any one of these classes been some form of the higher teaching (cp E DUCATION, B 5).
might, it is true, be also a member of any other class : The thought of the great scholars no doubt took a wide range ;
we have recorded only so much of it as survived the revisions of
a priest might be a prophet or a scribe or a sage, and generations.
so with the others. But in becoming a sage, one There was a stirring intellectual life, of which we find
assumed a particular attitude toward life, and thought not a few traces in the extant literature.' When the
and spoke in accordance with that attitude. The Jews began to be influenced by organised bodies of
cultivation of learning and thought began with the foreign thought it is difficult to say. Of early Persian
priesthood, which was the custodian of the T ~ Y ~ The L. literary life we unfortunately know nothing, and it is not
T C Y ~ L however,
, had two sides, the ritual or liturgical, probable that Jews came into intellectual contact with
and the civil and m 1, and the priesthood soon split Greeks before the time of Alexander. Immediately after
into two divisions ~ 1 %devoted
~ themselves severally to his death Greek schools of philosophy sprang up abun-
these two classes of duties. The second class (which dantly in Egypt and Western Asia, and from them, it
soon came to include others than priests), composite in seems probable, Jewish sages got ideas which coloured
nature. in its turn called for division ; one set of men their thought. No doubt they learned something of
cultivated the study of the national code of law, becom- all the current science ; but they have left no full state-
ing necessarily expounders of the national scriptures- ments of their non-religious opinions (hints in Ecclus.
these were the lawyers or scribes ; othqs were attracted 43,Wisd. 7, etc.). Here we shall be obliged to con-
by the study of universal moral truth-these were the fine ourselves to the main points of the moral and
sages. religious thought, referring, for other ideas, to the
The aim and function of the sage are clearly described commentaries.
by Ben Sira (Ecclus.391-11) : the wise man, whilst he
Part of the thought of the wisdom books they have
meditates on the law of God, will search through the in common with preceding and con-
world for knowledge, and will gain honour and renown 5- T e a u q of temporary literature, and this may be
among all men for his acute sagipgs and his practical the SWea :the dismissed with a brief mention.
understanding. The sages made the pursuit of wisdom old IUateI'ial. T k y inherited the belief in monotheism,
the chief aim of life. For most of them (for all, so far and in the practically unlimited character of
as our knowledge goes, except Kchheleth and Agur) the the divine attributes pertaining to knowledge and power.2 For
basis of wisdom was religious iaith. This conception them, as for the rophets, God is teirible to those who violate
his commands (?ob 15 Piov. 120-31 Ecclus. 2 i 29 Wisd. 5), a
was a necessary one for the devout Jew for two reasons : compassionate, firgiving saviour io those who fear and obey
first, since God was held to be universal and absolute him (Job 5 18 Ps. 103 Ecclus. 2 I T 17 29 Wisd. 16 7). They take
ruler, it followed that he was the bestower of all gifts of monogamy for granted,Sand recognise a well-ordered family-life
and all the ordinary virtues. They retain the common view of
learning, including physical and psychological know- man as a being made up of body and soul, and possessing
ledge (Wisd. 716-21), and doubtless all the science of conscience a m freedom, while, at the same time, he is absolutely
the time; and second, so far as wisdom was regarded controlled'hy God : with their predecessors (Dt. 24 16 Jer. 31 30
as the guide to the best life, it must be founded on the Ezek. 184) they reject the old conception of the solidarity of the
family and the nation-or more exactly, they ignore it. They,
divine moral law, which sprang from God's wisdom and however, retain the tradkonal sharp division of men into the
was enforced by his power. This religious conception of two classes of good and bad. Here also should probably be put
wisdom, however, did not prevent the widest study of their silence respecting the miraculous. I n the OT, miracles
are described or mentioned only in works written long after the
men and things, if we may judge from the examples of events described. There aye iio miracles between Hezekiah and
Ben Sira and the author of Wisdom of Solomon ; there the Book of Daniel : Nehemiah says nothing of supernatural
must have been many Jews, certainly from the fourth intervention and the M a c c a b a n apparitions and signs are
century B. c. onwards, whowent outside of Israelitishlearn- recorded no; in I Macc. but in 2 hfacc. Miracles play no part
in the writings of the 'Prophets or in the Psalms, except as
ing.l There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of such reminiscences (Is. 63 12 Ps. 105 etc.) or vague expectations (Is. 11
men when they declared that the fear of YahwB was the Zech. 14 Joel 3). In the Wisdom hooks they are referred to only
beginning of wisdom : they might hold to this central is events of the ancient history, and only in Ecclesiasticus
(44 48) qnd Wisdom (10-19). In a word, neither in the gnomic
dogma, and at the same time yield to their thirst for literature nor elsewhere in the .OT does the miraculous enter
the knowledge which was to be found only in foreign into the texture of the thought.
lands and books ; they might believe that Yahwb. was Proceeding, now, to examine the characteristic thought
the teacher of foreign sages, or they might follow their of the Wisdom books. we have first to note its relativelv
bent without troubling themselves to solve the apparent charader- non-national character : it lays little
contradiction that whilst YahwB's revelation of wisdom
to his people was complete and all-sufficient, there was
ishcthought : stress on national institutions, laws,
and hopes : but it holds, to some ex-
also other wisdom which was good. A similar remark the ritual. tent. to the moral and relieious suDeri-
holds of the maxims of prudence and shrewdness ority of Israel over ail other nations.
which abound in Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus ; these, The Sacrificial ritual is referred to a few times as
though they had no immediate connection with the fear an existing custom (as in' Prov. 1 5 8 Ecclds. 34 18-20
of God, might be considered as a part of the scheme Eccles. 5 I ) , but rather with the purpose of controlling
of life which God had ordained; more probably the it by moral considerations, and faithfulness in the pay-
moralists wrote what they thought desirable, and the ment of tithes (Prov. 3 9 ) and vows (Eccles. 5 4) is
question of logical harmony did not occur to them. enjoined. The sages (like the prophets and the Gospels)
Philosophic schools, in the full Greek sense, the Jewish recognise the propriety of observing the custom ; but
sages did not form-they had no speculative philosophy
proper. There were, however, theoretical differences 1 Cp the evidences, in the Talmud, of thought which went
outside of the current orthodoxy.
2 On the apparent polytheistic conception of Pss. 53 82 see the
1 Cp Plumptre's biography of Koheleth in his B c c h i a s f e s(in Commentaries.
Canzb. Bible, 188r)and the criticism of it by Bois, in his Ori'ines 3 Israelitish polygamy had probably disappeared by the be-
d. 1. Phil, JudLo-Alexandrine, 1890. ginning of the fifth century B.C.
5325 5326
WISDOM LITERATURE WISDOM LITERATURE
they do not put it in the same category with obedience the writers. At the time when Job and the greater part
to moral principle. Such things as circumcision and of Proverbs were composed (that is, in the 4th and 3rd
the Sabbath they take tor granted, but find no occasion cents. B . C . ) the nation was tranquil-so far as the
to mention. It is noteworthy that they do not refer records go there was no persecution, there was nothing
to the private reading of the sacred books, or to syna- to call forth an expression of national feeling. In Ben
gogal services. It is certain that they were well ac- Sira's time (about 190 B.c.), the Jews had begun to be in-
quainted with the old literature, and that this had, in volved in the conflict between Egypt and Syria ; but hi5
their time, a semi-sacred character ; but reading was an Ode to Heroes (Ecclus. 44-50) seems to have been
art confined to the few, instruction was largely oral, and suggested partly by his patriotic feeling, partly by his
the duty of reading wc2s not a thing that could be admiration for the high priest Simon, then lately de-
insisted on foqthe masses, and for students it was taken ceased. Wisdom was written at a moment (about 50 B. c. )
for granted. dSynagogues hardly existed before the when the memory of scorn, insult, and oppression was
second century &c., and attendance on the weekly fresh. KBhCleth stood so far away from his nation that
gatherings was a custom which did not need to be no reference to its fortunes could be expected from him.
enjoined. Forgiveness of sin is not connected with What most particularly characterises the Wisdom
sacrifice, but with the mercy of God and obedience to *. The nature Literature is its conception of virtue
him (see, e.g., Job 8 Ecclus. 17 zjf. Wisd. 1123). This, or righteousness, and its discussion of
of virtue,
however, is not peculiar to the sages; it is a part of -
the moral government of the world.
the general Israelitish conception ; in the T6rBh there is These points we may now proceed to consider.
no sacrificial atonement except for sins of ignorance.' The sages do not enter into any formal investigation
The negative attitude of the Wisdom books towards of the nature of virtue. They assume. in general, that
sacrifices and the Temple ritual in general must be it is sincere adhesion to the moral law (Job 29-31 Prov.
ascribed to the progress of moral and religious thought. Ecclus. Wisd., pussim). This definition is not affected
All the cultivated world of the time was moving away by their eudmnonistic theory-one may look to a
from this external sort of service. This was notably the reward and yet be sincere ; nor is its reality destroyed
case in Greece and Rome, and the same tendency by the maxims of selfish worldly wisdom which are
(formulated in the Gospels) is visible in the sayings occasionally found in their writings (particularly in
ascribed (in PirkZ A-lith) to the early JeN-ish teachers. Ecclesiasticus). But in Job and Proverbs and the
The moral side of the relation between man and God succeeding books we meet a conception of the moral
was of necessity emphasised. life which, while not without a point of connection with
'l'he silence of the sages respecting Messianic hopes is the prophetic thouKht, still goes far beyond anything in
to be explained partly by their philosophic individualism, the earlier literature ; virtue is practically identified with
?. The nation. partly by the circumstances of the times. knowledge. Knowledge, it is true, is a necessary con-
There are glowing pictures of the future dition of obedience, and is so spoken of in the Prophets
of the nation in prophetic writings as late as the fourth (Is. 1 3 6 9 Jer. 422 54); but the sages treat it as if it.
century B.c. (Is. 11 Joel 3 4 Zech. 9-14); but of this were the same thing as obedience. The central fact
there is in Job and Proverbs not a word, in Ecclesiasticus in the books just named is wisdom, which is made to
only a general wish (Ecclus. 47 22 50 22-26), in Wisdom include all the duties of life from the lowest to the
only a look to the life to come (Wisd. 5 ) . The sages highest. The ideal person, he who stands for the right
held that the one thing necessary for all men was against and above the wrong, is the wise man. When
individual righteousness ; they might thus have been we recollect that in the Prophets, and to some extent in
comparatively indifferent to hopes of national independ- Job (515 37 24), human wisdom is looked on as a thing
ence and glory, they might sympathise with their suffer- alien to or opposed to God, it is evident that Jewish
ing fellow-countrymen (Wisd. 1-6) without cherishing thought, in representing wisdom as the one thing
political dreams. They may also (like the Pharisaic needful, has taken a new direction. This was the
party at a later time) have convinced themselves that doctrine of Greek philosophy, and we therefore seem
resistance to the great military powers was useless, and warranted in supposing that it was from the Greeks that
that the true mission of the Jewish people was to culti- it came, in its full form, to the Jews.' Instead of the
vate knowledge. Their attitude towards foreign nations simple demands of earlier times, the sole worship of
was not hostile, but friendly; they recognised the Yahwb and obedience to his ritual and moral laws, there
excellence, in certain regards, of the civilisation of these has now arisen a science of living, in which intellectual
peoples, utilised them by becoming their pupils in insight is the central faculty, it being assumed that he,
philosophy, and thus, while remaining Jews, became in and only he, who sees usill do. Wickedness is folly, the
a measure cosmopolitan, and began the formal fusion bad man is a fool ; the guide to right living is the sage,
of Semitic and Hellenic thought. the duty of the young is to seek his instruction. T h e
On the other hand, the belief remained that Israel moral and religious organisation of the Jews corre-
stood in a peculiar relation with God, had a special sponded to this conception of life ; there were schools
revelation of his will, and was entitled to his special like those of Athens and other Greek centres, and the
protection (Ecclus. 24 44-50 Wisd. 10-19). On this synagogue was also doubtless a house of instruction.
point there may have been diversity of view ; there is no This idea-that life is a moral training-proved to be
reference to it in Job and Proverbs. In these books permanent ; the Jews never gave it up-it was, in fact,
the name ' Israel ' does not occur, and the national an essential element in the growth of the world. But
Tdriih is not mentioned. It is hardly probable that a pious Israelite, while he accepted wisdom as the
the sages (except Agur and K6hBeth) were wholly guide of life, could not fail to identify its moral code
without national pride ; but their national feeling with the law of God, since he looked on this law as
receded before their philosophic and religious devotion the perfect expression of duty. This identification is
to virtue. It is to be noted that the prominence given accordingly made in Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus, and
in the wisdom books (omitting Eccles.) to national Wisdom. The terms 'instruction' and ' the law of
topics increases as time goes on : there is nothing of it Yahwb ' are used interchangeably, and wisdom ' itself
in Job, next to nothing in Proverbs, somewhat in IS said to be the same with ' the fear of Yahwb.'
Ecclesiasticus, more in Wisdom. This fact is probably Freedom of ethical discussion is, however, n r t
to be attributed partly to a change in the condition of
the Jewish people, and partly to the personal feeling of 1 A similar influence is visible in the stress laid, by Rab-
binical Judaism, on knowledge of the Law (Jn. 749, P~Y&
1 On this point, cp WRS ReZ. Sem.b, ch. 11; Smend. Ah. 2 5).
A Tliche ReL-Gesch. P, 21 ; Montefiore, Hib6. L e c f . Lect. 9 ; a $ 3 ) ~ occurs only twice in Job (5 zx), and $03 not at all;
also SACRIFICE, $$ 4 8 s the two terms are common in the other books.
5327 5328
WISDOM LITERATURE WISDOM LITERATURE
-
diminished by this quasi nationalistic definition of thing, known to God alone, but she has no dcminrgic
wisdom. The sages do not confine themselves to the function ; and, if the last verse of the chapter be
Prophets and the Tdriih, but seek their maxims every- genuine, the personification is half given up. In
where, chiefly by observation of actual life, possibly, Prov.8 she is the companion of Yahwe (though his
also, in such Greek and other writings as they had creature) in the primeval work of creation, in which she
access t0.l Nevertheless there is no reason to regard takes part as sympathetic friend (God's foster-child).
their acceptance of the law of Yahw& as a pretence. Ben Sira represents her as compassing the universe, only
They were perfectly sincere in treating the divine will as however, to take up her abode in Israel. The com-
the final standard of right, only they enlarged the defini- pletest philosophical personification is found in Wisdom,
tion of the law of the Lord,' making it comprehend all in which she is substantially identical vith the Stoic
the deliverances of their moral consciousness ; for those Logos. The progress in the conception is obvions ;
who would be faithful at once to their national traditions Wisdom is iinspeakably precious (Job), is the companion
and to their own convictions there was no other course. of the divine creative energy (Proverbs), is an effluence
The sages thus represent the ethical ideas and usages of from the divine glory, the all-powerful maker of all
their time, and are in this regard valuable as making a things, material, intellectual, spiritual (Wisdom) ; only
contribution to the history of ethical thought. It is also Ben Sira appears to interrupt the line of development
true that they assume the position of independent moral by practically identifying Wisdom with the Jewish Law.
tenchers, with reason and conscience as their guides ; they This interruption will disappear if his description be
do not lay claim to revelation or inspiration from God, earlier than that in Proverbs ; or if the identification of
and they appeal only to the good sense of their readers. Wisdom with the Law be regarded as showing a com-
All this is in accordance with their philosophical point pleter national assimilation of the conception. However
of view; they wrote simply as moralists, never citing that may be, the general advance in the thought remains
the Law as authority, yet by no means setting them- unaffected. That its final form is Greek is universally
selves above revelation-rather they accepted revelation, M,and the same origin is probably to be assigned to
and believed in the rightness and authority of their the earlier forms. In the more distinctively Israelitish
own teaching, and saw no incongruity in these two parts of the O T (the Prophets and the T6r5h) there is
positions.2 Of their books two (Ecclesiasticus and no personification of a divine attribute,' and we here
Wisdom) were excluded from the canon, two (Job and naturally think of foreign influence, Persian or Greek.
Eccl. ) were substantially modified by interpolations and The Jews may conceivably have got it from the Gathas
additions, and two ( Prov. a& Eccl. ) reached canonical (or, from the popular ideas therein represented) in which
dignity only after a struggle. such personification plays so prominent a rBle ; but in
The human quality of wisdom is sometimes treated the Gathas wisdom is not personified, and is not the
as natural intellectual acumen and breadth, sometimes principal attribute of God, and to none of the Amesha-
g. Human as the direct gift of God ; but there is no Spentas are cosmogonic or universal functions assigned. *
wisdom. discrepancy between these views. T h e One of the most striking features of the biblical repre-
latter belongs to the old-Israelitish theo- sentation is the conception of the world as an orderly
cratic faith, according to which all powers of body and unity, a cosmos-a conception found, however, only in
mind come immedia3:ely from Yahwh. That the gnomic the Wisdom Literature (in which certain Psalms are to
writers regard ' wisdom ' (af?$ &ohm&) as primarily an be included) ; it is clearly indicated in Job (28 38 39),
intellectual faculty appears from its various synonyms, and expressed more distinctly in Ecclesiasticus (24 42
such as 'understanding' or intelligence' ("z,?, bind), 43), Proverbs (the 'Righteous Order' of the Gathas
a shrewdness ' ( m l p , ' C m z i h ) , ' sagacity ' (a?!?, mP-
corresponds to the Jewish kingdom of God on earth,
chap. 8 ) . and Wisdom (chap. 7). This conception is
z i m m i h ) , 'practical ability ' (;~;@m, tzi&jyih). They, hardly Jewish or Persian; it is undoubtedly Greek.
in fact, treat it also as a purely natural power, subject With it we must connect the disposition (shown in the
to ordinary conditions of training and growth, and to a passages just cited, and in Pss. 104 107 139) to make
certain extent under the control of its possessor. They wide surveys of natural phenomena. The movement of
thus collocate the divine and the human points of view. thought to which it belongs was a scientific one, and
This sort of collocation or combination appears also in rested on a serious contemplation of all the phenomena
the relation, as conceived by the sages, between human of the world, including the life and soul of man. It is
wisdom and divine wisdom. Whilst in the Prophets no doubt to Greek influence that we must ascribe the
and the Law it is G d s apartness, sacredness, OP selection of wisdom (rather than power, kindness, or
holiness that is put most prominently forward, it is holiness) as the attribute distinctively representative
of wisdom that the sages think as his chief attribute. of God.
By it he is said to direct the whole course of nature The philosophy of the sages does not include
and the whole life of man. As in the beginning the psychology or moral and religious inward experience.
breath of God gave life to man, so the divine wisdom, lo. meThey have no theories of free-will, of the
filling and ordering all things, yet able to choose its ethical genesis of sin, of the way of salvation. Their
own course, enters into the souls of those who fear him, motive. interest is in practical questions of life, and in
and brings them into unison with his thought. This the pre-eminence of wisdom as the guide of
conception, indicated in Prov. 2 IO Ecclus. 6 22, is more man. Their theory of the ethical life is simple ; every
distinctly stated in Wisdom (14),as, in fact, it belongs man may do right if he will, and, if he does wrong, he
to the more definitely philosophical side of the idea, must bear the consequences ; men are divided into two
and is an approach to personification. classes, the good and the bad-every man must belong
Definite personification of Wisdom is found in Job 28 to one of these classes, and is to be treated according
Prov. 822-31 Ecclus. !24 Wisd. 7 8 (and also 10-19). In
the first passage3 she is extolled as a most precious or, indeed with the tone of the rest of the book. For reasons
stated ab&e it seems to be earlier than Prov. 8 22-31 ;, it is
1 For example, the resemblances between the Jewish gnomic probably to be put later than the rest of Job. By Bickell
books and the rv+a' I d o v 6 m r p r which go under the name of Budde, and others it is regarded as belonging, in part or i;
Menander are many and striking, though the resemblances may whole, to Job's address. This point does not affect the general
often b? accidental, and the date of the Menander material is view taken above.
uncertain. 1 The partial personification of the 'word ' of Yahwb in Is.
' I t must be recollected that at this time the full conception
2 55 .of: is not a case in p i n t ; the attribution of objective power
of revelation had hardly been formulated. to the s oken word belongs to the old popular belief (Gen. 2? 33
3 The chapter, as it stands, appears to be an interpolation. Judg. I?, z S. 21 3).
It decidedly interrupts Job's discourse, breaking the cnnnpction 2 (See C REATION , D g, end.) The date of the Gathas can
between 27 6 and 29 2 (27 7-23 does not belong to the speech of hardly be regarded as fixed with certainty. Cp ZOROASTRIANISM,
Job), and does not acccrd with Job's words as elsewhere given, OB 7.87
5329 5330
WISDOM LITERATURE WISDOM LITERATURE
to his position. This neglect of the shades of men’s to very few men ; and the author, in the practical part
characters was doubtless to some extent a feature of the of his work (chaps. 2 4 ) relies, for his motive, on the
times (the nice balancing of qualities and impulses is a rewards and punishments dispensed by God.
comparatively recent mode of thought) ; but it was due The mingling of worldly shrewdness and unworldly
in great part to the judicial nature of the moral teaching elevation in the Wisdom books is a natural result of
of the sages ; a man, they appear to have held, must be ll. The moral the circumstances. The authors of
judged by his deeds-we cannot see his heart, and we these books were practical teachers,
must estimate him by the total outcome of his thought, code. dealing with all of human life that they
that is, by his act. In the same way we may explain knew, and giving the results of their experience, observa-
the fact that no account is taken of temptation and tion, and reflection ; and they were independent thinkers,
struggle-that is the man’s own affair, with which the not absolutely bound by any code. Their independence
judge has nothing to do. It cannot be denied that this makes them all the more interesting and important,
strict external way of judging man has its advantages ; and they must be treated not as a mere mass, but as
weakness is as dangerous as badness, and we must face individuals. Their observations are coloured by their
the facts of life. On the other hand, the gnomic characters and surroundings. Ben Sira’s shrewdness
writings lose educational power by their failure to take sometimes degenerates into meanness or hypocrisy
account (as, for example, Marcus Aurelius does) of (38 17), and Kcheleth‘s experience made him one-sided
men’s inward experiences ; they press the rule home, and cynical. But the prominence given to the economic
but do not come as sympathetic helpers of the inner virtues (especially in Proverbs and Ecclus. ) is legitimate
life; they warn, but do not persuade, the bad man. and necessary. On the other hand, the Wisdom
Their appeal is simply to man’s intelligence ; if, Literature also represents the highest ethical standard
they say, he does not see, there is no help for him. of the time. Job‘s confession of ethical faith (Job
That they say nothing directly of the sense of duty is 31) leaves little to be desired, and the same may be
characteristic of OT thought in general, and of their said of passages in Proverbs (as I012 2417 2 5 z r ) ,
point of view in particular. Ecclesiasticus (4gJ 51oJ 282 292) and Wisdom (723
The Hebrew language contains no specific terms for 8 7 ) ; only Koheleth has nothing to say of the self-deny-
‘ duty ’ and ‘ conscience ’-a fact which signifies, of ing and self-forgetting virtues. This higher standard
course, not that the Israelites did not have these ideas,’ was that which the world bad reached. The process of
but only that their ethical point of view did not lead social and ethical unification, begun by the Babylonian
them so to analyse their experience as to create a empire, was carried on by the Persian and Greek
demand for such terms. These words are lacking also conquests, and the sages of all lands were at one in
in Wisdom, though the Greek language contained incnlcating justice and kindness. But no people of
certainly one of them. The sages preferred not to rely pre-Christian antiquity, as far as our records go, made
on so uncertain a thing as sense of duty; to their so varied and complete a collection.
exhortations they add a further consideration or motive. The most important and the most interesting questions
Two motives2 for welldoing are presented in the of the Wisdom-books are those which relate to the divine
Wisdom Literature. One is the individual prosperity control of the world. First in time came the general
and happiness which it confers (so the Three Friends in inquiry into the moral government of the world, and then,
Job, Prov., Ecclus., Eccl., Wisd. 3-5) ; the other is the somewhat later, the question as to the value of human life.
beauty of moral perfectness (Wisd. 7); Job himself says The idea of a universal divine control of things
nothing of motives, contenting himself with affirming appears as early as the first of. the writing prophets
his integrity. The eudzemonism of the first group of 12. Divine (Am. If. 9 7 ) . but, for a considerable time,
books is that of the O T generally.s There is a frank control of no difficulty seems to have arisen in con-
appeal to what is held, not without good ground, to be the world. nection therewith ; the accepted prophetical
the most powerful motive for the mass of men-the theory, down to the middle of the sixth
desire for personal wellbeing. As in the Prophets century B.c., was that all things were ordered in the
national prosperity, so here individual prosperity, is the interests of Israel (Is. 105 Jer. 1 I O 2514 Ezek. 2 5 3 3 ) ) . A
reward of a morally pure life. There is no reference to perplexing character was given to the situation by the
the public good, no recognition of the unity of the national disaster of the sixth century, but the theory
world or the solidarity of society, no mention of personal was not disturbed; and in none of the proposed
purity as in itself a desirable object of effort. Doubtless solutions of the problem of the day (Is. 4 0 2 Zech. 3 Is.
the writers of these books were in sympathy with the 5213-5312) was the divine justice called in question.
best practical morality of their time, and had aspirations In the course of time the progress of thought transferred
after perfection ; but, as practical moralists, they pre- the inquiry from the sphere of the nation to that of the
ferred to omit all that seemed theoretical or out of individual ; it was no longer ‘why does righteous Israel
reach, and to confine themselves to what they thought suffer?’ but a why does the good man suffer and the
would be immediately serviceable. The praise of bad man prosper?’ The old arguments were dis-
wisdom in Wisd. 7 is Greek rather than Hebrew, and, carded,’ and the philosophers addressed themselves to
from its sublimated form, could act as moral stimulus a candid examination of the facts of life. Before look-
ing at their arguments we may recall the fact that God
1 We may, perhaps, recognise the conception of conscience is regarded by them as the sole agent in the control of
in Ecclus. 142 : ‘happ~:is he whose soul (that is, whose self)
does not condemn him. Cp HEART. the world. The old notion of his local limitation
a All ethical theories are eudanonistic-they must assign a lingered (ECclus.24x0, cp Wisd. 314). though it is not
motive for welldoing, and that motive must be happiness in prominent, and the purely spiritual conception of him
some form. The important point is whether the eudaemonism seems not to have been reached ; he is never called a
is individualistic or universalistic; in the former case the man
looks to the satisfaction of his own immediate desires, in the spirit.’ a Nevertheless he is regarded as supreme and
latter case to the happiness of the world, of which he is a part.
Under the second head coma the ethical system in which 1 The ‘Satan’ of Zechariah a pears, in larger form, in the
desire to do the will of God is the motive ; for such a motive is
morally pure only when the will of God is done because it is
pro,, introduction to Job (whici is a recension of an earlier
olk-storv) but is not mentioned in the poem, nor, in this con-
morally good, that is, because it seeks the happiness of the nection, -iL any other Wisdom book.
whole. 2 No formulation of this conception is found in any Jewish
3 The NT system differs from that of the OT and the writing before the end of the first century of our era Un. 4 241,
Apocrypha (except Wisdom) in that the reward offered is at which time the local idea of God still existed (Jn. 4 20). The
eternal salvation and the obligation is more definitely recognised doctrine of the immateriality of God (as v o k ) is as early as
to bring it withh reach of all men, whereby a universalistic Aristotle, and its adoption by Jews and Christians was probably
character is given to the desire for happiness. The later OT furthered by the influence of the later Platonists and Stoics (as in
prophets also look toan impartation of Israel’s blessedness to all Philo and the Fourth Gospel). On the position of the Talmud
nations. see Weber, Jud. TheoL chap. 11.
5331 5332
WISDOM LITERATURE WISDOM LITERATURE
in himself sufficient, and the disposition of the sages is definite conclusion. ‘The indictment of the divine
to ignore intermediaries between him and the world. government is put sharply by Job, who appeals to
The old spirit of Yahwe,’ which plays so prominent a ordinary observation and to his own experience. The
part in the early narratives, is here not mentioned.’ traditional defence, in the mouth of the Three, is
Xngels appear rarely in Job, Ecclesiasticus, and comparatively monotonous and weak ; with the exception
Wisdom. and not at all in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes ; of the suggestion of Eliphaz (Job5r7). that the suffering
when they are introduced, it is not as messengers sent of good men is disciplinary, their discourse is little more
to protect and guide heroes and prophets, but as thau the assertion of a theory, and Job remains un-
attendants on the person of Yahwk.2 Of the mass of convinced (Job3135-37). Elihu, besides repeating the
demons of the old popular belief only Satan survives in orthodox view, expands the suggestion of Eliphaz. and
the Wisdom Literature, and he is there (if we omit the declares that the unsearchableness of God is a sufficient
prologue of Job) mentioned only once,3 and in the answer to all objections ; and this last is the point urged
latest book of the group (Wisd. 224). The r61e ascribed in the Yahwk-speeches.l The Book thus practically
to him in this book is significant. The Hebrew heavenly gives up the general question as insoluble; Job
Satan, the adversary of Israel and the accuser of men, maintains, against the Friends, his sceptical position,
passed gradually, probably under the stimulus and and only yields to the representation of the Yahwk-
direction of Persian demonology, into the form of an discourse which declares the phenomena of the divine
independent Power, at enmity with God and man.4 government to be incomprehensible for man : and the
Wisdom gives us the earliest extant formulation of the explanation of Elihu, since it does not touch on the
conception (forced on Jewish thinkers by their sense of prosperity of the wicked, ignores half the problem.
G o d s absolute justice) of a demonic author of moral The Book of Job is the only serious contribution made by the
evil. In general, it may be said that the theology of earliest generations of Jewish philosophers to the problem of a
theodicy. I t shows that the problem existed and was rap led
the sages was free from ethically obstructive anthro- with. The arguments of the discourses of Elihu a n d Ya\w&
pomorphism. In their system the older apparatus of were nodouht accepted by some Jewish thinkers, satisfactory;
intermediaries was supplanted by the more refined but those of Job must Lave appealed to others. His scepticism
appears to he purely Jewish; there is, so far as we know, no
conception of Wisdom ; in Wisd. 106 that is ascribed outside source, Babylonian, Persian, Egyptian, or Greek,
to Wisdom which in G-en. 1 9 is ascribed to angels5 whence it may have come. The man Job was the creation of a
It was doubtless the Jews’ exalted conception of the ewish genius who not unaffected by the culture of his time,
moral purity of the One God that led them to the ioldiy faced ;he p;ohlem presented by the monotheistic faith
~~
but found no adequate solution. For a parallel to his thought i;
discussion of the justness of his his own age we have to go to India. (Cp J OB [BOOK],B( 8 15.)
13. Historical government of the world. The Greeks
occasion for appear not to have gone into this 2. The Book of Job had no immediate successor.

discussion. inanirv. Thev were esDeciallv attracted For some reason it did not appeal to the next following
generations.2 It may be surmised that the practical
by such problems a\ tf;e c o n s t h i o n oiman, the nature moralists regarded such speculations as futile, as, indeed,
of virtue, the organisation of society. Their conception they were not in keeping with the Jewish genius. The
of God did not force them to hold him responsible for authors and compilers of Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus,
everything : when they considered his nature, they avoiding discussions of divine justice, assume that the
either (like Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics) contented government of the world is righteous, that the compensa-
themselves with assuming his perfect justness, and tion, in this life, for virtuous and vicious conduct is
referring evil to other sources,6 or (like the Epicureans) moral. It is substantially the pre-exilic view ; but it is
rejected or ignored the supposition of a divine oversight refined and broadened. The earthly fortune of men is
of the world. For the Jewish philosopher, however, to regarded not baldly as the result of an arbitrary divine
whom life was God, it was a necessity to attempt to decree, but as also the product of natural social laws.
harmonise God and the world. The historical occasion These laws, it is true, are thought of as made by God,
for the Jewish discussion seems to have been given by so that all compensation goes back to him ; nevertheless
the condition of society in the fourth century B . C . , man’s freedom and the control of natural law are
when Jews, scattered throughout the already decadent recognised. This position, namely, that God works in
Persian empire, had frequent occasion to note the and through society, relieves the old theory of much
apparently irrational inequalities of men’s fortunes ; the that is difficult. It was the product of deeper reflection
question arose : Does a man’s lot in this life bear any on life, induced by the wider social connections of the
relation to his moral character? Jews, under the more or less definite guidance of Greek
We may distinguish four stages in the progress of habits of thought. Thus, for a considerable period the
the discussion ; in the first three the future life is body of Jewish moralists appear to have come to the
ignored, in the fourth i t is considered. conclusion that speculations about divine justice were
I. In the Book of Job the question is argued from useless, and that the only practical position was the
several different points of view,’ but without reaching a assumption that the world is governed morally.
1 The expression ‘spirit of God,’ in which the ‘spirit’ is part 3. It seems to have been during the second and the
of God’s person, occurs rarely (Wisd. 1 7 9 17 1 2 I Pr. 123, first century B . C . that doubt reappeared in Agur and
perhaps in Job328; the genuineness of Job334 is doubtful); KGhdeth, under the form of philosophic agnosticism.
its anthroponiorphic tone may have made it distasteful to the The Book of Job had adduced the incomprehensibility
sa es
5 That they did not vanish from the popular faith is evident of God as a motive for reverence and trust : Agur and
from Daniel, Enoch, and the later literature (see ANGELS). I(6h6leth appear to make it a ground of indifference.
3 Probably not in Ecclus. 21 27. The isolation and the consequent obscurity of Agur’s
4 This development appears to have occupied several centuries :
Satan appears as a great demonic Prince first in the Similitudes words (Prov. 301-4) make it difficult to define his
of Enoch (53 3 54 6). position with exactness ; but he seems to be satirismg
6 The question as to how God created the world is not or protesting against the pretensions of certain theo-
discussed ; the picture of the divine creative act in Job38 7 logians who undertook to explain the method of the
(cp 267),ap ears to he to some extent independent of the
account in 8 e n . l . God is conceived of always as standing
outside of and above the world except perhaps in Wisd. 7. dialogue ; it is immaterial, for our purposes, whether they were
On the use of mythological idea; in the Wisdom books see the added by the author of the dialogue, or by other persons, nor
Commentaries on these books, and on Isaiah and Psalms, and will the hearing of the argument he seriouslyaffected if the man
H. Gunkel, Sclrcipfuun~u. Chaos. See also CREATION, g 21. lob he surmosed to remesent. in whole or in vart. the nation
Israel [cp j b ii.].
~
. I . I

6 As, for example, to matter and to had men. Neither of


these explanations could he accepted by a pre-Christian Jew 1 The Prologue and the Epilogue appear to have nothing to
who held with firmness to the national faith. do with the real argument.
7 The Book will here be treated simply as a collection of 2 The argument of the man Job is ignored in succeeding
discussions, without inquiry into its composition. The addresses Jewish literature, except by Kcihheleth and Agur. In the NT
of Elihu and Yahwi may be regarded as appendages to the Job is mentioned only (Jar. 5 11) as an example of endurance.
170 5333 5334
WISDOM LITERATURE WISDOM (BOOK)
divine government. K6hCleth similarly sees in the with the existence of moral evil was thus left untouched.
control of natural law the impossibility of coming in Here, again, it was doubtless in large measure the
contact with G0d.l Job had affirmed this impossibility overwhelming sense of divine absolute authority which
in the form of an agonising cry after God ; these men made the Jews intellectually unfriendly to such a n
set it forth coolly as a philosophic thesis. Neither of inquiry.1
them directly calls God's justice in question; but The phase of Jewish thought represented .by the
K6hBleth. in his sweeping and sardonic survey of the Wisdom books lasted into the first century of our era,
injustices of life, silently assumes that the world is 18. Decline of ending with Philo of Alexandria. It is,
conducted neither rationally nor morally. If he had the Wisdom- however, to be observed that his ex-
not been a Jew, he might have passed lightly over the positions take the form of commentaries
theocratic difficulty : being a monotheist, he was bound Literature. on the Torah-he thinks it necessary
to hold the creator responsible for his creation. He to rest his conclusions on an inspired authority-and
may not employ technical philosophic terms ; but his that, on the other hand, his system is simply Greek
whole conception of the world is philosophic. He thought in a Jewish dress. The spontaneous philo-
seems to have been an isolated thinker. His book sophical teaching of the Jews reached its culmination in
was too interesting to be ignored; but it was greatly the Wisdom of Solomon (which was probably composed
modified before it passed into the hands of the general before the beginning of our era). As early as the
public [Cp ECCLESIASTES, KOHELETH]. middle of the second century B. c., the national interest
4. It is possible that KGheleth intends to deny and began to turn in other directions-political and legal ;.
reject definitely the doctrine of ethical immortality which the Messianic enthusiasts wrote apocalypses and hymns,
was probably in his time making its way among the and those who were more concerned with the social
Jews. Certainly his affirmations of the emptiness of organisation of the nation developed the jurisprudence.
the future life are many and pointed, and they stand, The troublous times which succeeded cramped the
by their dispassionateness, in marked contrast with the creative power of the people. Few of the gnomic
passionate hopelessness of Job. However that may be, sayings of the Pirki A-h2h can be called philosophical,
Koheleth is the last of the Jews to ignore the life to come. and later collections, such as the A&hu6et of Ben Sira,
The new doctrine gained general acceptance, is taken show no originality. The spirit of the Wisdom Literature
for granted in Wisdom, and its reception closed the was not revived till long afterwards, when the Jews.
discussion of God's justice. In declaring that the future began to devote themselves, under different conditions,
will wipe out the apparent injustice of the present to the study of Greek, Arabian, and modern European
Wisdom virtually affirms, with Job and KGhBleth, that philosophy. The august figure of the creative Wisdom
this injustice exists to human sight, and is inexplicable (almost an hypostasis) is not referred to in the N T , and
when the present alone is considered. It thus virtually plays little part in later Jewish thought.2 The philo-
denies the position of Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus.a sophy of the earlier time remains a unique and inspiring
The question of the value of human life was closely creation of the Jewish mind.
connected with that of the divine control, and its discus- Besides commentaries, articles in dictionaries, and histories of
14. Value of sion followed the same lines. What old-Hebrew literature and of old-Hebrew religion, the following
works may be mentioned : Gfrorer, PhiZo,
may be called the healthy natural view 16. Bibliography. 1831 ; DBhne, ]iid..-Arex. ReZifiionsphiZo-
human life. -namely, that life may be hononrable sophie 1834. Bruch Wekheitskhrc d.
amd happy if it is morally and religiously good-is He6rEer, 1851. M. Nlcola; Docbzkes r&. d. Juifs, 1860;
J. Hooykaas, desch. d.6eofe:ing v. d. wzjsheid m d e r d . Heb.,
taken in Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus, and Wisdom, and 1862 ; M. Heinze, Lehre D. Logos, 1872 ; K. Siegfried, PhiZo v.
the gloomier view by Job and KGhCleth. Between AZezanrZria 1875. Derenbourg, Hist. etgdogr. d.I. Palestine,
these two last there is the difference that is referred 1877 ; J. D;ummond, Philo Jzrdrpus r888 ; C. G. Chavannes,
to above; one is tortured by the uncertainties and La Religion duns la Bible 1889. H.' Bois Or@nes d. 2. PhiZ.
Judio-AZexandrine, 1890;'A. A h , Gesch.' d. Logosidee, 1896 ;
pains of life, the latter calmly affirms its emptiness3 T . K. Cheyne, Jo6 and SoZomon, 1887, and Jewish ReZigious
This difference is to be ascribed to the philosophic Lrye (American Lectures), 1898. C. H. T.
training or to the temperament of Kbheleth. or to both
of these causes. The question was substantially solved, WISDOM (BOOK)
as before, by appeal to the life to come. No Wisdom
book finds a source of happiness in man's love to God Name and plan (5 IJ). Literary form (5% 13-16, 18).
Structure and aim ($6 3-5). Legendary additions (5 17).
and communion with him. The germ of this concep- Position ($ 6). Historical conditions (5 19J).
tion is expressed by Hosea (Hos. 6 6 ) ; but it appears Teaching (81 7-12, IS). Text and Versions (5 1x3).
to have been overlaid by the sense of God's majesty. Bibliography (# 23).
The nearest approach to it is made in Wisdom (710 WISDOM OF SOLOMON,or simply Wisdom, one
82) ; but there it is not God but wisdom that is loved.
In all this discussion it is physical evil alone that is
- __
of the Apocryphal books of the OT (see A POCRYPHA,
5 8).
considered ; the sages are at one with other O T writers The title varies slightly in different MSS of the Septuagint:
in not undertaking to deal with the question of the @B* uo@a ZaAopGvos, @E u. Zahop&v, BN u. BaAopBvror,
origin of moral eviL4 They do not purposely avoid the @A u. Z o A o p B ~ m s ; the Latin has Liber
question; rather it did not present itself to them. 1. Name and Sapientire; the Syriac, ed. Lagarde (Mus.
plan. Brit. 14,449, 'Thegreat WisdomofSolomon';
Man's liability to sin was accepted as an ultimate fact. in Walton, 'The book of the great Wisdom
The problem of the reconciliation of G o d s goodness of Solomon son of David,' with the remark, 'concerning which
there iq d o h whether some other Hebrew sage, writing in the
1 This is clear when his book is freed from orthodox in- spirit of prophecy, did pot compose it in the name of Solomon,
sertion-. and it was so accepted.
2 Why Wisdom says nothing of a bodily resurrection is not
clear ; the idea had been accepted by some Jews (Daniel) long The book appears to have been written to console
before its time. Perhaps the author thought of itas a relatively and instruct the Jews, and to warn their enemies, in a
unimportant incident of the future life and he might the more time of severe trial; the author's particular point of
easily pass it by if, as is probable, the ;esurrection was confined
in the current belief to Israelites. Pos&ly he did not accept it. view is indicated by the title. The book divides itself.
T h e future which he had in mind concerned the nobler life of by its subject matter, into two main parts, each of which
the soul and included Gentiles as well as Jews. may be further subdivided. Thus :-I. The part played
3 K&leth (Eccl. 2 24)) like Ben Sira (Ecclus. 3027, Heb. of
40 IS), advises enjoyment of the enjoyable things of life. 1 However the question stood outside the range of thought
4 Gen. Zf: describes the first human sin, but not the psycho- of the ancien; world in general, unless it be held to form a part
logical beginning of evil; and its purpose is not so much to of the pantheistic systems of India.
relate the origin of sin as to account for certain great facts of 9 The Sophia of the KabhllX is a different conception from
human experience, namely, birth, toil, and death. Wisdom the Wisdom of Proverbs and of the Book of Wisdom, though
2 24, though it substitutes the devil for the serpent of Genesis, the two doubtless spring in part from the same source, a n d
comes hardly nearer a solution of the question. have some things in common.
5335 5336
WISDOM (BOOK) WISDOM (BOOK)
by Wisdom in human life (1-9) : ( I ) Her moral demands the intervention of Aaron (18 5-25) and finally, that it is to be
and her rewards (1-5); ( 2 ) Her nature and powers seen in the overthrow of the R i d Sea, when the Egyptians
were punished for their treachery to strangers (worse than that of
(6-9). 11. Illustrations of her power taken from the Sodom), whilst the freed Israelitesroamed over beautiful pastures,
ancient history of 1:;rael (10-19): ( I ) The patriarchs and thus in all things God magnified and glorified his people (19).
and the exodus ( l o $ ) ; (2) The Canaanites (12) ; ( 3 )
Certain features of the book have given rise to doubts
Digression on idolatry (13-15) ; (4) Contrast between
as to its complete and unitary character. The abrupt
God's dealings with the Israelites and his treatment of
3. Unity. close of the historical sketch, which ends
the Egyptians (16-19).
The author makes his first section (and so perhaps the whole with the entrance of the Israelites into
hook is to be considered) an address to kings (I I 6 1-21), appar- Canaan, has suggested the view that the work is not
ently wishing to influence the potentates in complete (Calmet), that the continuation of the his-
2. Outline. whose hands lay the outward fortunes of the torical sketch was abandoned by the author a s too large
Jews ; '>ut his discourse is of a general nature,
applying to all men. H:e be ins by affirming that unrighteous- an undertaking, or cut short by some accident (Grotius,
ness is alien to Wisdorn an$ is punished with death by God, Hasse, Eichhorn), or that, having been written by him,
though, in truth, God does not &.ire the destruction of any, it was lost by the accidents of time (Heydenreich).
but the wicked, against his purpose, call down death on them- This consideration, though not without force, is not
selves (1); then, passing to the moral question raised by the
absence of just cornpensxion in this world, he observes that the decisive; the author may have stopped at this point
wicked (by whom he appears to mean Jewish apostates), because because he thought the 'illustrations given from the
they deny future retrimtion, give themselves up to sensual earliest history sufficient, or because he wished to single
enjoyment here, and, because they are reproved by the righteous,
hate and persecute them, not knowing that God created man to out the Egyptians (Ewald), or (Grimm) because he
be immortal ( 2 ) ; whilst, on the other hand, the sufferings of the felt that the later history was lacking in picturesque and
ri hteous in this world are only a chastening, their hope is full dramatic character, and that it chronicled chiefly the
ofgimmortaI'ity, hereafter they shall he honoured and happy and
in fact, the wicked even in this life are miserable, and'thei: subjection of the Israelites to their enemies. The
offspring is cursed (3 r-12); he adds (against a current view) question of completeness may be left undecided ; but it
that happiness does not consist in children and old age, childless may be said that the work, in its present form, does
virtue is better than vice with children, and the troly venerable not necessarily make the impression that it is a fragment.
age is wisdom and probity (3 13-49); then, resuming the general
argument, he observes that the value of righteousness will he Nor, perhaps, is it possible to decide with certainty
demonstrated hereafter, when good men, here scorned by the whether the book is the production of one man. The
bad will he blessed, whilst the bad, cruPhed by divine wrath, two main divisions are not very closely connected ;
wil<he forced to acknowledge the folly of their course (4 10-523).
I n view of all this he proceeds to assure kings that they need the history of the fathers in the second part (which
wisdom in order that they may govern worthily and attain to is at once a glorification of Israel, and an attack on
immortality ( 6 1-27), and king Solomon (with whom the author idolatry in general and Egyptian idolatry in particular)
here identifies himself) describes his own experience how he may appear to he quite distinct from the praise of wisdom
had loved and sought d t e r wisdom, what great thing; she had
taught him, with whar wonderful power and beauty she is in the first part, which is a philosophical consideration
endowed, she being, indeed, an effluence and image of God of the life of the author's own d a y ; Solomon is not
how, therefore, he had desired to dwell with her always as hi; introduced till chap. 6 ; after 11I the narrative does not
spouse, and he besought God, who alone could give her, to
bestow her on him (6 22-8 21); then follows the prayer in which mention wisdom, but is wholly concerned with the
the young king, acknowledging and pleading human weakness, history ; and the style changes, being, in the first part,
begs that Wisdom and God's Holy Spirit may be sent down to relatively simple and direct, with constant regard to the
him from the holy heavens (9). The prayer concludes with the Hebrew principle of parallelism, whilst, in the secopd
reflection that men of former generations were guided by
Wisdom, and thus the author passes naturally to his second part, it is ambitious, grandiloquent, or turgid, compli-
division, a review of the old history. Wisdom, he says, pre- cated and artificial, often without parallelism. On the
served and guided the patriarchs, from Adam to Joseph, and, other hand, it may be said that a logical unity is recog-
by Moses, led the Israelites victoriously from Egypt (10). The
remainder of the hook (from chap. 11I), no longer occupying nisable in the fact that the two points of attack i n the
itself with wisdom, takes the form of an address to God, detail- work, apostasy and idolatry, represent the two great
ing his special miraculous care of Isr.uel, particularly in the enemies of the later devout Judaism, and that a conscious-
treatment of Egypt, with brief reference to the conquest of
Canaan. The author, undertaking to give a religious-philosophi- ness of unity is shown in 9 18, which makes the transition
cal sketch of the history, points out that the Egyptians were from the first part to the second, and has not the appear-
punished by means of their animal gods, yet not wholly de- ance of an editorial insertion ; that the similarity between
stroyed, hut given space for repentance (11) ; that the Canaanites 1 I and 6 I suggests that the same speaker is intended
also were punished for their sins, but not blotted out at one
blow, God doing all things in just measure, and training his own throughout, that the non-mention of wisdom after 11I
people in righteousness by the spectacle of the castigation of is due to the fact that the author became so immersed
their enemies ( ~ Z I - Z Z ) , and (the main argument being now in his historical sketch (which he meant as an indictment
resumed) that the Egyptians, through the terrible punishment
inflicted on them by means of their own gods, were compelled of his own contemporaries) thathe forgot the philosophical
to acknowledge the true God, whom they had before declared thesis with which he set out, that the change of style is
that they did not know (1223-27). a natural consequence of the change of subject matter,
At this point the author pauses in order to explain the nature the moral and philosophical discussions falling more
and origin of idolatry (i.e., polytheism). The least blameworthy
(though still an inexcusable) form of idolatry, he says, is the easily into the form of the Book of Proverbs, the dramatic
worship of the powers of nature by whose beauty men were scenes of the earlier history readily suggesting legendary
naturally attracted (13 ~ g ) ,whilit the worship of heasts and touches and highly- coloured language, and that there
stones and images made by human hands is ridiculous(13 I O - I ~ ) ,
as, for example, the homage paid by seamen to images (14 I-5), are marked resemblances of tone and style in the two
and all idolatry is accursed as having been the source of parts-e.g., the rush of thought of the second part is
moral corruption (146-12); idolatry originated in a desire to paralleled in the description of the wicked (5) and of
honour dead children arid kings, and was helped forward by the wisdom (722-8I ) , and the religiously elevated and digni-
skill of artists, who made beautiful images (14 13-21), and so came
all the frightful vices of society, for which men will surely be fied tone of the first part appears here and there in the
p h e d (1422-31), from which idolatry Israel kept free, whilst second (cp 113-15 91-6 with 1123-26 1219 167). On the
srael's enemies fell into this childish absurdity (15). Returning whole it seems easier to account for the differences of
now to the history, the author declares that God did indeed
send plagues on his people (in the wilderness), not dealing with matter and style under the supposition of one single
them in destructive fury, but chastising them, and further author than to explain the unity under the supposition
making nature fight for them (in Egypt), and giving the; of two or more authors.
aneels' food, that they might learn to trust in him (16) ; that the
contrast in God's dealing further appears in his appalling the In the last century there were several attempts to
Egyptians with a horror of darkness and monstrous apparitions ascribe the book to a number of hands.
while the Israelites had light and guidance and the comfort of A This analysis was b e p n , according to Bretschneider, by
pillar of fire and a friendly sun (17 1.184). that it is visible in the Houbigant, who divided the work into two
remarkable destruction of the Egyptian firstborn (when the 4. History Of parts chaps. 1.9 and chaps. 10-19 and was
almighty Word, a fierce warrior, leaped down from heaven into criticism. hereih followed b y Doederlein ; o h y , whilst
the doomed land), whilst the plague (in the rebellion of Dathan Houbigant ascribed the first part (written in
and Koiah), which devastated the Israelites, was subdued by Hebrew) to Solomon, and the second (written in Greek) to a later
5337 5338
WISDOM (BOOK) WISDOM (BOOK)
writer, Doederlein denied the Solomonic authorship ; from this as inspired, though Origen, Eusehius, and Augustine denied the
analysis Eichhorn dissents only in making the division at 11z Solomonic authorship (see Clem.Al. Stronz. ed. Potter 6c9.
and regarding the whole book as having been originally written Hippolytus, ed. Lagarde, 66 ; Cyprian, Exhort. Ma& 12
in Greek, and Bertholdt begins the second part with 13. Nach- Ongen, Cont. CeL 3 72 ; Euseb. Prep. 1T I ; August. De Doctr.
tigal's proposal, to cut the hook up into a number of parts and Christ. 28), and the title 4 rrav&pwosuo+ia was given to it, as to
make it an anthology, met with no favour, and Bretschneider Ben Sira (see ECCLESIASTICUS); homilies on it appear to hare
contented himself with dividing Eichhom'sfirstsection into two, been composed by the presbyter Bellator (so Rabanus Maurus,
thus making three sections in the book, of which the first (1 1-68), Pie$ in Zidr. Sup.),and, from Rahanus onwards, there is a con-
a fragment of a larger work written by a Greek-speaking Jew tiuuous line of expository works.
(who? however, was not imbued with Platonic philosophy), at I t has, with few exceptions, been regarded by Christian
the time when Antiochus Epiphanes was meditating his assault
on the Jewish religion, deals with the ' righteous,' that is, the scholars as a work of high value, in spite of its occasional
faithful part of the Jewish people ; the second (tiplo), composed turgid rhetoric and narrow nationalism ; so Luther and
by an Alexandrian Jewish contemporary of Philo, is devoted to most writers up to the present time. Pellican held it to
wisdom; the third (12-19), of the same period, is the work of

.
a Jewish partisan, and chap. 11 is the insertion of an editor.
The arguments used by these scholars (given at length
by Grimm) are substantially those which are mentioned
be inspired; but in this view he stands almost alone
among Protestants. The opinion as to its canonicity
has varied greatly. The fathers cited it freely as
' Scripture' or as of divine authority, but apparently
above. No one since Bretschneider's time has advocated
without having in mind the question of canonicity.
such a dismemberment of the hook, and at present its
Augustine seems to be the first writer who formally
unity is generally regarded aS certain or probable.
included it in the list of canonical hooks. I t was
The aim of the work appears from what has been
recognised as canonical by the Roman Chnrch in
already said. The author is equally concerned to rebuke
the decree of the council of Trent, and shared the
6. aim. apostate Jews and idolatrous Gentiles, to con-
fortunes of the other Apocryphal hooks in the contro-
sole and encourage his suffering fellow-country-
versies between Protestants and Catholics in the seven-
men, and to extol the greatness of his nation. He calls
teenth century, in the movement which banished the
on princes to observe that virtue, though here oppressed,
books from the publications of the British and Foreign
will be rewarded in the next world, that wisdom, which
Bible Society, in the German discussions of 1851-1855.
is the source of virtue and the informing spirit of all
W e may be content to say that the Palestinian Jews
things good, is the gift of the God of Israel, that in the
did not accept it as an inspired Scripture (their standard
past she has saved men from great perils, and that God,
being in some regards local and narrow), that it was so
in ancient times, glorified his people Israel by delivering
accepted probably by the Egyptian Jews (though it is
them from the hands of their enemies ; especially that,
not cited by Philo), certainly by many Patristic writers,
for their sake, he formerly inflicted terrible punishment
that it is now accepted by the Roman and Anglican
on the Egyptians. In a word, he comforts his people
churches, and rejected by the various Protestant
(and warns their enemies) by assuring them that God is
churches, and that, for the rest, it must stand on its
on their side.
own merits.
The work appears to have been always held in high
The book assumes the divine oneness, omnipresence
estimation. From its inclusion in the Septuagint. - we
( 1 7 121), omniscience ( 1 7 716), and omnipotence
6.
Fortunes. may probably infer that the Egyptian Jews
attached great value to it from the time "Ethical
(1123), and God's providential-care of
the world (143); it calls him (131)
of its composition, wherher or not they regarded it as and ' he a h o is ' (cp 6,Ex. 314). The
canonical in the full sense of the term.' As to the ideas' world, it says, was created by God
position assigned to it by early Palestinian Jews, the
(9g), not out of nothing, but out of formless matter
only evidence is that which may perhaps be derived
from its recognition in the NT. There are a number (1117). I t ascribes to him wisdom (see below), justice
(1215),andkindness(113 1123-26 1213-16 151 l67), and
of coincidences of expression which have been held
calls him Father (143), but, like the Pentateuch, the
hy some scholars to indicate a use of the book by
Prophets, and the Psalnis, represents him as the especial
some N T writers; lists of such expressions may be
friend and guardian of Israel (162 1818 1922) : Israel
found in Nitzsch, Kern (in the Tubingen Zeitsch. f.
he chastens (1223), other nations, the enemies of his
Theologie, 1835),Stier (ApoRiyphen, 1853).and others. people, he punishes (lam),yet with the design of lead-
On the other hand, Tholuck, Grimm, Farrar, and other ing them to repentance (122-20). But chaps. 113 clearly
writers regard the resemblances as too general to prove
express the idea that the enemies of Israel are predestined
quotation. From the nature of the material it is hardly
to he cursed, and this conception is nai'vely put by the
possible to speak decidedly on this point : but a com-
side of the proclamation of Gods universal love. The
parison of certain passages makes it not improbable that
idea of an all-controlling fate, superior to God, is not
the hook was known to Paul and some of his followers, found in the hook. The d u d y q of 194 is the ' destiny'
and suggested to them certain expressions and lines of determined by God ; the term is Greek, the conception
thought. is Hebi-ew-it is the O T idea of divine predestination.
For example 5 17 $ Eph. 6 13f: (rravodiav, &%para GLmro-
hvqs), 7 25 f: 'Heb. 1 3 (&ravyaffp), 9 15 z Cor. 54 (Baprivrr, The word of God is simply the utterance of his will
,9apo6pevor), 9 16 Jn, 3 12 (comparison of earthly things and (9116 1 2 26) and never approaches the Philonian Loaos,
heavenly things as to the difficultyofnnderstanding them), 111.55
13 1-814 24-26 Rom. 120-32 (description of the blindness and vices
of the Gentile world) 1123 Acts 17 30 (zapop+r, &~eprG&, Gods
*' word
even in the fine passage (1815) in wLich
the ' almighty word,' a fierce warrior,
overlooking of men's :ins), 167 I Tim. 4 IO (God the Saviour of wisdom* "" leaps down from the divine throne into
all men). the doomed land 0; Egypt, or in 91,in which word'
Be this as it may, it is generally agreed that, from the is indeed a parallel to 'wisdom ' (ZJ.z ) , but wisdom is
end of the first century onwards, it was esteemed and here not a personification, but a simple attribute of God,
used by Christian writers. and the thought of 5 1 is that of Ps. 339. The con-
Clement of Rome, in T Cor. 27, has an almost exact verbal ception of the spirit of the Lord is the same as that in
reproduction of 112 2 1 2 rz and so Irenzus in A h . H m . 4 38, the later (exilian and post-exilian) O T books, the term
cp ti 19 ; 2 the later Patristik writers generally regarded the work
being equivalent to ' being or person of God ' ; it is an
1 It is possiple that it was through the Christians that the anthropomorphic expression, based on the assumption
book received Its place in the Greek collection of Jewish Scrip- that God, like man, has a separate inward principle or
tures but to this view there are serious objections. it is not likely true being. This spirit is said to fill the world, to con-
that ;he early Christians would adopt any non-khiistian book
which did not have .some sort of Jewish authority (see CANON, tain all things, to be in all things (17 121), and is
S 38). identified with wisdom and with God (14-7). It is the
In the canon of Melito (in Eus. H E 2 2 4 ) the expres- holy spirit of God (Is. 6310f; Ps. 51 II 14310), which is
sionrapotaiac rai 4
vo+ia should probably be read r. i j ra; ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~

oo+ia. In the et sapienfia SaZoomonis of the Muratorian Frag- the reference is not to the canonical Book of Proverbs rather than
ment Credner reads ut instead of et, and Grimm doubts whether to on1 Apocryphal Wisdom.
5339 5340
WISDOM (EOOK) WISDOM (BOOK)
sent from heaven (as a divine breath or influence) to God‘s being. Of a control by God of human thought
console men ( 9 171, aiid, as a divine teacher, cannot dwell and destiny nothing is said directly.
w-ith unrighteousness (15). This representation does The work passes beyond the O T and Semitic thought
not reach hypostatisation; but it is a very vigorous in general in its adoption of the Platonic theory of the
personification (cp Rom. 8). A similar remark is to be pre-existence of souls ( 8 2 0 , and cp 158 16), and this
made of the conception of wisdom regarded as an involves a sort of predestination; Solomon says that
attribute of God, only the description is here more being good he canie into an undefiled body. Still, the
elaborate, and there is a nearer approach to hypostatisa- author’s practical view of moral life does not seem to be
tion. Wis.loni, it is said, was with God when he made materially affected by his philosophical theories ; he holds
the world (cp Prov.,!;zz-jr),and knew his will, sits ever to moral weakness, general divine control of life, and
by his throne, and is his intimate associate (949 8 3 ) , moral responsibility without troubling himself to define
she is an effluence from his glory, the mirror of his the limits of these facts, and he appears to adopt the
power, the image of his goodness (725f:), she is ani- OT division of men into good and bad, going beyond
mated by an acute, vigorous, benevolent spirit, is of the later OT books, however, in recognising the possi-
perfect beauty, knows, directs, controls all things (7 22-29 bility of passing from one class to the 0ther.l But his
1 1 S r ) , transforming the souls of men (727), bestowing horizon is here limited-he has in mind the flagrant
on them all virtues (84-8), and guiding their outward sinners of his time, the apostates and the idolaters, and
fortunes (lo), coming to dwell with them as beloved he cannot be said to express a general view of the ethical
friend and counsellor (8 z 9). but bestowed only by God, capacity of man. He holds, however (915), that the
and to be obtained from him by prayer (8219). She corruptible body presses down the soul (cp 2 Cor. 5 4).
is thus, on the one hand, substantially identical with Sin, disobedience to G o d s moral law, is represented
Philo’s Logos, and, on the other hand, blends insensibly in one passage (224) as having been introduced into the
with the human quality of wisdom. lo. 6in. world by the devil (for death is the result of
Other quasi-hypostatical intermediaries between God and the sin), in another passage (1427)as the result of
world are recognised by some modern writers (as Bois) in the idolatry. This apparent discrepancy does not point to
terms ‘power’ (13), ‘justice’ (18), ‘providence’ (143 172),
‘mercy’ (16 IO). ‘hand ’ (11 17), ‘hypostasis ’ (16 ZI) ; but this two authors, but comes from a shifting of the point of
seems to be reading too large a meaning into the terms in view. Following Gen. 3 the author says that sin, as an
question (see WISDOM LITERATURE,0 8) : as to the ‘hypostasis’ historical fact, made its first appearance in the world in
or ‘substance’ of 16 21 if. appears to be simply manna.
the disobedience of Eve, and, like the OT, he does not
The conceptions of ‘ wisdom ’ and ‘ spirit ’ stand mid-
think of explaining its psychological origin ; but, looking
way, in the line of advance toward hypostatisation,
at the vices of the society of his own time, he traces
between the earlier ideas of the O T and the later ideas
them all to idolatry, which is the negation of the know-
of Philo and of the KT.
Of other supernatural beings there is mention of only ledge of G o d ; the vagueness of his thought on this
Gentile deities and the devil. The former are declared, point is apparent from the fact that he not only gives no
chronological beginning of idolatry, but refers it to an
with greater distinctness than is found in the OT, to be
intellectual weakness (131 1414) whose origin he docs
nonentities, invented by the folly of men (141,3f:). The
existence of the devil is assumed, and he IS identified not explain. He falls back on the teaching of observa-
(224) with the serpent of Gem 3. The name for him tion that men are by nature morally weak (513). and
here used (Grd~oXor):s probably taken from the Septua- must, in order to be saved from error, be instructed and
gint, which so renders the Hebrew S n f m in Ps. 109 s:rengthened by God ( 1 5 3 f.). This natural moral
weakness he (like the OT) does not bring into historical
!108).6 J o b l 6 f : , 21.F, I Ch.211 ( B A ; not L ) ; the
identification of the !serpent with a supreme evil spirit connection with the transgression of Eve or of Adam.
occurs only here and in Secrets of Enoch (313 - 6 ) in the The spiritual safeguard against sin, union of heart with
extant Jewish pre-Christian literature,l and in both God, is finely expressed in 1523 : ‘ even i f we sin, we
are thine, knowing thy power [that is, submitting our-
books his seduction of Eve is ascribed to his envy.
selves humbly to thy righteous and merciful control] ;
This identification probably sprang from a deepening
sense of sin, and from R growing conviction of the but we will not sin, knowing that w-e are accounted thine,
necessity of separating God from the moral evil of the for to know thee is perfect righteousness. ’ Faith (only
world. The author’s silence respecting demons and 314)is used in the general sense of acceptance of God’s
angels (in which he accords with the other wisdom will, and trust in him for protection.
books) is possibly due to the philosophical nature of For the wicked, it is said (310-121743). there is
his thought, in which wisdom takes the place of all retribution in this life, and men are punished by means
other good intermediary agents (see WISDOM L ITERA - of their sins (1116), but the real and
ll. universal recompense of moral conduct
T U RE , J 1 1 ), and the one demon, the devil, is held to
be sufficient to account for the evil of the world. comes in the future life. Here the author passes quite
The doctrine of the book concerning man is in part beyond the O T thought, in which ShBd has no ethical
an expansion of the teaching of the OT. There is character, and the resurrection (Dan. 12) is confined to
9. Man. no trichotomy (body, soul, spirit), only the Israelites. Hereafter, he declares (3-5),the position of
dichotomy of the inward principle of life (soul, all men will be determined by their moral chwacter-
spirit) and its outer casement (body). The soul or spirit the righteous will have peace and glory, the wicked
the author represents (herein following Gen. 2 7 ) as will be in misery (418-20 1 7 2 1 ) ; passages like 514J
breathed into the body by God (1511),and, at death, in which the transitory hope of the wicked is contrasted
received into the other world never to return (cp the with the everlasting hope of the righteous, must be
avowal of ignorance on this point in Eccles. 3-21), The interpreted, from the general thought of the book, to
question of human freedom is not formally discussed, mean not the annihilation of the ungodly, but their
and probably did not present itself to the author’s mind endless misery. Possibly the author here has in mind
as a problem to be solved. Freewill is assumed in some the denial of future retribution in Ecclesiastes, more
passages, as in 116. in which it is said that bad men call probably he is opposing a general Sadducean opinion
down destruction on themselves, and in 5 6 13, in which of his time. He makes no reference to purgatorial
they attribute their wretchedness to their own folly. On future punishment or to a bodily resurrection, unless the
the other hand, man is said (1210 131)to be foolish by latter be involved in the ‘ glorious kingdom ‘ ( 5 16 6 20)
nature, unable of himself to know God, and yet (223, and dominion over the nations (38)which the righteous
which gives an interpretation of Gen. 127) the image of are to receive, and this is not probable, since, if resur-
rection had been meant, there seems to be no reason
1 In the Sibylline ora.cles (149) the tempter of Eve is the
‘serpent,’ and In the Enoch Similitudes (696) one of the evil 1 This possibility is assumed in a simple unreflective way in
‘angels’ (see note of R. IH.Charles in his ed. of EnocL). Ezek. 18.
534‘ 5342
WISDOM (BOOK) WISDOM (BOOK)
why it should not have been distinctly mentioned. HokmEh writers (see WISDOM L ITE R A T U RE , 5 6), lays
The conditions of the future life are stated in the most 13. Worship. no stress on the national ritual of
general way-there are no details of happiness and worship ; he mentions, as historical
torment, only vague mention of light and darkness, facts, the offering of sacrifice by the Israelites ( 1 8 9 ) and
with no clear indication of place, no distinct heaven or of incense by Aaron (1821), puts into Solomon’s mouth
hell. The author contents himself with emphasising (98) the words ‘temple, altar, tabernacle,’ and quotes
the fundamental fact of moral retribution ; his reticence (314) a reference to the temple from the O T (Is. 565),
as to details may be due to his philosophical dislike of but otherwise ignores the external cultus. He regards
the crude pictures in such books as Enoch (see ESCHA- prayer and praise as the highest expression of religious
TOLOGY, index, s.vz. ‘ Heaven,’ Hell’). Man,,he holds feeling. H e draws largely from the Pentateuch and
(here again following Gen. 3), was created to be im- somewhat from Isaiah and the Psalms, but, after the
mortal (in this world apparently), and would so have manner of the time, does not name them or other
been, but for the entrance of death through the envy of sacred books, or make allusion to the existence of a
the devil, and the folly of the first human pair. All sacred canon.
good ethical human qualities, wisdom and righteousness, The book, in spite of some glaring faults, deserves
are, according to the author, the gift of God, or of to be ranked among the masterpieces of reflective verse.
G o d s minister, Wisdom (716 8 4 9412). 14. Literary If it cannot be called poetry, it is an
Besides general rightness of conduct he particularises admirable example of elevated sticho-
(8 7) the four virtues of Greek philosophy-mode ratio^^, form. metric writing, with not a few really
12. Virtue. practical sense, justice, and courage or poetical passages.
fortitude (uw@poulivT,@pbvvuis,Gmatoubvq, The number of its sfickoi is variously stated (in Swete’s ed.
ddpeia)-as things than which there is nothing more of the Sept.) at 1124 [HI, 1121 [N] and 1052 [A]. the Latin
profitable in life, and these also he represents as the translation has a few lines not found in the Greek.‘ ?The author
employs not metre, but the Hebrew parallelism, and the
gift of Wisdom. His more general catalogue of virtues Hebrew’ system of ictus, a certain succession of accented
( 7 2.3 ) embraces the gentler quality of ‘ philanthropy,’ syllables between which come varying nnmbers of unaccented
and the Hebrew idea of ‘ holiness,’ and, following the syllables’; in the passages (such as 103921), in which there are
suggestions of Greek iambic, dactylic and asynartete metres
OT, he represents the combination of justice and the combinations of syllables are prbbahly either accidentai
philanthropy (1219)as something which is taught us by (such as are sometimes found even in modem prose works), or
the example of God himself. His ethical code thus the occasional imitations which a writer acquainted with Greek
offers a happy union of Jewish and Greek elements ; of poetry might permit himself.2
ethical philosophy proper (inquiry into the basis of The construction of the book is skilful. After show-
moral beliefs and conduct) he has nothing. On the ing men’s supreme need of righteousness, the author
other hand, in his ethical attitude toward non-Israelitish lB. Structure. dramatically introduces the two classes
peoples he is narrow ; like the prophets, he sees nothing into which mankind is divided, and
good in other civilisations (as, for example, the Egyptian), describes their contrasted fates. On the basis of this
but, from his national religious point of view, involves picture he appeals to kings to embrace wisdom, as
them in one sweeping condemnation. H e was a pupil whose exponent and laudator Solomon appears, giving
of the Greeks; but he does not, by a single word, his own experience, and extolling wisdom as the source
express sympathy with their thought and life, or betray of all knowledge, physical, moral, and religious, as a n
any suspicion that they have played an important part effluence from God and his companion and co-worker,
in the divine education of humanity. He recognises and as the teacher and saviour of men of ancient times.
only one true law of life, and this, he says (184), is to In illlistration of this last point he gives a sketch of the
be given to the world by Israel ; this is the view of the history of the patriarchs and of the deliverance of the
exilian and post-exilian prophets, but in our author we Israelites from Egyptian bondage and their conquest of
expect some modification of the old statement. There Canaan. This plan of the work was well fitted to
is no trace of asceticism in the book ; the passage (3 13- commend it to the author’s contemporaries; the
46) which has been so interpreted is really a protest philosophical praise of wisdom is justified by the ex-
against what the author regarded as the undue importance hibition of its practical value, and the whole picture
attached by some to the possession of children. and a conveys encouragement to the suffering righteous, and
repetition of the OT declaration (Is. 56 4 5 ) that bodily a solemn warning to all the enemies, apostate and
conditions shall not determine membership in the Gentile, of the chosen people, whose special possession
Israelitish community. It was an old complaint of the and guardian wisdom is.
pious in Israel that the wicked were often well provided The style varies in the different parts. The first
with children (Ps. 1 7 1 4 ) , a gift which was supposed to part (chaps. 1-9) approaches the evenly balanced aphor-
be a special mark of divine favour (Ps. 1273-5 1283). 16, Style. istic form of Proverbs, with the distinctive
Ben Sira had already (16 1-4) protested against the characteristics of the Hebrew parallelism ;
exaggerated form of this view, and our author makes a but it is made up of connected discourses, each of
special application of the protest to the case of illicit which aims at a definite demonstration or exposition,
unions ; it is better, he says, to have no children than and the style is far more flowing than that of Proverbs
to obtain them by immoral unions ; the virtuous woman, and Ben Sira, in this respect rather resembling Ecclesi-
though barren, shall be blessed in the final divine astes. In the second part (chaps. 10-19), whilst the
visitation, and the eunuch, if he be righteous, shall stichometry is maintained, with a flavour of parallelism,
have compensating part in the temple of the Lord (so the nature of the subject matter produces an approach
Is. 565), that is, shall be deemed worthy of an honour- to simple prose, with an inflation born of the desire to
able position in the public worship. Such an opinion make the history impressive. I n both parts power of
cannot, therefore, be regarded as springing from imagination is conspicuous; the pictures of the final
Therapeutist hostility to marriage. The fine thought overthrow of the wicked (517-23) and the terrors of the
that honourable old age is not measured by number Egyptians (17 J ) have the cumulation and rush in
of years (48J ) which is a‘correction or revision of Prov. which Ezekiel is a master, and many of the epithets
1631 Ecclus. 254-6, though, according to Philo (De Vit. have a n Zschylean force and majesty; it is perhaps
montempZ. 8), it expresses a principle of the Therapeutze, this torrent-like movement that most impresses the
is of too general a nature to be regarded as borrowed reader in the author’s descriptions. Nor is he lacking
from them ; it is found in the Stoics (cp Cic. De Fin. 3), in something that resembles humour as, in the descrip-
and looks not to contempt of life, but to emphasising
1 See Berger, Nisi. d. Z. Vulgate, etc.
the better side of life. 2 On apparent examples of Greek metrical lines see Farrar
With all his strong national feeling, he, like the other and Bois.
5343 5344
WISIDOM (BOOK) WISDOM (BOOK)
tion of the innnufacture of an idol by the carpenter The cases cited (by Boi.) are not properly allegorising ; the
pillar of salt (10 7) is a ‘monument,’ not a pymbol, of an un-
( I ~ I I - I which
~ ) , is, however, only a slight expansion of believing soul; the pillar of cloud and fire (1017) is not a
an OT passage (Is. 41 12-17). He is fond of assonance, ‘ manifestation’but a creation of Wisdom ; the bronze serpent
alliteration, and paronomasia, as well as of comparison (165-7) is not a symbol it is an instrument and assurance of
and metaphor, has many instances of chiasm (as 315 salvation : the Egyptiakdarkness (1721) is an ‘image,’a faint
physical suggestion of the darkness of future punisbment ; on
42). and in one case (6 17-20) employs the sorites. This the high-priest’s rode (18 24) was the whole cosmos, hut only as
last use is taken from Greek logic, of the others there the glory of the fathers was on the four rows of stones, and the
are many examples both in the O T and in Greek divine majesty on the tiara (‘holy to the Lord’). Reuss’s
remark, that the Egyptians are introduced throughout as a type
writers. Throughout he shows fulness, richness, and of pagans in general, and that the history is regarded as a sort
vitality of conception, which is constantly in danger of of theory, is correct“;through the Egyptians the author aimed at
running into exaggeration and bombast. The nature his own contemporaries. This, however, is not allegorising ; it
of his material does not call for direct descriptions of may be called a first step toward the method so fully developed
by Philo, but it has not reached the point of seeing in things
external nature ; but in a number of passages he shows and persons merely representationsof religious truth.
a fine feeling for colour, form, and movement (see The author’s silence respecting Messianic hopes is a
59-1221-23 1118 132 1718-21). The author’s noteworthy trait which he has in common with other saDiential
command of Greek suggests that he was well read in 19. Eschatology. writers (see WISDOM LITEKATU~RE.
Greek poetical and philosophical Xterature. v
6 c f. ), and is not an exact indication
His vocabulary is rich and picturesque : he uses a number of
I,

of date. His picture of the sufferings and future glory


uncommon terms, is fond of compounds, and has himself of the righteous ( 2 - 5 ) . though it may be based on Is. 53
originated compounds or given peculiar significations to exist-
ing forms. as + i h 6 $ w p (11z6), ‘lover of souls’ (so Damasc. and has been regarded by some expositors as a predic-
2 z i ~ ) , and perhaps xpwr6ahauTos (7 I 10 I). He has taken a tion of the Messiah,‘ presents no individual human
number of expressions from the Septuagint, as nkrpas ~ K ~ O T ~ ~ O V
deliverer, but, after the manner of the prophets, simply
see Dt. 8 15); T ~ ) Y h a (13 I , see Ex. 3 I+) ; +wurljpar
Q v o S (13 2 , see (>en.1 14) ; m o & s 4 .ap& &TOS (15 IO, represents pious Israel as destined to be glorified. In
see Is. 44 20). On the other hand, his frequent Hebraisms part of the late pre-Christian Palestinian literature also
(most of which occur in ,chapters1-9) show that he was deeply (as Dan., Sib.Or., I Macc., Pss. of Sol.) it is the
imbued with the style yf the OT ; thus words, as uxohioi (1 3); nation that is the centre of hope ; it is only in the later
&parr (1 4) ; a y ~ o vrrvrup.a (1 5 9 17) ; guxara (2 16) ; ilcunjuovTaL
(5 2) : <<hov (5 17); ~ ~ T ~ (13 L modes of expression, such as
C IO) ; portions of Enoch (as chap. 46) that a personal Messiah
those in 4 17 168 13 (cp I, S. 2 6 ) ; and the use of the connectives plays a real r81e (see M ESSIAH , § 7 ; ESCHATOLOGY,
rai, 66, y i p and the like.1
6 5 f . ) . That Wisdom has a well-developed doctrine
The data for the determination of the origin of the of ethical immortality, snd yet says nothing of resur-
book are found in its use of other books, the nature rection, may be due to its Egyptian origin. The idea
17. signs of of its ideas, and the historical con- of resurrection was a Palestinian growth, based on
date : ideas. ditions which it implies. Jewish convictions, but shaped under the ,stimulus of
A comparison of 4 1 (on childless virtue)
with Ecclus. 16 1-4 suggests that our author was acquainted Zoroastrianism, and it niay well have lagged behind in
with the latter work. It is generally admitted that he used the Egypt. On the other hand, Alexandria was the meeting-
Septuagint translation ol’ the Pentateuch and Isaiah ; whether place of old Egyptian and Greek ideas out of which the
he had the Septuagint Psalms is doubtful-in 3 1 he has an monotheistic Jews could easily fashion an elevated moral
allusion to Ps. 31 5 [ 6 ] , in -15 15f: he gives rather a paraphrase than
a citation of Ps. 1154-7 (=135 15-17), in 1620 (from Ps. 1825) he conception of the world to come. Each Jewish centre
has LyyChov rpo$+ where Q has Bprav L., and in 10 17 (from would thus work out its own favourite idea of the future,
Ps.10539) he has .Is o&qv +pipas where our Hehrey has and the fusion of the two ideas would take time. This
simply ‘covering’and the psalm in Q (Ps. 105 [104]39) eks U K .
a h & , from which, in view of his fondness for paraphrasing, it
fusion had certainly occurred before the composition of
cannot be shown that he did or did not have the Psalms in the earliest N T book, and apparently also before the
Greek. There is uncertainty also about the relation of 224 time of the Enoch-section chaps. 91-104, a tract which
(‘the envy of the devil’) to a similar statement in Secrets of in some respects resembles our book, the date of which
Enoch313 (and cp Jos. Ant. i. 1 4 Sanhedrin, 59). The con-
ception may have been an old one, derived by Wisdom and is, however, uncertain, though it may probably be put
Secrets of Enoch from a common source, though, as it is not in the first century B.C. (cp Charles, Boo& of Enoch).
found in Enoch, it probably arose not long before the beginning Wisdom appears to have been written before the fusion
of our era. The picture of reward and punishment in the future
life is similar to that given in the Enoch similitudes. There is of the two ideas was accomplished in Egypt ; but, on
no reason to suppose that our author quotes from Philo. the other hand, the author’s Hellenising tendency may
Legendary additions to the O T narrative, so frequent have led him to discard the notion of a kingdom of the
in Wisdom, do not appear in any other book earlier righteous on earth, though such a notion may have
18. Legendary than 2 Macc. (119-36 2 1 - 8 ) . ~ It is been known to him (cp 3 7 with Dan. E3). It is diffi-
only necessary to compare our author’s cult to say when the Egyptian Jews began to formulate
additions. sketch of the early history (10-19) a doctrine of ethical immortality ; it may, perhaps, be
with that of Ecclus. (44-49) to see the great difference surmised that, since the editor of Ben Sira, writing 132
between the method:; of the two writers; the latter B . C . , says nothing of it, it did not appear before the
keeps himself strictly to the OT text, the former revels first centnry B. C.
in fancifulembellishments (11151 6 r ~ g r 8 f : n r f : 1569f: An indication of date might be obtained if we could
15-19 I81zf: 17-19 191t.f. 1721). This may be accounted determine with exactness the relative develoDment of
for in part by the supposition that the Alexandrian Greek conceptions in our author and in
Jews were very free in their dealing with the sacred 20. Greek
I t is generally admitted that
books ; but, as z .Mace. shows that there was a similar conception, Wisdom
Philo.
is deeDlv imbued with Greek
I ,

tendency in Palestine, we are led to refer it rather to philosophical thought ; the conceptions of a beautihl
a natural growth of legend, of which there are many and logically arranged cosmos, and of a wisdom which
examples i n later Apoxyphal books and in the Talmud.3 is the divine agent in creation and in the control of the
‘The allegorising method of interpretation, if found in world (besides the minor points referred to above) betray
Wisdom. would doubtless be Alexandrian, but would the influence of the Platonists and the Stoics. The
not give great aid in determining its date. since this same general ideas are found in Philo, as whose con-
method of interpretation was in use long before Philo‘s temporary, accordingly, our author is regarded by some
time. But it does not seem to be employed by our expositors. On the other hand, the differences between
author. the two writers are obvious ; besides many divergencies
1 So Tertullian Cyprian Hippolytus, Origen, and many
1 For full lexicographical lists see the commentaries of Grimm interpreters of th; Church ‘of Rome. see Westcott’s note in
and Farrar. Smith, DB,art. ‘Wisdom of Solomon.:
a The treatment of Gen.62 in Enoch is mythological ex- 2 The two are compared by Grimm, Drummond, Menzel
pansion under Persian stimulus. Farrar, Bois, and others. Siegfried, in Hastings’ OB, note;
3 Cp also Gal. 3 19 I C:or. 10 4 2 Tim. 3 8. differencesbetweeo the two.
5345 5346
WISDOM (BOOK) WISDOM (BOOK)
in explanation of particular points (which, however, J. A. Schmid), was rejected by Augustine and Jerome, and is
would n o t n e c m a r i l y prove t h e m n o t contemporaries), no longer seriously considered. Very early critics thonght of
Ben Sira as the author (see Aug. Doct. Ckr. z,8 ; Retract. 2,4),
there is, for example, t h e great difference i n the employ- or of the famous Philo (see Jer. PraJ in L i d . S a l ) and the
m e n t of the allegorical m e t h o d of interpretation, which latter view was adopted by Luther and a number of ;;her theo-
probably, t h o u g h n o t certainly, points t o the precedence logians ; but the differences between those two writers and our
author are so glaring that they absolutely exclude such an identi-
of W i s d o m in time. T h e m a i n point of comparison fication. Other Jewish names which have been suggested are
is t h e conception of t h e divine self-manifestation t h r o u g h Zerubhabel (by J. M. Faber), Aristobulus, the friend of Ptolemy
intermediate agencies, a n d herein Philo a n d W i s d o m Philometor (by Lutterbeck), an older Philo (by Drusius and
differ i n t w o r e s p e c t s : first, whilst Philo n a m e s as others) who is said to have written a poem on Jerusalem (cp
Jos. C o d : A j l l23 where a non-Jewish ‘older Philo,’ apparently
chief a g e n t t h e Logos, a n d has comparatively little to an historian, is mentioned), and Apollos, before his conversion
say of W i s d o m , W i s d o m gives t h e first place to W i s d o m (by Plumptre), on the ground that he wrote the Epistle to the
( n o t g o i n g beyond t h e O T i n his conception of the Hebrews, and that the similarity between the epistle and Wisdom
is so great as to suggest a common origin. None of these sug-
‘ w o r d ’ ) , a n d t h u s a p p e a r s t o range itself a l o n g with gestions except the last has any show of probability, and it can
those earlier m o r e Hebraistic books ( P r o v e r b s a n d B e n hardly be called probable, since the two books, though not
S i r a ) in which the divine attribute plays the m o s t impor- without a certain resemblance in stvle. still have differences.
t a n t rdle, Philo, on t h e other h a n d , a d v a n c i n g to the both of style and of manner of though; tw great to he explained
even by a writer’s change of religio;. The author has been
m o r e definitely Stoic idea ; a n d secondly, Philo t r e a t s held to be a Christian (by C. H. Weisse and others) on such
the conception i n a m o r e scientific way, u n d e r t a k i n g t o grounds as his supposed reference (3) to the Messiah, his desig-
s t a t e with philosophic precision t h e n a t u r e of the relation nation of God a s ‘father’ (143), his doctrine of future ethical
retribution (3-5), and the supposed mention of his book among
between G o d a n d his personified energy, whilst in Christian writings in the Rluratorian Fragment @ut the last
W i s d o m this relation is a s s u m e d without explanation. supposition is probablyerroneovs-see above, 8 6 , n. 2). and the
F r o m this it m a y p r o b a b l y be inferred t h a t our a u t h o r authorship has been assigned (by Noack) to Apollos, after his
had n o t g r a s p e d t h e Stoic doctrine of the Logos, which, conversion to Christianity. But a Christian hook without a
single distinctively Christian idea (and none of those adduced by
seeing his fondness for G r e e k ideas, he would h a r d l y Weisse are distinctively Christian) would he an incomprehensible
h a v e failed to do if he h a d lived as late as the first half anomaly ; the book is intelliqible only on the supposition that
of t h e first century of our era. it was written by a non-Christian Jew. Finally as has been
pointed out above ($ IS), there is no reason for sup;osing that the
T h e historical conditions to be accounted for are: the author belonged to the sect of the Therapeutre; he has no trace
persecution of faithful Israelites b y Gentiles a n d a u o s t a t e of their teaching, and it does not seem probable that a memher
Jews, a n d t h e author’s special grudge of that sect would have imbibed Greek learning as our author
21.conditions. against t h e Egyptians. There w a s a has done.
The Greek text is given entire in the uncials A (Lond. 1879-
class of apostate Tews f r o m the t i m e of 1883), B (Rome, 187r), N (St. Petersburg, I&), in part in C
Antiochus Epiphanes, 187 B. c. ”( Jos. Ant. xii. 5) d o w n (Leipsic, 1845), entire in the cursives H. P.
to t h e time of Philo (Philo, Confus. Ling. a ; Penit. 2 ) . 23. Greek text. 23, 55, 68, 106 and 155 (not entire), 157,248
253, 254, 267 (not entire), 296 ; nine MSS coli
T h e accourit in 3 Macc. of an E g y p t i a n persecution i n lated by Thilo (but not published) are in some passages adduced
t h e time of P t o l e m y IV. (221-217 B .c.) b e i n g generally by him (Sfecimen exercc. critt. ilr Sapient. Sal., Halle, 1625)and
a d m i t t e d to be legendary, the periods of persecution by Grimm. Swete gives the various readings of NAC. The text
which m a y c o m e i n t o consideration (see Jos. Cont. Ap. is well preserved; A in a number of cases offers better readings
25) are the reigns of P t o l e m y V I I . (145-117 B .c.), than B. That the Greek is the original text is now generally be-
lieved. Faber’s argument to prove a ‘Chaldee’ (that is Jewish
C l e o p a t r a (47.30 B.C.), Caligula (38-40 A . D . ) , and (Jos. Aramaic) original is successfully rebutted by Hasse ; thus in 2 22
BY, ii. 187J) N e r o ( 6 3 A.D.). T h e r e i s not m u c h the Syr. for Greek yipas is explained by Faber as coming from a
g r o u n d for choice a m o n g these periods,’ a t most i t may confusion ofAramaic j q * D a n d p - ~ hut ,it is rather, says Hasse,
be said that the comparatively c a l m t o n e of our hook a misreading of the Greek (@xw for y l p a s ) ; in 1816 Syriac
(as in 1416-20)d o e s n o t favour t h e seasons of bitterer ‘command ’ for Greek ‘ death comes, according to Faber, from
a misunderstanding of 1x7 (which however is not Aramaic
distress ( u n d e r Caligula a n d Nero). B u t i t i s not but Hebrew), but niay be natura1ly;egarded ds a scribal erroue-
necessary t o s n p p o s e t h a t the work w a s composed i n ous repetition of the preceding ‘command.’ So also, recently,
the midst of o n e of the violently hostile movements. D. S. Margoliouth,l whose examples are not more convincing
T h e a u t h o r , even if he lived i n a relatively quiet time, than those of Faber. I n Wisd. 1 1 2 14 TO the Greek is satis-
factory as it stands ; and the identity of the expression in 2 12
would k n o w e n o u g h of the general fortunes of his people with that in Is. 3 IO Q5 (noted by Schleusner) may be understood
to paint his pictures of suffering (2-5 14). Nor is his as a borrowing on the part of the former, or as a very late in-
reference to the worship of t h e statues of kings (1416-20) sertion in the latter. Greek is too free and idiomatic to be
taken as a translatioh ; its Hebrew colonring belongs rather to
chronologically decisive, for divine worship w a s p a i d t o the thought than to the style.2
P t o l e m y I . , a n d probably t o Antiochus II., as well as The Old Latin Version was adopted by Jerome with slight
to Caligula a n d o t h e r R o m a n emperors. The a u t h o r changes ; the Clementine text of 1592 with corrections from
Vercellone’s edition bf 1861, is given in the
is, i n fact, as G r i m m remarks, giving a learned a c c o u n t 24. Versions. edition of Heyse and Tischendorf (Leipsic,
of t h e origin of idolatry, a n d it is unnecessary to a s s u m e 1873), with the readings of the Codex Ami-
that t h e deified princes t o w h o m h e refers were his con- atinus in the margin; the Cod. Amiat. has been edited by
temporaries. T h e r e a p p e a r s to be nothing i n the Lagarde (in Mitteil. i.). I t is in general a literal, faithful, and
intelligent translation of the Greek. I t occasionally (as in 417)
historical situation depicted t o prevent o u r following the inserts an explicitum, and has a number of words and clauses
literary indications a n d assigning the work t o s o m e time not found in our Greek, as 115 (one word, and in some MSS
before t h a t of Philo, probably to the first pre-Christian one line) 2 8 (one line) 2 17 (one line) 3 I (one word) 4 14 (one
century. phrase) 6 1 (one cou let) 6 20 (one word) 811 (one line) 101
(two words in the &em. text, but not in Amiat.) 115 (one
Of t h e a u t h o r a l l t h a t is clear is t h a t he was an and a half lines) 11 8 (one clause) 17 I (several words). Some
E g y p t i a n Jew. H i s s t r o n g Jewish feeling a p p e a r s on of these additions (as 3 T 4 14 17 I) are explanations of the
213.lLuthor. every p a g e of his book, a n d his G r e e k translator and none of them commend themselves as probably
belonginito the original text; thus in 1 15 t h e j e r j e t u a weakens
training a n d his h e a r t y dislike of t h e the l 0 l v a s o s ; in 2 8 the line let there he no meadow which our
E g y p t i a n s point t o Alexandria as his- residence. The jollity does not traverse,‘ though in itself appropriate and good,
unsuccessful a t t e m p t s t o identify h i m with s o m e k n o w n mars the couplet-arrangement (three couplets in vv. 7-9); the
aphorism of 6 I, ‘wisdom is better than strength, and a sage
person are detailed a t l e n g t h by G r i m m a n d Farrar. man than a strong,’ interrupts the connection of thought and is
T h e reference of the work to Solomon,z found in early versions obviously a gloss, as are the insertions in 8 X I 10 I 11 5 (two
(Sept., Syr.), and in a number of Patristic, Rabbinical, Roman glosses) and 118. Acertain number of words also are omitted in
Catholic, and Protestant writers (as late as 1853 by the Catholic the Latin, the translator allowing himself some freedom. On the
history of the version see Berger, Hist. d. 1. VuZgateatp, 1393,and
1 Grimm’s remark that in the time of Nero the spirit of the on the MSS, Thielmann, Berickt, etc. 1900. On the vocabulary
cp Grimm, Comm. KGH, pp. 5 8
L.
ews was too much broken to produce so talented a book as
isdom is
’ not convincing; we know too little of the times to
make such a judgment. 1 In JRAS, 1890, and in ‘Lines of defence of the hiblical
2 [Revived by D. S. Margoliouth who holds that there are revelation 19m.
references to this hook in Isaiah.] a Cp J.’Freudenthal in/QR, 1891.
5347 5348

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