Smith's Bible Dictionary

P

Paara-i — Pethor

Paara-i

Pa’ara-i. In the list of 2 Samuel 23:35, “Paarai the Arbite” is one of David’s mighty men. In 1 Chronicles 11:37 he is called “Naarai the son of Ezbai.” (b.c. 1015.)

Padan

Pa’dan (field). Padan-aram. Genesis 48:7.

Pa’dan-a’ram. By this name, which signifies the table-land of Aram, i.e., Syria, the Hebrews designated the tract of country which they otherwise called Aram-naharaim, “Aram of the two rivers,” the Greek Mesopotamia, Genesis 24:10, and “the field (DAV, ‘country’) of Syria.” Hosea 12:13. The term was perhaps more especially applied to that portion which bordered on the Euphrates, to distinguish it from the mountainous districts in the north and northeast of Mesopotamia. It is elsewhere called Padan simply. Genesis 48:7. Abraham obtained a wife for Isaac from Padan-aram. Genesis 25:20. Jacob’s wives were also from Padan-aram. Genesis 28:2, Genesis 28:5, Genesis 28:6, Genesis 28:7; Genesis 31:18; Genesis 33:18.

Padon

Pa’don (deliverance), the ancestor of a family of Nethinim who returned with Zerubbabel. Ezra 2:44; Nehemiah 7:47. (b.c. before 529.)

Pagi-el

Pa’gi-el (God allots), the son of Ocran and chief of the tribe of Asher at the time of the exodus. Numbers 1:13; Numbers 2:27; Numbers 7:72, Numbers 7:77; Numbers 10:26. (b.c. 1491.)

Pahath-moab

Pa’hath-mo’ab (governor of Moab), head of one of the chief houses of the tribe of Judah. Of the individual or the occasion of his receiving so singular a name nothing is known certainly; but as we read in 1 Chronicles 4:22 of a family of Shilonites, of the tribe of Judah, who in very early times “had dominion in Moab,” it may be conjectured that this was the origin of the name.

Pai

Pa’i (bleating). [PAU.]

Paint

Paint (as a cosmetic). The use of cosmetic dyes has prevailed in all ages in eastern countries. We have abundant evidence of the practice of painting the eyes both in ancient Egypt and in Assyria; and in modern times no usage is more general. It does not appear, however, to have been by any means universal among the Hebrews. The notices of it are few; and in each instance it seems to have been used as a meretricious art, unworthy of a woman of high character. The Bible gives no indication of the substance out of which the dye was formed. The old versions agree in pronouncing the dye to have been produced from antimony. Antimony is still used for the purpose in Arabia and in Persia, but in Egypt the kohl is a soot produced by burning either a kind of frankincense or the shells of almonds. The dye-stuff was moistened with oil and kept in a small jar. Whether the custom of staining the hands and feet, particularly the nails, now so prevalent in the East, was known to the Hebrews is doubtful. Painting as an art was not cultivated by the Hebrews, but they decorated their buildings with paint.

Palace

Palace. Palace in the Bible, in the singular and plural, is the rendering of several words of diverse meaning. 1 Chronicles 29:1; Ezra 4:14; Amos 4:3, etc. It often designates the royal residence, and usually suggests a fortress or battlemented house. The word occasionally included the whole city, as in Esther 9:12; and again, as in 1 Kings 16:18, it is restricted to a part of the royal apartments. It is applied, as in 1 Chronicles 29:1, to the temple in Jerusalem. The site of the palace of Solomon was almost certainly in the city itself, on the brow opposite to the temple, and overlooking it and the whole city of David. It is impossible, of course, to be at all certain what was either the form or the exact disposition of such a palace; but, as we have the dimensions of the three principal buildings given in the book of Kings, and confirmed by Josephus, we may, by taking these as a scale, ascertain pretty nearly that the building covered somewhere about 150,000 or 160,000 square feet. Whether it was a square of 400 feet each way, or an oblong of about 550 feet by 300, must always be more or less a matter of conjecture. The principal building situated within the palace was, as in all eastern palaces, the great hall of state and audience, called “the house of the forest of Lebanon,” apparently from the four rows of cedar pillars by which it was supported. It was 100 cubits (175 feet) long, 50 (88 feet) wide, and 30 (52 feet) high. Next in importance was the hall or “porch of judgment,” a quadrangular building supported by columns, as we learn from Josephus, which apparently stood on the other side of the great court, opposite the house of the forest of Lebanon. The third edifice is merely called a “porch of pillars.” Its dimensions were 50 by 30 cubits. Its use cannot be considered as doubtful, as it was an indispensable adjunct to an eastern palace. It was the ordinary place of business of the palace, and the reception-room when the king received ordinary visitors, and sat, except on great state occasions, to transact the business of the kingdom. Behind this, we are told, was the inner court, adorned with gardens and fountains, and surrounded by cloisters for shade; and there were other courts for the residence of the attendants and guards, and for the women of the harem. Apart from this palace, but attached, as Josephus tells us, to the hall of judgment, was the palace of Pharaoh’s daughter—too proud and important a personage to be grouped with the ladies of the harem, and requiring a residence of her own. The recent discoveries at Nineveh have enabled us to understand many of the architectural details of this palace, which before they were made were nearly wholly inexplicable. Solomon constructed an ascent from his own house to the temple, “the house of Jehovah,” 1 Kings 10:5, which was a subterranean passage 250 feet long by 42 feet wide, of which the remains may still be traced.

Palal

Pa’lal (judge), the son of Uzai, who assisted in restoring the walls of Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah. Nehemiah 3:25. (b.c. 446.)

Palestina

Palesti’na and Pal’estine (land of strangers). These two forms occur in the DAV but four times in all, always in poetical passages; the first in Exodus 15:14 and Isaiah 14:29, Isaiah 14:31; the second, Joel 3:4. In each case the Hebrew is Pelesheth, a word found, besides the above, only in Psalm 60:8; Psalm 83:7; Psalm 87:4 and Psalm 108:9, in all which our translators have rendered it by “Philistia” or “Philistines.” Palestine in the DAV really means nothing but Philistia. The original Hebrew word Pelesheth to the Hebrews signified merely the long and broad strip of maritime plain inhabited by their encroaching neighbors; nor does it appear that at first it signified more to the Greeks. As lying next the sea, and as being also the high road from Egypt to Phœnicia and the richer regions north of it, the Philistine plain became sooner known to the western world than the country farther inland, and was called by them Syria Palestina—Philistine Syria. From thence it was gradually extended to the country farther inland, till in the Roman and later Greek authors, both heathen and Christian, it became the usual appellation for the whole country of the Jews, both west and east of Jordan. The word is now so commonly employed in our more familiar language to designate the whole country of Israel that although biblically a misnomer, it has been chosen here as the most convenient heading under which to give a general description of the holy land, embracing those points which have not been treated under the separate headings of cities or tribes. This description will most conveniently divide itself into three sections:—I. The Names applied to the country of Israel in the Bible and elsewhere. II. The Land: its situation, aspect, climate, physical characteristics in connection with its history, its structure, botany and natural history. III. The History of the country is so fully given under its various headings throughout the work that it is unnecessary to recapitulate it here.

I. The Names.—Palestine, then, is designated in the Bible by more than one name.

1. During the patriarchal period, the conquest and the age of the judges, and also where those early periods are referred to in the later literature (as Psalm 105:11), it is spoken of as “Canaan,” or more frequently “the land of Canaan,” meaning thereby the country west of the Jordan, as opposed to “the land of Gilead,” on the east. 2. During the monarchy the name usually, though not frequently, employed is “land of Israel.” 1 Samuel 13:19. 3. Between the captivity and the time of our Lord the name “Judea” had extended itself from the southern portion to the whole of the country, and even that beyond the Jordan. Matthew 19:1; Mark 10;Mark 10:1. 4. The Roman division of the country hardly coincided with the biblical one, and it does not appear that the Romans had any distinct name for that which we understand by Palestine. 5. Soon after the Christian era we find the name Palestina in possession of the country. 6. The name most frequently used throughout the middle ages, and down to our own time, is Terra Sancta—the Holy Land.

II. The Land.—The holy land is not in size or physical characteristics proportioned to its moral and historical position as the theatre of the most momentous events in the world’s history. It is but a strip of country about the size of Wales, less than 140 miles in length and barely 40 in average breadth, on the very frontier of the East, hemmed in between the Mediterranean Sea on the one hand and the enormous trench of the Jordan valley on the other, by which it is effectually cut off from the mainland of Asia behind it. On the north it is shut in by the high ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and by the chasm of the Litany. On the south it is no less enclosed by the arid and inhospitable deserts of the upper part of the peninsula of Sinai.

1. Its position.—Its position on the map of the world—as the world was when the holy land first made its appearance in history—is a remarkable one. (a) It is on the very outpost—on the extremest western edge of the East. On the shore of the Mediterranean it stands, as if it had advanced as far as possible toward the west, separated therefrom by that which, when the time arrived, proved to be no barrier, but the readiest medium of communication—the wide waters of the “great sea.” Thus it was open to all the gradual influences of the rising communities of the West, while it was saved from the retrogression and decrepitude which have ultimately been the doom of all purely eastern states whose connections were limited to the East only. (b) There was, however, one channel, and but one, by which it could reach and be reached by the great Oriental empires. The only road by which the two great rivals of the ancient world could approach one another—by which alone Egypt could get to Assyria and Assyria to Egypt—lay along the broad flat strip of coast which formed the maritime portion of the holy land, and thence by the plain of the Lebanon to the Euphrates. (c) After this the holy land became (like the Netherlands in Europe) the convenient arena on which in successive ages the hostile powers who contended for the empire of the East fought their battles.

2. Physical features.—Palestine is essentially a mountainous country. Not that it contains independent mountain chains, as in Greece, for example, but that every part of the highland is in greater or less undulation. But it is not only a mountainous country. The mass of hills which occupies the centre of the country is bordered or frames on both sides, east and west, by a broad belt of lowland, sunk deep below its own level. The slopes or cliffs which form, as it were, the retaining walls of this depression are furrowed and cleft by the torrent beds which discharge the waters of the hills and form the means of communication between the upper and lower level. On the west this lowland interposes between the mountains and the sea, and is the plain of Philistia and of Sharon. On the east it is the broad bottom of the Jordan valley, deep down in which rushes the one river of Palestine to its grave in the Dead Sea. Such is the first general impression of the physiognomy of the holy land. It is a physiognomy compounded of the three main features already namedÅthe plains, the highland hills, and the torrent beds: features which are marked in the words of its earliest describers, Numbers 13:29; Joshua 11:16; Joshua 12:8, and which must be comprehended by every one who wishes to understand the country and the intimate connection existing between its structure and its history. About halfway up the coast the maritim plain is suddenly interrupted by a long ridge thrown out from the central mass, rising considerably above the general level and terminating in a bold promontory on the very edge of the Mediterranean. This ridge is Mount Carmel. On its upper side, the plain, as if to compensate for its temporary displacement, invades the centre of the country, and forms an undulating hollow right across it from the Mediterranean to the Jordan valley. This central lowland, which divides with its broad depression the mountains of Ephraim from the mountains of Galilee, is the plain of Esdraelon or Jezreel, the great battle-field of Palestine. North of Carmel the lowland resumes its position by the seaside till it is again interrupted and finally put an end to by the northern mountains, which push their way out of the sea, ending in the white promontory of the Ras Nakhûra. Above this is the ancient Phœnicia. The country thus roughly portrayed is to all intents and purposes the whole land of Israel. The northern portion is Galilee; the centre, Samaria; the south, Judea. This is the land of Canaan which was bestowed on Abraham—the covenanted home of his descendants. The highland district, surrounded and intersected by its broad lowland plains, preserves from north to south a remarkably even and horizontal profile. Its average height may be taken as 1500 to 1800 feet above the Mediterranean. It can hardly be denominated a plateau; yet so evenly is the general level preserved, and so thickly do the hills stand behind and between one another, that, when seen from the coast or the western part of the maritime plain, it has quite the appearance of a wall. This general monotony of profile is, however, relieved at intervals by certain centres of elevation. Between these elevated points runs the watershed of the country, sending off on either hand—to the Jordan valley on the east and the Mediterranean on the west—the long, tortuous arms of its many torrent beds. The valleys on the two sides of the watershed differ considerably in character. Those on the east are extremely steep and rugged; the western valleys are more gradual in their slope.

3. Fertility.—When the highlands of the country are more closely examined, a considerable difference will be found to exist in the natural condition and appearance of their different portions. The south, as being nearer the arid desert and farther removed from the drainage of the mountains, is drier and less productive than the north. The tract below Hebron, which forms the link between the hills of Judah and the desert, was known to the ancient Hebrews by a term originally derived from its dryness—Negeb. This was the south country. As the traveller advances north of this tract there is an improvement; but perhaps no country equally cultivated is more monotonous, bare, or uninviting in its aspect than a great part of the highlands of Judah and Benjamin during the larger portion of the year. The spring covers even those bald gray rocks with verdure and color, and fills the ravines with torrents of rushing water; but in summer and autumn the look of the country from Hebron up to Bethel is very dreary and desolate. At Jerusalem this reaches its climax. To the west and northwest of the highlands, where the sea-breezes are felt, there is considerably more vegetation. Hitherto we have spoken of the central and northern portions of Judea. Its eastern portion—a tract some nine or ten miles in width by about thirty-five in length, which intervenes between the centre and the abrupt descent to the Dead Sea—is far more wild and desolate, and that not for a portion of the year only, but throughout it. This must have been always what it is now—an uninhabited desert, because uninhabitable. No descriptive sketch of this part of the country can be complete which does not allude to the caverns, characteristic of all limestone districts, but here existing in astonishing numbers. Every hill and ravine is pierced with them, some very large and of curious formation—perhaps partly natural, partly artificial—others mere grottos. Many of them are connected with most important and interesting events of the ancient history of the country. Especially is this true of the district now under consideration. Machpelah, Makkedah, Adullam, En-gedi, names inseparably connected with the lives, adventures and deaths of Abraham, Joshua, David, and other Old Testament worthies, are all within the small circle of the territory of Judea. The bareness and dryness which prevail more or less in Judea are owing partly to the absence of wood, partly to its proximity to the desert, and partly to a scarcity of water arising from its distance from the Lebanon. But to this discouraging aspect there are some important exceptions. The valley of Urtâs, south of Bethlehem, contains springs which in abundance and excellence rival even those of Nablûs; the huge “Pools of Solomon” are enough to supply a district for many miles round them; and the cultivation now going on in that neighborhood shows what might be done with a soil which requires only irrigation and a moderate amount of labor to evoke a boundless produce. It is obvious that in the ancient days of the nation, when Judah and Benjamin possessed the teeming population indicated in the Bible, the condition and aspect of the country must have been very different. Of this there are not wanting sure evidences. There is no country in which the ruined towns bear so large a proportion to those still existing. Hardly a hill-top of the many within sight that is not covered with vestiges of some fortress or city. But, besides this, forests appear to have stood in many parts of Judea until the repeated invasions and sieges caused their fall; and all this vegetation must have reacted on the moisture of the climate, and, by preserving the water in many a ravine and natural reservoir where now it is rapidly dried by the fierce sun of the early summer, must have influenced materially the look and the resources of the country. Advancing northward from Judea, the country (Samaria) becomes gradually more open and pleasant. Plains of good soil occur between the hills, at first small, but afterward comparatively large. The hills assume here a more varied aspect than in the southern districts, springs are more abundant and more permanent, until at last, when the district of Jebel Nablûs is reached—the ancient Mount Ephraim—the traveller encounters an atmosphere and an amount of vegetation and water which are greatly superior to anything he has met with in Judea, and even sufficient to recall much of the scenery of the West. Perhaps the springs are the only objects which in themselves, and apart from their associations, really strike an English traveller with astonishment and admiration. Such glorious fountains as those of Ain-jalûd or the Ras el-Mukâtta—where a great body of the clearest water wells silently but swiftly out from deep blue recesses worn in the foot of a low cliff of limestone rock, and at once forms a considerable stream—are rarely to be met with out of irregular, rocky, mountainous countries, and being such unusual sights, can hardly be looked on by the traveller without surprise and emotion. The valleys which lead down from the upper level in this district to the valley of the Jordan are less precipitous than in Judea. The eastern district of the Jebel Nablûs contains some of the most fertile and valuable spots in the holy land. Hardly less rich is the extensive region which lies northwest of the city of Shechem (Nablûs), between it and Carmel, in which the mountains gradually break down into the plain of Sharon. But with all its richness and all its advance on the southern part of the country, there is a strange dearth of natural wood about this central district. It is this which makes the wooded sides of Carmel and the parklike scenery of the adjacent slopes and plains so remarkable. No sooner, however, is the plain of Esdraelon passed than a considerable improvement is perceptible. The low hills which spread down from the mountains of Galilee, and form the barrier between the plains of Akka and Esdraelon, are covered with timber, of moderate size it is true, but of thick, vigorous growth, and pleasant to the eye. Eastward of these hills rises the round mass of Tabor, dark with its copses of oak, and set off by contrast with the bare slopes of Jebel ed-Duhy (the so-called “Little Hermon”) and the white hills of Nazareth. A few words must be said in general description of the maritime lowland, which intervenes between the sea and the highlands. This region, only slightly elevated above the level of the Mediterranean, extends without interruption from el-Arish, south of Gaza, to Mount Carmel. It naturally divides itself into two portions, each of about half its length; the lower one the wider, the upper one the narrower. The lower half is the plain of the Philistines—Philistia, or, as the Hebrews called it, the Shefelah or Lowland. The upper half is the Sharon or Saron of the Old and New Testaments. The Philistine plain is on an average 15 or 16 miles in width from the coast to the beginning of the belt of hills which forms the gradual approach to the high land of the mountains of Judah. The larger towns, as Gaza and Ashdod, which stand near the shore, are surrounded with huge groves of olive, sycamore and palm, as in the days of King David. 1 Chronicles 27:28. The whole plain appears to consist of brown loamy soil, light but rich, and almost without a stone. It is now, as it was when the Philistines possessed it, one enormous cornfield; an ocean of wheat covers the wide expanse between the hills and the sand dunes of the seashore, without interruption of any kind—no break or hedge, hardly even a single olive tree. Its fertility is marvellous; for the prodigious crops which it raises are produced, and probably have been produced almost year by year for the last forty centuries, without any of the appliances which we find necessary for success. The plain of Sharon is much narrower than Philistia. It is about 10 miles wide from the sea to the foot of the mountains, which are here of a more abrupt character than those of Philistia, and without the intermediate hilly region there occurring. The one ancient port of the Jews, the “beautiful” city of Joppa, occupied a position central between the Shefelah and Sharon. Roads led from these various cities to each other, to Jerusalem, Neapolis, and Sebaste in the interior, and to Ptolemais and Gaza on the north and south. The commerce of Damascus, and, beyond Damascus, of Persia and India, passed this way to Egypt, Rome, and the infant colonies of the West; and that traffic and the constant movement of troops backward and forward must have made this plain, at the time of Christ, one of the busiest and most populous regions of Syria.

4. The Jordan valley.—The characteristics already described are hardly peculiar to Palestine. But there is one feature, as yet only alluded to, in which she stands alone. This feature is the Jordan—the one river of the country. The river is elsewhere described [JORDAN]; but it and the valley through which it rushes down its extraordinary descent must be here briefly characterized. This valley begins with the river at its remotest springs of Hasbeiya, on the northwest side of Hermon, and accompanies it to the lower end of the Dead Sea, a length of about 150 miles. During the whole of this distance its course is straight and its direction nearly due north and south. The springs of Hasbeiya are 1700 feet above the level of the Mediterranean, and the northern end of the Dead Sea is 1317 feet below it, so that between these two points the valley falls with more or less regularity through a height of more than 3000 feet. But though the river disappears at this point, the valley still continues its descent below the waters of the Dead Sea till it reaches a further depth of 1308 feet. So that the bottom of this extraordinary crevasse is actually more than 2600 feet below the surface of the ocean. In width the valley varies. In its upper and shallower portion, as between Banias and the lake of Merom (Hûleh), it is about five miles across. Between the lake of Merom and the Sea of Galilee it contracts, and becomes more of an ordinary ravine or glen. It is in its third and lower portion that the valley assumes its more definite and regular character. During the greater part of this portion it is about seven miles wide from the one wall to the other. The eastern mountains preserve their straight line of direction, and their massive horizontal wall-like aspect, during almost the whole distance. The western mountains are more irregular in height, their slopes less vertical. North of Jericho they recede in a kind of wide amphitheatre, and the valley becomes twelve miles broad—a breadth which it thenceforward retains to the southern extremity of the Dead Sea. Buried as it is between such lofty ranges, and shielded from every breeze, the climate of the Jordan valley is extremely hot and relaxing. Its enervating influence is shown by the inhabitants of Jericho. All the irrigation necessary for the cultivation which formerly existed is obtained from the torrents of the western mountains. For all purposes to which a river is ordinarily applied the Jordan is useless. The Dead Sea, which is the final receptacle of the Jordan, is described elsewhere. [SEA, THE SALT.]

5. Climate.—“Probably there is no country in the world of the same extent which has a greater variety of climate than Palestine. On Mount Hermon, at its northern border, there is perpetual snow. From this we descend successively by the peaks of Bashan and upper Galilee, where the oak and pine flourish, to the hills of Judah and Samaria, where the vine and fig tree are at home, to the plains of the seaboard, where the palm and banana produce their fruit, down to the sultry shores of the Dead Sea, on which we find tropical heat and tropical vegetation.”—McClintock and Strong. As in the time of our Saviour, Luke 12:54, the rains come chiefly from the south or southwest. They commence at the end of October or beginning of November and continue with greater or less constancy till the end of February or March. It is not a heavy, continuous rain so much as a succession of severe showers or storms, with intervening periods of fine, bright weather. Between April and November there is, with the rarest exceptions, an uninterrupted succession of fine weather and skies without a cloud. Thus the year divides itself into two and only two seasons—as indeed we see it constantly divided in the Bible—“winter and summer,” “cold and heat,” “seed-time and harvest.”

6. Botany.— The botany of Syria and Palestine differs but little from that of Asia Minor, which is one of the most rich and varied on the globe. Among trees the oak is by far the most prevalent. The trees of the genus Pistacia rank next to the oak in abundance, and of these there are three species in Syria. There is also the carob or locust tree (Ceratonia siliqua), the pine, sycamore, poplar, and walnut. Of planted trees and large shrubs the first in importance is the vine, which is most abundantly cultivated all over the country, and produces, as in the time of the Canaanites, enormous bunches of grapes. This is especially the case in the southern districts, those of Eshcol being still particularly famous. Next to the vine, or even in some respects its superior in importance, ranks the olive, which nowhere grows in greater luxuriance and abundance than in Palestine, where the olive orchards form a prominent feature throughout the landscape, and have done so from time immemorial. The fig forms another most important crop in Syria and Palestine. (Besides these are the almond, pomegranate, orange, pear, banana, quince, and mulberry among fruit trees. Of vegetables there are many varieties, as the egg plant, pumpkin, asparagus, lettuce, melon, and cucumber. Palestine is especially distinguished for its wild flowers, of which there are more than five hundred varieties. The geranium, pink, poppy, narcissus, honeysuckle, oleander, jessamine, tulip, and iris are abundant. The various grains are also very largely cultivated.—Ed.)

7. Zoology.—It will be sufficient in this article to give a general survey of the fauna of Palestine, as the reader will find more particular information in the several articles which treat of the various animals under their respective names. Jackals and foxes are common; the hyena and wolf are also occasionally observed; the lion is no longer a resident in Palestine or Syria. A species of squirrel which the Arabs term orkidaun, “the leaper,” has been noticed on the lower and middle parts of Lebanon. Two kinds of hare, rats, and mice, which are said to abound, the jerboa, the porcupine, the short-tailed field-mouse, may be considered as the representatives of the Rodentia. Of the Pachydermata, the wild boar, which is frequently met with on Taber and Little Hermon, appears to be the only living wild example. There does not appear to be at present any wild ox in Palestine. Of domestic animals we need only mention the Arabian or one-humped camel, the ass, the mule and the horse, all of which are in general use. The buffalo (Bubalus buffalo) is common. The ox of the country is small and unsightly in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, but in the richer pastures the cattle, though small, are not unsightly. The common sheep of Palestine is the broadtail, with its varieties. Goats are extremely common everywhere. Palestine abounds in numerous kinds of birds. Vultures, eagles, falcons, kites, owls of different kinds, represent the Raptorial order. In the south of Palestine especially, reptiles of various kinds abound. It has been remarked that in its physical character Palestine presents on a small scale an epitome of the natural features of all regions, mountainous and desert, northern and tropical, maritime and inland, pastoral, arable, and volcanic.

8. Antiquities.—In the preceding description allusion has been made to many of the characteristic features of the holy land; but it is impossible to close this account without mentioning a defect which is even more characteristic—its lack of monuments and personal relics of the nation which possessed it for so many centuries and gave it its claim to our veneration and affection. When compared with other nations of equal antiquity—Egypt, Greece, Assyria—the contrast is truly remarkable. In Egypt and Greece, and also in Assyria, as far as our knowledge at present extends, we find a series of buildings reaching down from the most remote and mysterious antiquity, a chain of which hardly a link is wanting, and which records the progress of the people in civilization, art, and religion, as certainly as the buildings of the mediæval architects do that of the various nations of modern Europe. But in Palestine it is not too much to say that there does not exist a single edifice or part of an edifice of which we can be sure that it is of a date anterior to the Christian era. And as with the buildings, so with other memorials. With one exception, the museums of Europe do not possess a single piece of pottery on metal work, a single weapon or household utensil, an ornament or a piece of armor, of Israelite make, which can give us the least conception of the manners or outward appliances of the nation before the date of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. The coins form the single exception. M. Renan has named two circumstances which must have had a great effect in suppressing art or architecture amongst the ancient Israelites, while their very existence proves that the people had no genius in that direction. These are (1) the prohibition of sculptured representations of living creatures, and (2) the command not to build a temple anywhere but at Jerusalem.

Pallu

Pal’lu (distinguished), the second son of Reuben, father of Eliab, Exodus 6:14; Numbers 26:5, Numbers 26:8; 1 Chronicles 5:3, and founder of the family of

Palluites

Pal’luites (descendants of Pallu), The. Numbers 26:5.

Palmer-worm

Palmer-worm (Heb. gâzâm) occurs Joel 1:4; Joel 2:25; Amos 4:9. It is maintained by many that gâzâm denotes some species of locust, but it is more probably a caterpillar.

Palm tree

Palm tree (Heb. tâmâr). Under this generic term many species are botanically included; but we have here only to do with the date palm, the PhŜnix dactylifera of Linnæus. While this tree was abundant generally in the Levant, it was regarded by the ancients as peculiarly characteristic of Palestine and the neighboring regions, though now it is rare. (“The palm tree frequently attains a height of eighty feet, but more commonly forty to fifty. It begins to bear fruit after it has been planted six or eight years, and continues to be productive for a century. Its trunk is straight, tall, and unbroken, terminating in a crown of emerald-green plumes, like a diadem of gigantic ostrich-feathers; these leaves are frequently twenty feet in length, droop slightly at the ends, and whisper musically in the breeze. The palm is, in truth, a beautiful and most useful tree. Its fruit is the daily food of millions; its sap furnishes an agreeable wine; the fibres of the base of its leaves are woven into ropes and rigging; its tall stem supplies a valuable timber; its leaves are manufactured into brushes, mats, bags, couches, and baskets. This one tree supplies almost all the wants of the Arab or Egyptian.”—Bible Plants.) Many places are mentioned in the Bible as having connection with palm trees; Elim, where grew three score and ten palm trees, Exodus 15:27, and Elath. Deuteronomy 2:8. Jericho was the city of “palm trees.” Deuteronomy 34:3. Hazezon-tamar, “the felling of the palm tree,” is clear in its derivation. There is also Tamar, “the palm.” Ezekiel 47:19. Bethany means the “house of dates.” The word Phœnicia, which occurs twice in the New Testament—Acts 11:19; Acts 15:3—is in all probability derived from the Greek word for a palm. The striking appearance of the tree, its uprightness and beauty, would naturally suggest the giving of its name occasionally to women. Genesis 38:6; 2 Samuel 13:1; 2 Samuel 14:27. There is in the Psalms, Psalm 92:12, the familiar comparison, “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree,” which suggests a world of illustration, whether respect be had to the orderly and regular aspect of the tree, its fruitfulness, the perpetual greenness of its foliage, or the height at which the foliage grows, as far as possible from earth and as near as possible to heaven. Perhaps no point is more worthy of mention, if we wish to pursue the comparison, than the elasticity of the fibre of the palm, and its determined growth upward even when loaded with weights. The passage in Revelation 7:9, where the glorified of all nations are described as “clothed with white robes and palms in their hands,” might seem to us a purely classical image; but palm branches were used by the Jews in token of victory and peace. (To these points of comparison may be added, its principle of growth: it is an endogen, and grows from within; its usefulness: the Syrians enumerating 360 different uses to which it may be put; and the statement that it bears its best fruit in old age.—Ed.) It is curious that this tree, once so abundant in Judea, is now comparatively rare, except in the Philistine plain and in the old Phœnicia about Beyrout.

Palm Tree, showing fruit.

Palsy

Palsy (contracted from paralysis). The loss of sensation or the power of motion, or both, in any part of the body. The infirmities included under this name in the New Testament were various:—

1. The paralytic shock affecting the whole body, or apoplexy. 2. That affecting only one side. 3. Affecting the whole system below the neck. 4. Catalepsy, caused by the contraction of the muscles in the whole or a part of the body. This was very dangerous and often fatal. The part affected remains immovable, and diminishes in size and dries up. A hand thus affected was called “a withered hand.” Matthew 12:10-13. 5. Cramp. This was a most dreadful disease, caused by the chills of the nights. The limbs remain immovably fixed in the same position as when seized by it, and the person seems like one suffering torture. It is frequently followed in a few days by death. Several paralytics were cured by Jesus. Matthew 4:24; Matthew 8;Mark 8:13, etc.

Palti

Pal’ti (whom Jehovah delivers), the Benjamite spy, son of Raphu. Numbers 13:9. (b.c. 1490.)

Palti-el

Pal’ti-el (whom God delivers), the son of Azzan and prince of the tribe of Issachar. Numbers 34:26. He was one of the twelve appointed to divide the land of Canaan among the tribes west of Jordan. (b.c. 1450.)

Paltite The

Pal’tite, The. Helez “the Paltite” is named in 2 Samuel 23:26 among David’s mighty men. (b.c. 1015.)

Pamphylia

Pamphyl’ia (of every tribe), one of the coast-regions in the south of Asia Minor, having Cilicia on the east and Lycia on the west. In St. Paul’s time it was not only a regular province, but the emperor Claudius had united Lycia with it, and probably also a good part of Pisidia. It was in Pamphylia that St. Paul first entered Asia Minor, after preaching the gospel in Cyprus. He and Barnabas sailed up the river Cestrus to Perga. Acts 13:13. The two missionaries finally left Pamphylia by its chief seaport, Attalia. Many years afterward St. Paul sailed near the coast. Acts 27;Acts 27:5.

Pan

Pan. Of the six words so rendered in the DAV, two seem to imply a shallow pan or plate, such as is used by the Bedouins and Syrians for baking or dressing rapidly their cakes of meal, such as were used in legal oblations; the others, a deeper vessel or caldron for boiling meat, placed during the process on three stones.

Pannag

Pannag (sweet), an article of commerce exported from Palestine to Tyre, Ezekiel 27:17, the nature of which is a pure matter of conjecture, as the term occurs nowhere else. A comparison of the passage in Ezekiel with Genesis 43:11 leads to the supposition that pannag represents some of the spices grown in Palestine.

Paper

Paper. [WRITING.]

Paphos

Pa’phos (boiling, or hot), a town at the west end of Cyprus, connected by a road with Salamis at the east end. It was founded b.c. 1184 (during the period of the judges in Israel). Paul and Barnabas travelled, on their first missionary expedition, “through the isle,” from the latter place to the former. Acts 13:6. The great characteristic of Paphos was the worship of Aphrodite or Venus, who was fabled to have here risen from the sea. Her temple, however, was at “Old Paphos,” now called Kuklia. The harbor and the chief town were at “New Paphos,” ten miles to the northwest. The place is still called Baffa.

Parable

Parable. (The word parable is in Greek parabolı (παραβολή), which signifies placing beside or together, a comparison. A parable is therefore literally a placing beside, a comparison, a similitude, an illustration of one subject by another.—McClintock and Strong. As used in the New Testament it had a very wide application, being applied sometimes to the shortest proverbs, 1 Samuel 10:12; 1 Samuel 24:13; 2 Chronicles 7:20, sometimes to dark prophetic utterances, Numbers 23:7, Numbers 23:18; Numbers 24:3; Ezekiel 20:49, sometimes to enigmatic maxims, Psalm 78:2; Proverbs 1:6, or metaphors expanded into a narrative. Ezekiel 12:22. In the New Testament itself the word is used with a like latitude in Matthew 24:32; Luke 4:23; Hebrews 9:9. It was often used in a more restricted sense to denote a short narrative under which some important truth is veiled. Of this sort were the parables of Christ. The parable differs from the fable (1) in excluding brute and inanimate creatures passing out of the laws of their nature, and speaking or acting like men; (2) in its higher ethical significance. It differs from the allegory in that the latter, with its direct personification of ideas or attributes, and the names which designate them, involves really no comparison. The virtues and vices of mankind appear as in a drama, in their own character and costume. The allegory is self-interpreting; the parable demands attention, insight, sometimes an actual explanation. It differs from a proverb in that it must include a similitude of some kind, while the proverb may assert, without a similitude, some wide generalization of experience.—Ed.) For some months Jesus taught in the synagogues and on the seashore of Galilee as he had before taught in Jerusalem, and as yet without a parable. But then there came a change. The direct teaching was met with scorn, unbelief, hardness, and he seemed for a time to abandon it for that which took the form of parables. The worth of parables as instruments of teaching lies in their being at once a test of character and in their presenting each form of character with that which, as a penalty or blessing, is adapted to it. They withdraw the light from those who love darkness. They protect the truth which they enshrine from the mockery of the scoffer. They leave something even with the careless which may be interpreted and understood afterward. They reveal, on the other hand, the seekers after truth. These ask the meaning of the parable, and will not rest until the teacher has explained it. In this way the parable did its work, found out the fit hearers and led them on. In most of the parables it is possible to trace something like an order.

1. There is a group which have for their subject the laws of the divine kingdom. Under this head we have the sower, Matthew 13; Mark 4; Luke 8; the wheat and the tares, Matthew 13, etc. 2. When the next parables meet us they are of a different type and occupy a different position. They are drawn from the life of men rather than from the world of nature. They are such as these—the two debtors, Luke 7; the merciless servant, Matthew 18; the good Samaritan, Luke 10, etc. 3. Toward the close of our Lord’s ministry the parables are again theocratic, but the phase of the divine kingdom on which they chiefly dwell is that of its final consummation. In interpreting parables note—(1) The analogies must be real, not arbitrary; (2) The parables are to be considered as parts of a whole, and the interpretation of one is not to override or encroach upon the lessons taught by others; (3) The direct teaching of Christ presents the standard to which all our interpretations are to be referred, and by which they are to be measured.

Paradise

Par’adise. This is a word of Persian origin, and is used in the Septuagint as the translation of Eden. It means “an orchard of pleasure and fruits,” a “garden” or “pleasure ground,” something like an English park. It is applied figuratively to the celestial dwelling of the righteous, in allusion to the garden of Eden. 2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7. It has thus come into familiar use to denote both that garden and the heaven of the just.

Parah

Pa’rah (heifer-town), one of the cities in the territory allotted to Benjamin, named only in the lists of the conquest. Joshua 18:23.

Paran El-paran

Pa’ran, El-pa’ran (place of caverns), a desert or wilderness, bounded on the north by Palestine, on the east by the valley of Arabah, on the south by the desert of Sinai, and on the west by the wilderness of Etham, which separated it from the Gulf of Suez and Egypt. The first notice of Paran is in connection with the invasion of the confederate kings. Genesis 14:6. The detailed itinerary of the children of Israel in Numbers 33 does not mention Paran because it was the name of a wide region; but the many stations in Paran are recorded, chs. Numbers 17-36, and probably all the eighteen stations there mentioned between Hazeroth and Kadesh were in Paran. Through this very wide wilderness, from pasture to pasture as do modern Arab tribes, the Israelites wandered in irregular lines of march. This region through which the Israelites journeyed so long is now called by the name it has borne for ages—Bedu et-Tih, “the wilderness of wandering.” (“Bible Geography,” Whitney.) “Mount” Paran occurs only in two poetic passages, Deuteronomy 33:2; Habakkuk 3:3. It probably denotes the northwestern member of the Sinaitic mountain group which lies adjacent to the Wady Teiran. (It is probably the ridge or series of ridges lying on the northeastern part of the desert of Paran, not far from Kadesh.—Ed.)

Parbar

Par’bar (open apartment), a word occurring in Hebrew and DAV only in 1 Chronicles 26:18. It would seem that Parbar was some place on the west side of the temple enclosure, probably the suburb mentioned by Josephus as lying in the deep valley which separated the west wall of the temple from the city opposite it.

Parchment

Parchment. [WRITING.]

Parlor

Parlor, a word in English usage meaning the common room of the family, and hence probably in DAV denoting the king’s audience-chamber, so used in reference to Eglon. Judges 3:20-25.

Parmashta

Parmash’ta (superior), one of the ten sons of Haman slain by the Jews in Shushan. Esther 9:9. (b.c. 473.)

Parmenas

Par’menas (abiding), one of the seven deacons, “men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom.” Acts 6:5. There is a tradition that he suffered martyrdom at Philippi in the reign of Trajan.

Parnaeh

Par’naeh (delicate), father or ancestor of Elizaphan prince of the tribe of Zebulun. Numbers 34:25. (b.c. before 1452.)

Parosh

Pa’rosh (flea). The descendants of Parosh, in number 2172, returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel. Ezra 2:3; Nehemiah 7:8. Another detachment of 150 males, with Zechariah at their head, accompanied Ezra. Ezra 8:3. They assisted in the building of the wall of Jerusalem, Nehemiah 3:25, and signed the covenant with Nehemiah. Nehemiah 10:14. (b.c. before 535–445.)

Parshandatha

Parshan’datha (given by prayer), the eldest of Haman’s ten sons who were slain by the Jews in Shushan. Esther 9:7. (b.c. 473.)

Parthians

Par’thians. This name occurs only in Acts 2:9, where it designates Jews settled in Parthia. Parthia proper was the region stretching along the southern flank of the mountains which separate the great Persian desert from the desert of Kharesm. It lay south of Hyrcania, east of Media and north of Sagartia. The ancient Parthians are called a “Scythic” race, and probably belonged to the great Turanian family. After being subject in succession to the Persians and the Seleucidæ, they revolted in b.c. 256, and under Arsaces succeeded in establishing their independence. Parthia, in the mind of the writer of the Acts, would designate this empire, which extended from India to the Tigris and from the Chorasmian desert to the shores of the Southern Ocean; hence the prominent position of the name Parthians in the list of those present at Pentecost. Parthia was a power almost rivalling Rome—the only existing power which had tried its strength against Rome and not been worsted in the encounter. The Parthian dominion lasted for nearly five centuries, commencing in the third century before and terminating in the third century after our era. The Parthians spoke the Persian language.

Partridge

Partridge (Heb. kôrê) occurs only 1 Samuel 26:20 and Jeremiah 17:11. The “hunting this bird upon the mountains,” 1 Samuel 26:20, entirely agrees with the habits of two well-known species of partridge, viz., Caccabis saxatilis, the Greek partridge (which is the commonest partridge of the holy land), and Ammoperdix heyii. Our common partridge, Perdix cincrea, does not occur in Palestine. (The Greek partridge somewhat resembles our red-legged partridge in plumage, but is much larger. In every part of the hill country it abounds, and its ringing call-note in early morning echoes from cliff to cliff alike amid the barrenness of the hills of Judea and in the glens of the forest of Carmel.—Tristram’s Nat. Hist. of Bible. The flesh of the partridge and the eggs are highly esteemed as food, and the search for the eggs at the proper time of the year is made a regular business.—Ed.)

The Greek Partridge.

Paruah

Par’uah (flourishing), the father of Jehoshaphat, Solomon’s commissariat officer in Issachar. 1 Kings 4:17. (b.c. about 1017.)

Parvaim

Parva’im (Oriental regions), the name of an unknown place or country whence the gold was procured for the decoration of Solomon’s temple. 2 Chronicles 3:6. We may notice the conjecture that it is derived from the Sanscrit pûrva, “eastern,” and is a general term for the east.

Pasach

Pa’sach (cut off), son of Japhlet, of the tribe of Asher. 1 Chronicles 7:33.

Pas-dammim

Pas-dam’mim (boundary of blood). [EPHES-DAMMIM.]

Paseah

Pase’ah (lame).

1. Son of Eshton, in an obscure fragment of the genealogies of Judah. 1 Chronicles 4:12.

2. The “sons of Paseah” were among the Nethinim who returned with Zerubbabel. Ezra 2:49.

Pashur

Pash’ur (freedom).

1. One of the families of priests of the chief house of Malchijah. 1 Chronicles 9:12; 1 Chronicles 24:9; Nehemiah 11:12; Jeremiah 21:1; Jeremiah 38:1. In the time of Nehemiah this family appears to have become a chief house, and its head the head of a course. Ezra 2:38; Nehemiah 7:41; Nehemiah 10:3. The individual from whom the family was named was probably Pashur the son of Malchiah, who in the reign of Zedekiah was one of the chief princes of the court. Jeremiah 38:1. (b.c. 607.) He was sent, with others, by Zedekiah to Jeremiah at the time when Nebuchadnezzar was preparing his attack upon Jerusalem. Jeremiah 21. Again, somewhat later, Pashur joined with several other chief men in petitioning the king that Jeremiah might be put to death as a traitor. Jeremiah 38:4.

2. Another person of this name, also a priest, and “chief governor of the house of the Lord,” is mentioned in Jeremiah 20:1. He is described as “the son of Immer,” 1 Chronicles 24:14, probably the same as Amariah. Nehemiah 10:3; Nehemiah 12:2, etc. In the reign of Jehoiakim he showed himself as hostile to Jeremiah as his namesake the son of Malchiah did afterward, and put him in the stocks by the gate of Benjamin. For this indignity to God’s prophet Pashur was told by Jeremiah that his name was changed to Magor-missabib (terror on every side), and that he and all his house should be carried captives to Babylon and there die. Jeremiah 20:1-6. (b.c. 589.)

Passage

Passage. Used in the plural, Jeremiah 22:20, probably to denote the mountain region of Abarim, on the east side of Jordan. It also denotes a river ford or a mountain gorge or pass.

Passover

Pass’over, the first of the three great annual festivals of the Israelites, celebrated in the month Nisan (March–April), from the 14th to the 21st. (Strictly speaking the Passover only applied to the paschal supper, and the feast of unleavened bread followed, which was celebrated to the 21st.) The following are the principal passages in the Pentateuch relating to the Passover: Exodus 12:1-51; Exodus 13:3-10; Exodus 23:14-19; Exodus 34:18-26; Leviticus 23:4-14; Numbers 9:1-14; Numbers 28:16-25; Deuteronomy 16:1-6.

Why instituted.—This feast was instituted by God to commemorate the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage and the sparing of their first-born when the destroying angel smote the first-born of the Egyptians. The deliverance from Egypt was regarded as the starting-point of the Hebrew nation. The Israelites were then raised from the condition of bondmen under a foreign tyrant to that of a free people owing allegiance to no one but Jehovah. The prophet in a later age spoke of the event as a creation and a redemption of the nation. God declares himself to be “the Creator of Israel.” The Exodus was thus looked upon as the birth of the nation; the Passover was its annual birthday feast. It was the yearly memorial of the dedication of the people to him who had saved their first-born from the destroyer, in order that they might be made holy to himself.

First celebration of the Passover.—On the tenth day of the month, the head of each family was to select from the flock either a lamb or a kid, a male of the first year, without blemish. If his family was too small to eat the whole of the lamb, he was permitted to invite his nearest neighbor to join the party. On the fourteenth day of the month he was to kill his lamb, while the sun was setting. He was then to take blood in a basin, and with a sprig of hyssop to sprinkle it on the two side-posts and the lintel of the door of the house. The lamb was then thoroughly roasted, whole. It was expressly forbidden that it should be boiled, or that a bone of it should be broken. Unleavened bread and bitter herbs were to be eaten with the flesh. No male who was uncircumcised was to join the company. Each one was to have his loins girt, to hold a staff in his hand, and to have shoes on his feet. He was to eat in haste, and it would seem that he was to stand during the meal. The number of the party was to be calculated as nearly as possible, so that all the flesh of the lamb might be eaten; but if any portion of it happened to remain, it was to be burned in the morning. No morsel of it was to be carried out of the house. The lambs were selected, on the fourteenth they were slain and the blood sprinkled, and in the following evening, after the fifteenth day of the month had commenced, the first paschal meal was eaten. At midnight the first-born of the Egyptians were smitten. The king and his people were now urgent that the Israelites should start immediately, and readily bestowed on them supplies for the journey. In such haste did the Israelites depart, on that very day, Numbers 33:3, that they packed up their kneading-troughs containing the dough prepared for the morrow’s provisions, which was not yet leavened.

Observance of the Passover in later times.—As the original institution of the Passover in Egypt preceded the establishment of the priesthood and the regulation of the service of the tabernacle, it necessarily fell short in several particulars of the observance of the festival according to the fully-developed ceremonial law. The head of the family slew the lamb in his own house, not in the holy place; the blood was sprinkled on the doorway, not on the altar. But when the law was perfected, certain particulars were altered in order to assimilate the Passover to the accustomed order of religious service. In the twelfth and thirteenth chapters of Exodus there are not only distinct references to the observance of the festival in future ages (e.g., Exodus 12:42; Exodus 13:8-10), but there are several injunctions which were evidently not intended for the first Passover, and which indeed could not possibly have been observed. Besides the private family festival, there were public and national sacrifices offered each of the seven days of unleavened bread. Numbers 28:19. On the second day also the first-fruits of the barley harvest were offered in the temple. Leviticus 23:10. In the later notices of the festival in the books of the law there are particulars added which appear as modifications of the original institution. Leviticus 23:10-14; Numbers 28:16-25; Deuteronomy 16:1-6. Hence it is not without reason that the Jewish writers have laid great stress on the distinction between “the Egyptian Passover” and “the perpetual Passover.”

Mode and order of the paschal meal.—All work except that belonging to a few trades connected with daily life was suspended for some hours before the evening of the 14th Nisan. It was not lawful to eat any ordinary food after midday. No male was admitted to the table unless he was circumcised, even if he were of the seed of Israel. Exodus 12:48. It was customary for the number of a party to be not less than ten. When the meal was prepared, the family was placed round the table, the paterfamilias taking a place of honor, probably somewhat raised above the rest. When the party was arranged the first cup of wine was filled, and a blessing was asked by the head of the family on the feast, as well as a special one on the cup. The bitter herbs were then placed on the table, and a portion of them eaten, either with or without the sauce. The unleavened bread was handed round next, and afterward the lamb was placed on the table in front of the head of the family. The paschal lamb could be legally slain and the blood and fat offered only in the national sanctuary. Deuteronomy 16:2. Before the lamb was eaten the second cup of wine was filled, and the son, in accordance with Exodus 12:26, asked his father the meaning of the feast. In reply, an account was given of the sufferings of the Israelites in Egypt and of their deliverance, with a particular explanation of Deuteronomy 26:5, and the first part of the Hallel (a contraction from Hallelujah), Psalm 113, Psalm 114, was sung. This being gone through, the lamb was carved and eaten. The third cup of wine was poured out and drunk, and soon afterward the fourth. The second part of the Hallel, Psalm 115-118, was then sung. A fifth wine-cup appears to have been occasionally produced, but perhaps only in later times. What was termed the greater Hallel, Psalm 120-138, was sung on such occasions. The Israelites who lived in the country appear to have been accommodated at the feast by the inhabitants of Jerusalem in their houses, so far as there was room for them. Matthew 26:18; Luke 22:10-12. Those who could not be received into the city encamped without the walls in tents, as the pilgrims now do at Mecca.

The Passover as a type.—The Passover was not only commemorative but also typical. “The deliverance which it commemorated was a type of the great salvation it foretold.” No other shadow of good things to come contained in the law can vie with the festival of the Passover in expressiveness and completeness. (1) The paschal lamb must of course be regarded as the leading feature in the ceremonial of the festival. The lamb slain typified Christ the “Lamb of God,” slain for the sins of the world. Christ “our Passover is sacrificed for us.” 1 Corinthians 5:7. According to the divine purpose, the true Lamb of God was slain at nearly the same time as “the Lord’s Passover,” at the same season of the year, and at the same time of the day, as the daily sacrifice at the temple, the crucifixion beginning at the hour of the morning sacrifice and ending at the hour of the evening sacrifice. That the lamb was to be roasted and not boiled has been supposed to commemorate the haste of the departure of the Israelites. It is not difficult to determine the reason of the command, “not a bone of him shall be broken.” The lamb was to be a symbol of unity—the unity of the family, the unity of the nation, the unity of God with his people whom he had taken into covenant with himself. (2) The unleavened bread ranks next in importance to the paschal lamb. We are warranted in concluding that unleavened bread had a peculiar sacrificial character, according to the law. It seems more reasonable to accept St. Paul’s reference to the subject, 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, as furnishing the true meaning of the symbol. Fermentation is decomposition, a dissolution of unity. The pure dry biscuit would be an apt emblem of unchanged duration, and, in its freedom from foreign mixture, of purity also. (3) The offering of the omer or first sheaf of the harvest, Leviticus 23:10-14, signified deliverance from winter, the bondage of Egypt being well considered as a winter in the history of the nation. (4) The consecration of the first-fruits, the first-born of the soil, is an easy type of the consecration of the first-born of the Israelites, and of our own best selves, to God. (Further than this (1) the Passover is a type of deliverance from the slavery of sin. (2) It is the passing over of the doom we deserve for our sins, because the blood of Christ has been applied to us by faith. (3) The sprinkling of the blood upon the door-posts was a symbol of open confession of our allegiance and love. (4) The Passover was useless unless eaten; so we live upon the Lord Jesus Christ. (5) It was eaten with bitter herbs, as we must eat our passover with the bitter herbs of repentance and confession, which yet, like the bitter herbs of the Passover, are a fitting and natural accompaniment. (6) As the Israelites ate the Passover all prepared for the journey, so do we with a readiness and desire to enter the active service of Christ, and to go on the journey toward heaven.—Ed.)

Patara

Pat’ara (city of Patarus), a Lycian city situated on the southwestern shore of Lycia, not far from the left bank of the river Xanthus. The coast here is very mountainous and bold. Immediately opposite is the island of Rhodes. Patara was practically the seaport of the city of Xanthus, which was ten miles distant. These notices of its position and maritime importance introduce us to the single mention of the place in the Bible—Acts 21:1, Acts 21:2.

Pathros

Path’ros (region of the south), a part of Egypt, and a Mizraite tribe whose people were called Pathrusim. In the list of the Mizraites the Pathrusim occur after the Naphtuhim and before the Casluhim; the latter being followed by the notice of the Philistines and by the Caphtorim. Genesis 10:13, Genesis 10:14; 1 Chronicles 1:12. Pathros is mentioned in the prophecies of Isaiah, Isaiah 11:11, Jeremiah, Jeremiah 44:1, Jeremiah 44:15, and Ezekiel. Ezekiel 29:14; Ezekiel 30:13-18. It was probably part or all of upper Egypt, and we may trace its name in the Pathyrite nome, in which Thebes was situated.

Pathrusim

Pathru’sim, people of Pathros. [PATHROS.]

Patmos

Pat’mos, Revelation 1:9, a rugged and bare island in the Ægean Sea, 20 miles south of Samos and 24 west of Asia Minor. It was the scene of the banishment of St. John in the reign of Domitian, a.d. 95. Patmos is divided into two nearly equal parts, a northern and a southern, by a very narrow isthmus, where, on the east side, are the harbor and the town. On the hill to the south, crowning a commanding height, is the celebrated monastery which bears the name of “John the Divine.” Halfway up the ascent is the cave or grotto where tradition says that St. John received the Revelation.

Isle of Patmos.

Patriarch

Patriarch (father of a tribe), the name given to the head of a family or tribe in Old Testament times. In common usage the title of patriarch is assigned especially to those whose lives are recorded in Scripture previous to the time of Moses, as Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (“In the early history of the Hebrews we find the ancestor or father of a family retaining authority over his children and his children’s children so long as he lived, whatever new connections they might form. When the father died the branch families did not break off and form new communities, but usually united under another common head. The eldest son was generally invested with this dignity. His authority was paternal. He was honored as the central point of connection, and as the representative of the whole kindred. Thus each great family had its patriarch or head, and each tribe its prince, selected from the several heads of the families which it embraced.”—McClintock and Strong.) (“After the destruction of Jerusalem, patriarch was the title of the chief religious rulers of the Jews in Asia; and in early Christian times it became the designation of the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.”—American Cyclopedia.)

Patrobas

Pat’robas (paternal), a Christian at Rome to whom St. Paul sends his salutation. Romans 16:14. Like many other names mentioned in Romans 16, this was borne by at least one member of the emperor’s household. Suet. Galba. 20; Martial, Ep. ii. 32, 3. (a.d. 55.)

Pau

Pau (bleating) (but in 1 Chronicles 1:50, Pai), the capital of Hadar king of Edom. Genesis 36:39. Its position is unknown.

Paul

Paul (small, little). Nearly all the original materials for the life of St. Paul are contained in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Pauline epistles. Paul was born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia. (It is not improbable that he was born between a.d. 0 and a.d. 5.) Up to the time of his going forth as an avowed preacher of Christ to the Gentiles, the apostle was known by the name of Saul. This was the Jewish name which he received from his Jewish parents. But though a Hebrew of the Hebrews, he was born in a Gentile city. Of his parents we know nothing, except that his father was of the tribe of Benjamin, Philippians 3:5, and a Pharisee, Acts 23:6; that Paul had acquired by some means the Roman franchise (“I was free born,” Acts 22:28), and that he was settled in Tarsus. At Tarsus he must have learned to use the Greek language with freedom and mastery in both speaking and writing. At Tarsus also he learned that trade of “tent-maker,” Acts 18:3, at which he afterward occasionally wrought with his own hands. There was a goat’s-hair cloth called cilicium manufactured in Cilicia, and largely used for tents. Saul’s trade was probably that of making tents of this hair cloth. When St. Paul makes his defence before his countrymen at Jerusalem, Acts 22, he tells them that, though born in Tarsus, he had been “brought up” in Jerusalem. He must, therefore, have been yet a boy when he was removed, in all probability for the sake of his education, to the holy city of his fathers. He learned, says, “at the feet of Gamaliel.” He who was to resist so stroutly the usurpations of the law had for his teacher one of the most eminent of all the doctors of the law. Saul was yet “a young man,” Acts 7:58, when the Church experienced that sudden expansion which was connected with the ordaining of the seven appointed to serve tables, and with the special power and inspiration of Stephen. Among those who disputed with Stephen were some “of them of Cilicia.” We naturally think of Saul as having been one of these, when we find him afterward keeping the clothes of those suborned witnesses who, according to the law, Deuteronomy 17:7, were the first to cast stones at Stephen. “Saul,” says the sacred writer, significantly, “was consenting unto his death.”

Saul’s conversion. a.d. 37.—The persecutor was to be converted. Having undertaken to follow up the believers “unto strange cities,” Saul naturally turned his thoughts to Damascus. What befell him as he journeyed thither is related in detail three times in the Acts, first by the historian in his own person, then in the two addresses made by St. Paul at Jerusalem and before Agrippa. St. Luke’s statement is to be read in Acts 9:3-19, where, however, the words “it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks,” included in the English version, ought to be omitted (as is done in the Revised Version). The sudden light from heaven; the voice of Jesus speaking with authority to his persecutor; Saul struck to the ground, blinded, overcome; the three-days suspense; the coming of Ananias as a messenger of the Lord, and Saul’s baptism—these were the leading features of the great event, and in these we must look for the chief significance of the conversion. It was in Damascus that he was received into the church by Ananias, and here, to the astonishment of all his hearers, he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, declaring him to be the Son of God. The narrative in the Acts tells us simply that he was occupied in this work, with increasing vigor, for “many days,” up to the time when imminent danger drove him from Damascus. From the Epistle to the Galatians, Galatians 1:17, Galatians 1:18, we learn that the many days were at least a good part of “three years,” a.d. 37–40, and that Saul, not thinking it necessary to procure authority to preach from the apostles that were before him, went after his conversion into Arabia, and returned from thence to Damascus. We know nothing whatever of this visit to Arabia; but upon his departure from Damascus we are again upon historical ground, and have the double evidence of St. Luke in the Acts and of the apostle in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians. According to the former, the Jews lay in wait for Saul, intending to kill him, and watched the gates of the city that he might not escape from them. Knowing this, the disciples took him by night and let him down in a basket from the wall. Having escaped from Damascus, Saul betook himself to Jerusalem (a.d. 40), and there “assayed to join himself to the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple.” Barnabas’ introduction removed the fears of the apostles, and Saul “was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.” But it is not strange that the former persecutor was soon singled out from the other believers as the object of a murderous hostility. He was, therefore, again urged to flee; and by way of Cæsarea betook himself to his native city, Tarsus. Barnabas was sent on a special mission to Antioch. As the work grew under his hands, he felt the need of help, went himself to Tarsus to seek Saul, and succeeded in bringing him to Antioch. There they labored together unremittingly for “a whole year.” All this time Saul was subordinate to Barnabas. Antioch was in constant communication with Cilicia, with Cyprus, with all the neighboring countries. The Church was pregnant with a great movement, and the time of her delivery was at hand. Something of direct expectation seems to be implied in what is said of the leaders of the Church at Antioch, that they were “ministering to the Lord, and fasting,” when the Holy Ghost spoke to them: “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” Everything was done with orderly gravity in the sending forth of the two missionaries. Their brethren, after fasting and prayer, laid their hands on them, and so they departed.

Traditional Portraits of Peter and Paul. These portraits are copied, same size as the original, from the bottom of a gilded glass cup found in the catacombs of St. Sebastian at Rome. The earliest interments by the Christians in the Roman catacombs included, besides Christian symbols, some objects of pagan regard. This having been the case in the section in which the glass cup bearing the group of the Savior, Paul, and Peter was discovered, it seems conclusive that the age was probably the fourth, if not the third, century. The absence of the nimbus (glory or circle) about the heads of Peter and Paul, and its presence around the Saviour’s, may indicate the third century or early in the fourth; for the nimbus was generally used around the heads of all saints and divine persons in the latter half of the fourth century. Tertullian speaks of glass cups as used in sacramental services, as also does Eusebius. In this picture the Saviour is represented as presenting a crown of life to the apostles; the inscription is a prayer of the friends of the dead, who was laid in the tomb in the faith of Christ, and may be paraphrased, “Friendship’s blessing; may you live forever with thy (Saviour).”

The first missionary journey. a.d. 45–49.—As soon as Barnabas and Saul reached Cyprus, they began to “announce the word of God,” but at first they delivered their message in the synagogues of the Jews only. When they had gone through the island, from Salamis to Paphos, they were called upon to explain their doctrine to an eminent Gentile, Sergius Paulus, the proconsul, who was converted. Saul’s name was now changed to Paul, and he began to take precedence of Barnabas. From Paphos “Paul and his company” set sail for the mainland, and arrived at Perga in Pamphylia. Here the heart of their companion John failed him, and he returned to Jerusalem. From Perga they travelled on to a place obscure in secular history, but most memorable in the history of the kingdom of Christ—Antioch in Pisidia. Rejected by the Jews, they became bold and outspoken, and turned from them to the Gentiles. At Antioch now, as in every city afterward, the unbelieving Jews used their influence with their own adherents among the Gentiles to persuade the authorities or the populace to persecute the apostles and to drive them from the place. Paul and Barnabas now travelled on to Iconium, where the occurrences at Antioch were repeated, and from thence to the Lycaonian country which contained the cities Lystra and Derbe. Here they had to deal with uncivilized heathen. At Lystra the healing of a cripple took place. Thereupon these pagans took the apostles for gods, calling Barnabas, who was of the more imposing presence, Jupiter, and Paul, who was the chief speaker, Mercurius. Although the people of Lystra had been so ready to worship Paul and Barnabas, the repulse of their idolatrous instincts appears to have provoked them, and they allowed themselves to be persuaded into hostility by Jews who came from Antioch and Iconium, so that they attacked Paul with stones, and thought they had killed him. He recovered, however, as the disciples were standing around him, and went again into the city. The next day he left it with Barnabas, and went to Derbe, and thence they returned once more to Lystra, and so to Iconium and Antioch. In order to establish the churches after their departure they solemnly appointed “elders” in every city. Then they came down to the coast, and from Attalia they sailed home to Antioch in Syria, where they related the successes which had been granted to them, and especially the “opening of the door of faith to the Gentiles.” And so the first missionary journey ended.

The council at Jerusalem.—Upon that missionary journey follows most naturally the next important scene which the historian sets before us—the council held at Jerusalem to determine the relations of Gentile believers to the law of Moses. Acts 15:1-29; Galatians 2.

Second missionary journey. a.d. 50–54.—The most resolute courage, indeed, was required for the work to which St. Paul was now publicly pledged. He would not associate with himself in that work one who had already shown a want of constancy. This was the occasion of what must have been a most painful difference between him and his comrade in the faith and in past perils, Barnabas. Acts 15:35-40. Silas, or Silvanus, becomes now a chief companion of the apostle. The two went together through Syria and Cilicia, visiting the churches, and so came to Derbe and Lystra. Here they find Timotheus, who had become a disciple on the former visit of the apostle. Him St. Paul took and circumcised. St. Luke now steps rapidly over a considerable space of the apostle’s life and labors. “They went throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia.” Acts 16:6. At this time St. Paul was founding “the churches of Galatia.” Galatians 1:2. He himself gives some hints of the circumstances of his preaching in that region, of the reception he met with, and of the ardent though unstable character of the people. Galatians 4:13-15. Having gone through Phrygia and Galatia, he intended to visit the western coast; but “they were forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the word” there. Then, being on the borders of Mysia, they thought of going back to the northeast into Bithynia; but again the Spirit of Jesus “suffered them not,” so they passed by Mysia and came down to Troas. St. Paul saw in a vision a man of Macedonia, who besought him, saying, “Come over into Macedonia and help us.” The vision was at once accepted as a heavenly intimation; the help wanted by the Macedonians was believed to be the preaching of the gospel. It is at this point that the historian, speaking of St. Paul’s company, substitutes “we” for “they.” He says nothing of himself; we can only infer that St. Luke, to whatever country he belonged, became a companion of St. Paul at Troas. The party, thus reinforced, immediately set sail from Troas, touched at Samothrace, then landed on the continent at Neapolis, and thence journeyed to Philippi. The first convert in Macedonia was Lydia, an Asiatic woman, at Philippi. Acts 16:13, Acts 16:14. At Philippi Paul and Silas were arrested, beaten and put in prison, having cast out the spirit of divination from a female slave who had brought her masters much gain by her power. This cruel wrong was to be the occasion of a signal appearance of the God of righteousness and deliverance. The narrative tells of the earthquake, the jailer’s terror, his conversion and baptism. Acts 16:26-34. In the morning the magistrates sent word to the prison that the men might be let go; but Paul denounced plainly their unlawful acts, informing them moreover that those whom they had beaten and imprisoned without trial were Roman citizens. The magistrates, in great alarm, saw the necessity of humbling themselves. They came and begged them to leave the city. Paul and Silas consented to do so, and, after paying a visit to “the brethren” in the house of Lydia, they departed. Leaving St. Luke, and perhaps Timothy for a short time, at Philippi, Paul and Silas travelled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, and stopped again at Thessalonica. Here again, as in Pisidian Antioch, the envy of the Jews was excited, and the mob assaulted the house of Jason, with whom Paul and Silas were staying as guests, and, not finding them, dragged Jason himself and some other brethren before the magistrates. After these signs of danger the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night. They next came to Berca. Here they found the Jews more noble than those at Thessalonica had been. Accordingly they gained many converts, both Jews and Greeks; but the Jews of Thessalonica, hearing of it, sent emissaries to stir up the people, and it was thought best that Paul should himself leave the city, whilst Silas and Timothy remained behind. Some of the brethren went with St. Paul as far as Athens, where they left him, carrying back a request to Silas and Timothy that they would speedily join him. Here the apostle delivered that wonderful discourse reported in Acts 17:22-31. He gained but few converts at Athens, and soon took his departure and went to Corinth. He was testifying with unusual effort and anxiety, when Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia and joined him. Their arrival was the occasion of the writing of the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. The two epistles to the Thessalonians—and these alone—belong to the present missionary journey. They were written from Corinth a.d. 52, 53. When Silas and Timotheus came to Corinth, St. Paul was testifying to the Jews with great earnestness, but with little success. Corinth was the chief city of the province of Achaia, and the residence of the proconsul. During St. Paul’s stay the proconsular office was held by Gallio, a brother of the philosopher Seneca. Before him the apostle was summoned by his Jewish enemies, who hoped to bring the Roman authority to bear upon him as an innovator in religion. But Gallio perceived at once, before Paul could “open his mouth” to defend himself, that the movement was due to Jewish prejudice, and refused to go into the question. Then a singular scene occurred. The Corinthian spectators, either favoring Paul or actuated only by anger against the Jews, seized on the principal person of those who had brought the charge, and beat him before the judgment-seat. Gallio left these religious quarrels to settle themselves. The apostle, therefore, was not allowed to be “hurt,” and remained some time longer at Corinth unmolested. Having been the instrument of accomplishing this work, Paul departed for Jerusalem, wishing to attend a festival there. Before leaving Greece, he cut off his hair at Cenchreæ, in fulfillment of a vow. Acts 18:18. Paul paid a visit to the synagogue at Ephesus, but would not stay. Leaving Ephesus, he sailed to Cæsarea, and from thence went up to Jerusalem, spring, a.d. 54, and “saluted the church.” It is argued, from considerations founded on the suspension of navigation during the winter months, that the festival was probably the Pentecost. From Jerusalem the apostle went almost immediately down to Antioch, thus returning to the same place from which he had started with Silas.

Third missionary journey, including the stay at Ephesus. a.d. 54–58. Acts 18:23-21:17.—The great epistles which belong to this period, those to the Galatians, Corinthians, and Romans, show how the “Judaizing” question exercised at this time the apostle’s mind. St. Paul “spent some time” at Antioch, and during this stay, as we are inclined to believe, his collision with St. Peter, Galatians 2:11-14, took place. When he left Antioch, he “went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples,” and giving orders concerning the collection for the saints. 1 Corinthians 16:1. It is probable that the Epistle to the Galatians was written soon after this visit—a.d. 56–57. This letter was in all probability sent from Ephesus. This was the goal of the apostle’s journeyings through Asia Minor. He came down to Ephesus from the upper districts of Phrygia. Here he entered upon his usual work. He went into the synagogue, and for three months he spoke openly, disputing and persuading concerning “the kingdom of God.” At the end of this time the obstinacy and opposition of some of the Jews led him to give up frequenting the synagogue, and he established the believers as a separate society, meeting “in the school of Tyrannus.” This continued for two years. During this time many things occurred of which the historian of the Acts chooses two examples, the triumph over magical arts and the great disturbance raised by the silversmiths who made shrines for Diana—among which we are to note further the writing of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, a.d. 57. Before leaving Ephesus Paul went into Macedonia, where he met Titus, who brought him news of the state of the Corinthian church. Thereupon he wrote the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, a.d. 57, and sent it by the hands of Titus and two other brethren to Corinth. After writing this epistle, St. Paul travelled through Macedonia, perhaps to the borders of Illyricum, Romans 15:19, and then went to Corinth. The narrative in the Acts tells us that “when he had gone over those parts (Macedonia), and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece, and there abode three months.” ch. Acts 20:3. There is only one incident which we can connect with this visit to Greece, but that is a very important one—the writing of his Epistle to the Romans, a.d. 58. That this was written at this time from Corinth appears from passages in the epistle itself, and has never been doubted. The letter is a substitute for the personal visit which he had longed “for many years” to pay. Before his departure from Corinth, St. paul was joined again by St. Luke, as we infer from the change in the narrative from the third to the first person. He was bent on making a journey to Jerusalem, for a special purpose and within a limited time. With this view he was intending to go by sea to Syria. But he was made aware of some plot of the Jews for his destruction, to be carried out through this voyage; and he determined to evade their malice by changing his route. Several brethren were associated with him in this expedition, the bearers, no doubt, of the collections made in all the churches for the poor at Jerusalem. These were sent on by sea, and probably the money with them, to Troas, where they were to await Paul. He, accompanied by Luke, went northward through Macedonia. Whilst the vessel which conveyed the rest of the party sailed from Troas to Assos, Paul gained some time by making the journey by land. At Assos he went on board again. Coasting along by Mitylene, Chios, Samos, and Trogyllium, they arrived at Miletus. At Miletus, however, there was time to send to Ephesus, and the elders of the church were invited to come down to him there. This meeting is made the occasion for recording another characteristic and representative address of St. Paul. Acts 20:18-35. The course of the voyage from Miletus was by Coos and Rhodes to Patara, and from Patara in another vessel past Cyprus to Tyre. Here Paul and his company spent seven days. From Tyre they sailed to Ptolemais, where they spent one day, and from Ptolemais proceeded, apparently by land, to Cæsarea. They now “tarried many days” at Cæsarea. During this interval the prophet Agabus, Acts 11:28, came down from Jerusalem, and crowned the previous intimations of danger with a prediction expressively delivered. At this stage a final effort was made to dissuade Paul from going up to Jerusalem, by the Christians of Cæsarea and by his travelling companions. After a while they went up to Jerusalem and were gladly received by the brethren. This is St. Paul’s fifth and last visit to Jerusalem.

St. Paul’s imprisonment: Jerusalem. Spring, a.d. 58.—He who was thus conducted into Jerusalem by a company of anxious friends had become by this time a man of considerable fame among his countrymen. He was widely known as one who had taught with pre-eminent boldness that a way into God’s favor was opened to the Gentiles, and that this way did not lie through the door of the Jewish law. He had thus roused against himself the bitter enmity of that unfathomable Jewish pride which was almost as strong in some of those who had professed the faith of Jesus as in their unconverted brethren. He was now approaching a crisis in the long struggle, and the shadow of it has been made to rest upon his mind throughout his journey to Jerusalem. He came “ready to die for the name of the Lord Jesus,” but he came expressly to prove himself a faithful Jew, and this purpose is shown at every point of the history. Certain Jews from “Asia,” who had come up for the pentecostal feast, and who had a personal knowledge of Paul, saw him in the temple. They set upon him at once, and stirred up the people against him. There was instantly a great commotion; Paul was dragged out of the temple, the doors of which were immediately shut, and the people, having him in their hands, were proposing to kill him. Paul was rescued from the violence of the multitude by the Roman officer, who made him his own prisoner, causing him to be chained to two soldiers, and then proceeded to inquire who he was and what he had done. The inquiry only elicited confused outcries, and the “chief captain” seems to have imagined that the apostle might perhaps be a certain Egyptian pretender who had recently stirred up a considerable rising of the people. The account in Acts 21:34-40 tells us with graphic touches how St. Paul obtained leave and opportunity to address the people in a discourse which is related at length. Until the hated word of a mission to the Gentiles had been spoken, the Jews had listened to the speaker. “Away with such a fellow from the earth,” the multitude now shouted; “it is not fit that he should live.” The Roman commander, seeing the tumult that arose, might well conclude that St. Paul had committed some heinous offence; and carrying him off, he gave orders that he should be forced by scourging to confess his crime. Again the apostle took advantage of his Roman citizenship to protect himself from such an outrage. The chief captain set him free from bonds, but on the next day called together the chief priests and the Sanhedrin, and brought Paul as a prisoner before them. On the next day a conspiracy was formed, which the historian relates with a singular fullness of detail. More than forty of the Jews bound themselves under a curse neither to eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. The plot was discovered, and St. Paul was hurried away from Jerusalem. The chief captain, Claudius Lysias, determined to send him to Cæsarea to Felix, the governor or procurator of Judea. He therefore put him in charge of a strong guard of soldiers, who took him by night as far as Antipatris. From thence a smaller detachment conveyed him to Cæsarea, where they delivered up their prisoner into the hands of the governor.

Imprisonment at Cæsarea. a.d. 58–60.—St. Paul was henceforth, to the end of the period embraced in the Acts, if not to the end of his life, in Roman custody. This custody was in fact a protection to him, without which he would have fallen a victim to the animosity of the Jews. He seems to have been treated throughout with humanity and consideration. The governor before whom he was now to be tried, according to Tacitus and Josephus, was a mean and dissolute tyrant. After hearing St. Paul’s accusers and the apostle’s defence, Felix made an excuse for putting off the matter, and gave orders that the prisoner should be treated with indulgence, and that his friends should be allowed free access to him. After a while he heard him again. St. Paul remained in custody until Felix left the province. The unprincipled governor had good reason to seek to ingratiate himself with the Jews; and to please them, he handed over Paul, as an untried prisoner, to his successor, Festus. Upon his arrival in the province, Festus went up without delay from Cæsarea to Jerusalem, and the leading Jews seized the opportunity of asking that Paul might be brought up there for trial, intending to assassinate him by the way. But Festus would not comply with their request. He invited them to follow him on his speedy return to Cæsarea, and a trial took place there, closely resembling that before Felix. “They had certain questions against him,” Festus says to Agrippa, “of their own superstition (or religion), and of one Jesus, who was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive. And being puzzled for my part as to such inquiries, I asked him whether he would go to Jerusalem to be tried there.” This proposal, not a very likely one to be accepted, was the occasion of St. Paul’s appeal to Cæsar. The appeal having been allowed, Festus reflected that he must send with the prisoner a report of “the crimes laid against him.” He therefore took advantage of an opportunity which offered itself in a few days to seek some help in the matter. The Jewish prince Agrippa arrived with his sister Berenice on a visit to the new governor. To him Festus communicated his perplexity. Agrippa expressed a desire to hear Paul himself. Accordingly Paul conducted his defence before the king; and when it was concluded Festus and Agrippa, and their companions, consulted together, and came to the conclusion that the accused was guilty of nothing that deserved death or imprisonment. And Agrippa’s final answer to the inquiry of Festus was, “This man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Cæsar.”

The voyage to Rome and shipwreck. Autum, a.d. 60.—No formal trial of St. Paul had yet taken place. After a while arrangements were made to carry “Paul and certain other prisoners,” in the custody of a centurion named Julius, into Italy; and amongst the company, whether by favor or from any other reason, we find the historian of the Acts, who in chapters Acts 27 and Acts 28 gives a graphic description of the voyage to Rome and the shipwreck on the island of Melita or Malta. After a three-months stay in Malta the soldiers and their prisoners left in an Alexandria ship for Italy. They touched at Syracuse, where they stayed three days, and at Rhegium, from which place they were carried with a fair wind to Puteoli, where they left their ship and the sea. At Puteoli they found “brethren,” for it was an important place, and especially a chief port for the traffic between Alexandria and Rome; and by these brethren they were exhorted to stay a while with them. Permission seems to have been granted by the centurion; and whilst they were spending seven days at Puteoli news of the apostle’s arrival was sent to Rome. (Spring, a.d. 61.)

First imprisonment of St. Paul at Rome. a.d. 61–63.—On their arrival at Rome the centurion delivered up his prisoners into the proper custody, that of the prætorian prefect. Paul was at once treated with special consideration, and was allowed to dwell by himself with the soldier who guarded him. He was now therefore free “to preach the gospel to them that were at Rome also”; and proceeded without delay to act upon his rule—“to the Jews first.” But as of old, the reception of his message by the Jews was not favorable. He turned, therefore, again to the Gentiles, and for two years he dwelt in his own hired house. These are the last words of the Acts. But St. Paul’s career is not abruptly closed. Before he himself fades out of our sight in the twilight of ecclesiastical tradition, we have letters written by himself which contribute some particulars to his biography. Period of the later epistles.—To that imprisonment to which St. Luke has introduced us—the imprisonment which lasted for such a tedious time, though tempered by much indulgence—belongs the noble group of letters to Philemon, to the Colossians, to the Ephesians and to the Philippians. The three former of these were written at one time, and sent by the same messengers. Whether that to the Philippians was written before or after these we cannot determine; but the tone of it seems to imply that a crisis was approaching, and therefore it is commonly regarded as the latest of the four. In this epistle St. Paul twice expresses a confident hope that before long he may be able to visit the Philippians in person. Philippians 1:25; Philippians 2:24. Whether this hope was fulfilled or not has been the occasion of much controversy. According to the general opinion the apostle was liberated from imprisonment at the end of two years, having been acquitted by Nero a.d. 63, and left Rome soon after writing the letter to the Philippians. He spent some time in visits to Greece, Asia Minor and Spain, and during the latter part of this time wrote the letters (first epistles) to Timothy and Titus from Macedonia, a.d. 65. After these were written he was apprehended again and sent to Rome.

Second imprisonment at Rome. a.d. 65–67.—The apostle appears now to have been treated not as an honorable state prisoner, but as a felon, 2 Timothy 2:9; but he was allowed to write the second letter to Timothy, a.d. 67. For what remains we have the concurrent testimony of ecclesiastical antiquity that he was beheaded at Rome, by Nero, in the great persecutions of the Christians by that emperor, a.d. 67 or 68.

Pavement

Pavement. [GABBATHA.]

Pavilion

Pavilion, a temporary movable tent or habitation.

1. Sôc, properly an enclosed place, also rendered “tabernacle,” “covert” and “den”; once only “pavilion.” Psalm 27:5. (Among the Egyptians pavilions were built in a similar style to houses, though on a smaller scale, in various parts of the country, and in the foreign districts through which the Egyptian armies passed, for the use of the king.—Wilkinson.) 2. Succáh, usually “tabernacle” and “booth.” 3. Shaphrûr and shaphrı̂r, a word used once only, in Jeremiah 43:10, to signify glory or splendor, and hence probably to be understood of the splendid covering of the royal throne.

Peacocks

Peacocks (Heb. tuccı̂yyƟm). Among the natural products which Solomon’s fleet brought home to Jerusalem, mention is made of “peacocks,” 1 Kings 10:22; 2 Chronicles 9;2 Chronicles 9:21, which is probably the correct translation. The Hebrew word may be traced to the Tamul or Malabaric togei, “peacock.”

The Peacock.

Pearl

Pearl (Heb. gâbı̂sh). The Hebrew word in Job 28:18 probably means “crystal.” Pearls, however, are frequently mentioned in the New Testament, Matthew 13:45; 1 Timothy 2:9; Revelation 17:4; Revelation 21:21, and were considered by the ancients among the most precious of gems, and were highly esteemed as ornaments. The kingdom of heaven is compared to a “pearl of great price.” In Matthew 7:6 pearls are used metaphorically for anything of value, or perhaps more especially for “wise sayings.” (The finest specimens of the pearl are yielded by the pearl oyster (Avicula margaritifera), still found in abundance in the Persian Gulf and near the coasts of Ceylon, Java, and Sumatra. The oysters grow in clusters on rocks in deep water, and the pearl is found inside the shell, and is the result of a diseased secretion caused by the introduction of foreign bodies, as sand, etc., between the mantle and the shell. They are obtained by divers trained to the business. March or April is the time for pearl fishing. A single shell sometimes yields eight to twelve pearls. The size of a good Oriental pearl varies from that of a pea to about three times that size. A handsome necklace of pearls the size of peas is worth $15,000. Pearls have been valued as high as $200,000 or $300,000 apiece.—Ed.)

Pearl Oyster.

Pedahel

Ped’ahel (whom God redeems), the son of Ammihud, and prince of the tribe of Naphtali. Numbers 34:28.

Pedahzur

Pedah’zur (whom the rock (i.e., God) redeems), father of Gamaliel, the chief of the tribe of Manasseh at the time of the exodus. Numbers 1:10; Numbers 2:20; Numbers 7:54, Numbers 7:59; Numbers 10:23. (b.c. 1491.)

Pedaiah

Peda’iah (whom Jehovah redeems).

1. The father of Zebudah, mother of King Jehoiakim. 2 Kings 23:36. (b.c. before 648.)

2. The brother of Salathiel or Shealtiel, and father of Zerubbabel, who is usually called the “son of Shealtiel,” being, as Lord A. Hervey conjectures, in reality his uncle’s successor and heir, in consequence of the failure of issue in the direct line. 1 Chronicles 3:17-19. (b.c. before 536.)

3. Son of Parosh, that is, one of the family of that name, who assisted Nehemiah in repairing the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah 3:25. (b.c. about 446.)

4. Apparently a priest; one of those who stood on the left hand of Ezra when he read the law to the people. Nehemiah 8:4. (b.c. 445.)

5. A Benjamite, ancestor of Sallu. Nehemiah 11:7.

6. A Levite in the time of Nehemiah, Nehemiah 13:13; apparently the same as 4.

7. The father of Joel, prince of the half tribe of Manasseh in the reign of David. 1 Chronicles 27:20. (b.c. before 1013.)

Pekah

Pe’kah (open-eyed), son of Remaliah, originally a captain of Pekahiah king of Israel, murdered his master, seized the throne, and became the 18th sovereign of the northern kingdom, b.c. 757–740. Under his predecessors Israel had been much weakened through the payment of enormous tribute to the Assyrians (see especially 2 Kings 15:20), and by internal wars and conspiracies. Pekah seems to have steadily applied himself to the restoration of its power. For this purpose he contracted a foreign alliance, and fixed his mind on the plunder of the sister kingdom of Judah. He must have made the treaty by which he proposed to share its spoil with Rezin king of Damascus, when Jotham was still on the throne of Jerusalem, 2 Kings 15:37; but its execution was long delayed, probably in consequence of that prince’s righteous and vigorous administration. 2 Chronicles 27. When, however, his weak son Ahaz succeeded to the crown of David, the allies no longer hesitated, but entered upon the siege of Jerusalem, b.c. 742. The history of the war is found in 2 Kings 16 and 2 Chronicles 28. It is famous as the occasion of the great prophecies in Isaiah 7-9. Its chief result was the Jewish port of Elath on the Red Sea; but the unnatural alliance of Damascus and Samaria was punished through the complete overthrow of the ferocious confederates by Tiglath-pileser. The kingdom of Damascus was finally suppressed and Rezin put to death, while Pekah was deprived of at least half his kingdom, including all the northern portion and the whole district to the east of Jordan. Pekah himself, now fallen into the position of an Assyrian vassal, was of course compelled to abstain from further attacks on Judah. Whether his continued tyranny exhausted the patience of his subjects, or whether his weakness emboldened them to attack him, is not known; but, from one or the other cause, Hoshea the son of Elah conspired against him and put him to death.

Pekahiah

Pekahi’ah (whose eyes Jehovah opened), son and successor of Menahem, was the 17th king of the separate kingdom of Israel, b.c. 759–757. After a brief reign of scarcely two years a conspiracy was organized against him by Pekah, who murdered him and seized the throne.

Pekod

Pe’kod (visitation), an appellative applied to the Chaldeans. Jeremiah 50:21; Ezekiel 23:23. Authorities are undecided as to the meaning of the term.

Pelaiah

Pela’iah (distinguished by Jehovah).

1. A son of Elioenai, of the royal line of Judah. 1 Chronicles 3:24. (b.c. after 400.)

2. One of the Levites who assisted Ezra in expounding the law. Nehemiah 8:7. He afterward sealed the covenant with Nehemiah. Nehemiah 10:10. (b.c. 445.)

Pelaliah

Pelali’ah (judged by Jehovah), the son of Amzi and ancestor of Adaiah. Nehemiah 11:12.

Pelatiah

Pelati’ah (delivered by Jehovah).

1. Son of Hananiah the son of Zerubbabel. 1 Chronicles 3:21. (b.c. after 536.)

2. One of the captains of the marauding band of Simeonites who in the reign of Hezekiah made an expedition to Mount Seir and smote the Amalekites. 1 Chronicles 4:42. (b.c. about 700.)

3. One of the heads of the people, and probably the name of a family who sealed the covenant with Nehemiah. Nehemiah 10:22. (b.c. about 440.)

4. The son of Benaiah, and one of the princes of the people against whom Ezekiel was directed to utter the words of doom recorded in Ezekiel 11:5-12. (b.c. about 592.)

Peleg

Pe’leg (division, part), son of Eber and brother of Joktan. Genesis 10:24; Genesis 11:16. The only incident connected with his history is the statement that “in his days was the earth divided,” an event embodied in the meaning of his name—“division.” The reference is to a division of the family of Eber himself, the younger branch of which (the Joktanids) migrated into southern Arabia, while the elder remained in Mesopotamia.

Pelet

Pe’let (liberation).

1. A son of Jahdai in an obscure genealogy. 1 Chronicles 2:47.

2. The son of Azmaveth, that is, either a native of the place of that name or the son of one of David’s heroes. 1 Chronicles 12:3. (b.c. about 1015.)

Peleth

Pe’leth (swiftness).

1. The father of On the Reubenite, who joined Dathan and Abiram in their rebellion. Numbers 16:1. (b.c. 1490.)

2. Son of Jonathan, and a descendant of Jerahmeel. 1 Chronicles 2:33.

Pelethites

Pe’lethites (couriers). [CHERETHITES.]

Pelican

Pelican (Heb. kâath, sometimes translated “cormorant,” as Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:14, though in the margin correctly rendered “pelican”), a voracious waterbird, found most abundantly in tropical regions. It is equal to the swan in size. (It has a flat bill, fifteen inches long, and the female has under the bill a pouch, capable of great distension. It is capacious enough to hold fish sufficient for the dinner of half a dozen men. The young are fed from this pouch, which is emptied of the food by pressing the pouch against the breast. The pelican’s bill has a crimson tip, and the contrast of this red tip against the white breast probably gave rise to the tradition that the bird tore her own breast to feed her young with her blood. The flesh of the pelican was forbidden to the Jews. Leviticus 11:18.—Ed.) The psalmist, in comparing his pitiable condition to the pelican, Psalm 102:6, probably has reference to its general aspect as it sits in apparent melancholy mood, with its bill resting on its breast.

The Pelican.

Pelonite The

Pel’onite, The. Two of David’s mighty men, Helez and Ahijah, are called Pelonites. 1 Chronicles 11:27, 1 Chronicles 11:36. (b.c. about 1015.) From 1 Chronicles 27:10 it appears that the former was of the tribe of Ephraim, and “Pelonite” would therefore be an appellation derived from his place of birth or residence. “Ahijah the Pelonite” appears in 2 Samuel 23:34 as “Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,” of which the former is a corruption.

Pen

Pen. [WRITING.]

Peniel

Peni’el (face of God), the name which Jacob gave to the place in which he had wrestled with God: “He called the name of the place ‘face of El,’ for I have seen Elohim face to face.” Genesis 32:30. In Genesis 32:31 and the other passages in which the name occurs, its form is changed to Penuel. From the narrative it is evident that Peniel lay somewhere on the north bank of the Jabbok, and between that torrent and the fords of the Jordan at Succoth, a few miles north of the glen where the Jabbok falls into the Jordan.

Peninnah

Penin’nah (coral, or pearl), one of the two wives of Elkanah. 1 Samuel 1:2. (b.c. 1125.)

Penny Pennyworth

Penny, Pennyworth. In the New Testament “penny,” either alone or in the compound “pennyworth,” occurs as the rendering of the Roman denarius. Matthew 20:2; Matthew 22:19; Mark 6:37; Mark 12:15; Luke 20:24; John 6:7; Revelation 6:6. The denarius was the chief Roman silver coin and was worth about 15 to 17 cents.

Pentateuch The

Pen’tateuch, The, is the Greek name given to the five books commonly called the “five books of Moses.” This title is derived from πεντε, five, and τευ̂ξος, which, meaning originally “vessel,” “instrument,” etc., came in Alexandrine Greek to mean “book,” hence the fivefold book. In the time of Ezra and Nehemiah it was called “the law of Moses,” Ezra 7:6, or “the book of the law of Moses,” Nehemiah 8:1, or simply “the book of Moses.” 2 Chronicles 25:4; 2 Chronicles 35:12; Ezra 6:18; Nehemiah 13:1. This was beyond all reasonable doubt our existing Pentateuch. The book which was discovered in the temple in the reign of Josiah, and which is entitled, 2 Chronicles 34:14, “a book of the law of Jehovah by the hand of Moses,” was substantially, it would seem, the same volume, though it may afterward have undergone some revision by Ezra. The present Jews usually called the whole by the name of Torah, i.e., “the Law,” or Torath Mosheh, “the Law of Moses.” The division of the whole work into five parts was probably made by the Greek translators; for the titles of the several books are not of Hebrew but of Greek origin. The Hebrew names are merely taken from the first words of each book, and in the first instance only designated particular sections and not whole books. The MSS of the Pentateuch form a single roll or volume, and are divided, not into books but into the larger and smaller sections called Parshiyoth and Sedarim. The five books of the Pentateuch form a consecutive whole. The work, beginning with the record of creation and the history of the primitive world, passes on to deal more especially with the early history of the Jewish family, and finally concludes with Moses’ last discourses and his death. Till the middle of the last century it was the general opinion of both Jews and Christians that the whole of the Pentateuch was written by Moses, with the exception of a few manifestly later additions—such as the 34th chapter of Deuteronomy, which gives the account of Moses’ death. The first attempt to call in question the popular belief was made by Astruc, doctor and professor of medicine in the Royal College at Paris, and court physician to Louis XIV. He had observed that throughout the book of Genesis, and as far as the 6th chapter of Exodus, traces were to be found of two original documents, each characterized by a distinct use of the names of God; the one by the name Elohim, and the other by the name Jehovah. [GOD.] Besides these two principal documents, he supposed Moses to have made use of ten others in the composition of the earlier part of his work. The path traced by Astruc has been followed by numerous German writers; but the various hypotheses which have been formed upon the subject cannot be presented in this work. It is sufficient here to state that there is evidence satisfactory that the main bulk of the Pentateuch, at any rate, was written by Moses, though he probably availed himself of existing documents in the composition of the earlier part of the work. Some detached portions would appear to be of later origin; and when we remember how entirely, during some periods of Jewish history, the law seems to have been forgotten, and again how necessary it would be after the seventy years of exile to explain some of its archaisms, and to add here and there short notes to make it more intelligible to the people, nothing can be more natural than to suppose that such later additions were made by Ezra and Nehemiah.

Pentateuch at Shechem.

To briefly sum up the results of our inquiry—

1. The book of Genesis rests chiefly on documents much earlier than the time of Moses, though it was probably brought to very nearly its present shape either by Moses himself or by one of the elders who acted under him. 2. The books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers are to a great extent Mosaic. Besides those portions which are expressly declared to have been written by him, other portions, and especially the legal sections, were, if not actually written, in all probability dictated by him. 3. Deuteronomy, excepting the concluding part, is entirely the work of Moses, as it professes to be. 4. It is not probable that this was written before the three preceding books, because the legislation in Exodus and Leviticus, as being the more formal, is manifestly the earlier, whilst Deuteronomy is the spiritual interpretation and application of the law. But the letter is always before the spirit; the thing before its interpretation. 5. The first composition of the Pentateuch as a whole could not have taken place till after the Israelites entered Canaan. It is probable that Joshua and the elders who were associated with him would provide for its formal arrangement, custody and transmission. 6. The whole work did not finally assume its present shape till its revision was undertaken by Ezra after the return from the Babylonish captivity. For an account of the separate books see GENESIS; EXODUS; LEVITICUS; NUMBERS; DEUTERONOMY.

Pentecost

Pen’tecost, that is, the fiftieth day (from a Greek word meaning fiftieth), or Harvest Feast, or Feast of Weeks, may be regarded as a supplement to the Passover. It lasted for but one day. From the sixteenth of Nisan seven weeks were reckoned inclusively, and the next or fiftieth day was the day of Pentecost, which fell on the sixth of Sivan (about the end of May). Exodus 23:16; Exodus 34:22; Leviticus 23:15-22; Numbers 28. See Jewish calendar at the end of this volume. The Pentecost was the Jewish harvest-home, and the people were especially exhorted to rejoice before Jehovah with their families, their servants, the Levite within their gates, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, in the place chosen by God for his name, as they brought a free-will offering of their hand to Jehovah their God. Deuteronomy 16:10, Deuteronomy 16:11. The great feature of the celebration was the presentation of the two loaves, made from the first-fruits of the wheat harvest. With the loaves two lambs were offered as a peace offering, and all were waved before Jehovah, and given to the priests; the loaves, being leavened, could not be offered on the altar. The other sacrifices were, a burnt offering of a young bullock, two rams and seven lambs, with a meat and drink offering, and a kid for a sin offering. Leviticus 23:18, Leviticus 23:19. Till the pentecostal loaves were offered, the produce of the harvest might not be eaten, nor could any other first-fruits be offered. The whole ceremony was the completion of that dedication of the harvest to God as its giver, and to whom both the land and the people were holy, which was begun by the offering of the wave-sheaf at the Passover. The interval is still regarded as a religious season. The Pentecost is the only one of the three great feasts which is not mentioned as the memorial of events in the history of the Jews; but such a significance has been found in the fact that the law was given from Sinai on the fiftieth day after the deliverance from Egypt. Comp. Exodus 12 and Exodus 19. In the exodus the people were offered to God as living first-fruits; at Sinai their consecration to him as a nation was completed. The typical significance of the Pentecost is made clear from the events of the day recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. Acts 2. Just as the appearance of God on Sinai was the birthday of the Jewish nation, so was the Pentecost the birthday of the Christian Church.

Penuel

Penu’el. [PENIEL.]

Peor

Pe’or (cleft), a mountain peak in Moab belonging to the Abarim range, and near Pisgah, to which, after having ascended Pisgah, the prophet Balaam was conducted by Balak that he might look upon the whole host of Israel and curse them. Numbers 23:14, Numbers 23:28. In four passages—Numbers 25:18 twice; Numbers 31:16; Joshua 22:17—Peor occurs as a contraction for Baal-peor. [BAAL.]

Perazim

Per’azim (a breach), Mount, a name which occurs in Isaiah 28:21 only—unless the place which it designates is identical with the Baal-perazim mentioned as the scene of one of David’s victories over the Philistines, which was in the valley of Rephaim, south of Jerusalem, on the road to Bethlehem.

Peresh

Pe’resh (dung), the son of Machir by his wife Maachah. 1 Chronicles 7:16.

Perez

Pe’rez (breach). The “children of Perez,” or Pharez, the son of Judah, appear to have been a family of importance for many centuries. 1 Chronicles 27:3; Nehemiah 11:4, Nehemiah 11:6.

Perez-uzza

Pe’rez-uz’za (breaking of Uzzah), 1 Chronicles 13:11, and Perez-uzzah, 2 Samuel 6:8, the title which David conferred on the threshing-floor of Nachon or Cidon, in commemoration of the sudden death of Uzzah. (b.c. 1042.)

Perfumes

Perfumes. The free use of perfumes was peculiarly grateful to the Orientals, Proverbs 27:9, whose olfactory nerves are more than usually sensitive to the offensive smells engendered by the heat of their climate. The Hebrews manufactured their perfumes chiefly from spices imported from Arabia, though to a certain extent also from aromatic plants growing in their own country. Perfumes entered largely into the temple service, in the two forms of incense and ointment. Exodus 30:22-38. Nor were they less used in private life; not only were they applied to the person, but to garments, Psalm 45:8; Song of Solomon 4:11, and to articles of furniture, such as beds. Proverbs 7:17.

Perga

Per’ga (earthy), a city of Pamphylia, Acts 13:13, situated on the river Cestius, at a distance of 60 stadia (7½ miles) from its mouth, and celebrated in antiquity for the worship of Artemis (Diana).

Pergamos

Per’gamos (in Revised Version Pergamum) (height, elevation), a city of Mysia, about 3 miles to the north of the river Caicus, and 20 miles from its present mouth. It was the residence of a dynasty of Greek princes founded after the time of Alexander the Great, and usually called the Attalic dynasty, from its founder, Attalus. The sumptuousness of the Attalic princes had raised Pergamos to the rank of the first city in Asia as regards splendor. The city was noted for its vast library, containing 200,000 volumes. Here were splendid temples of Zeus or Jupiter, Athene, Apollo, and Æsculapius. One of “the seven churches of Asia” was in Pergamos. Revelation 1:11; Revelation 2:12-17. It is called “Satan’s seat” by John, which some suppose to refer to the worship of Æsculapius, from the serpent being his characteristic emblem. Others refer it to the persecutions of Christians, which was the work of Satan. The modern name of the city is Bergama.

Pergamum

Per’gamum. In the Revised Version for Pergamos. Revelation 1:11. Pergamum is the form usual in the classic writers.

Perida

Peri’da (grain, kernel). The children of Perida returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel. Nehemiah 7:57. (b.c. before 536.)

Perizzite The

Per’izzite, The, and Per’izzites (belonging to a village), one of the nations inhabiting the land of promise before and at the time of its conquest by Israel. (b.c. 1450.) They are continually mentioned in the formula so frequently occurring to express the promised land. Genesis 15:20; Exodus 3:8, Exodus 3:17; Exodus 23:23; Exodus 33:2; Exodus 34:11. The notice in the book of Judges locates them in the southern part of the holy land. The signification of the name is not by any means clear. It possibly meant rustics, dwellers in open, unwalled villages, which are denoted by a similar word.

Persepolis

Persep’olis, mentioned only in 2 Maccabees 9:2, was the capital of Persia proper, and the occasional residence of the Persian court from the time of Darius Hystaspes, who seems to have been its founder, to the invasion of Alexander. Its wanton destruction by that conqueror is well known. Its site is now called the Chehl-Minar, or Forty Pillars. Here, on a platform hewn out of the solid rock, the sides of which face the four cardinal points, are the remains of two great palaces, built respectively by Darius Hystaspes and his son Xerxes, besides a number of other edifices, chiefly temples. They are of great extent and magnificence, covering an area of many acres.

Persia

Per’sia (pure, splendid), Per’sians. Persia proper was a tract of no very large dimensions on the Persian Gulf, which is still known as Fars or Faristan, a corruption of the ancient appellation. This tract was bounded on the west by Susiana or Elam, on the north by Media, on the south by the Persian Gulf and on the east by Carmania. But the name is more commonly applied, both in Scripture and by profane authors, to the entire tract which came by degrees to be included within the limits of the Persian empire. This empire extended at one time from India on the east to Egypt and Thrace on the west, and included, besides portions of Europe and Africa, the whole of western Asia between the Black Sea, the Caucasus, the Caspian and the Jaxartes on the north, the Arabian desert, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean on the south. The only passage in Scripture where Persia designates the tract which has been called above “Persia proper” is Ezekiel 38:5. Elsewhere the empire is intended. The Persians were of the same race as the Medes, both being branches of the great Aryan stock.

1. Character of the nation.—The Persians were a people of lively and impressible minds, brave and impetuous in war, witty, passionate, for Orientals truthful, not without some spirit of generosity, and of more intellectual capacity than the generality of Asiatics. In the times anterior to Cyrus they were noted for the simplicity of their habits, which offered a strong contrast to the luxuriousness of the Medes; but from the date of the Median overthrow this simplicity began to decline. Polygamy was commonly practiced among them. They were fond of the pleasures of the table. In war they fought bravely, but without discipline.

2. Religion.—The religion which the Persians brought with them into Persia proper seems to have been of a very simple character, differing from natural religion in little except that it was deeply tainted with Dualism. Like the other Aryans, the Persians worshipped one supreme God. They had few temples, and no altars or images.

3. Language.—The Persian language was closely akin to the Sanscrit, or ancient language of India. Modern Persian is its degenerate representative, being largely impregnated with Arabic.

Persian Lady.

4. History.—The history of Persia begins with the revolt from the Medes and the accession of Cyrus the Great, b.c. 558. Cyrus defeated Crœsus, and added the Lydian empire to his dominions. This conquest was followed closely by the submission of the Greek settlements on the Asiatic coast, and by the reduction of Caria and Lycia. The empire was soon afterward extended greatly toward the northeast and east. In b.c. 539 or 538, Babylon was attacked, and after a stout defence fell into the hands of Cyrus. This victory first brought the Persians into contact with the Jews. The conquerors found in Babylon an oppressed race—like themselves, abhorrers of idols, and professors of a religion in which to a great extent they could sympathize. This race Cyrus determined to restore to their own country: which he did by the remarkable edict recorded in the first chapter of Ezra. Ezra 1:2-4. He was slain in an expedition against the Massagetæ or the Derbices, after a reign of twenty-nine years. Under his son and successor, Cambyses, the conquest of Egypt took place, b.c. 525. This prince appears to be the Ahasuerus of Ezra 4:6. Gomates, Cambyses’ successor, reversed the policy of Cyrus with respect to the Jews, and forbade by an edict the further building of the temple. Ezra 4:17-22. He reigned but seven months, and was succeeded by Darius. Appealed to, in his second year, by the Jews, who wished to resume the construction of their temple, Darius not only granted them this privilege, but assisted the work by grants from his own revenues, whereby the Jews were able to complete the temple was early as his sixth year. Ezra 6:1-15. Darius was succeeded by Xerxes, probably the Ahasuerus of Esther. Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, reigned for forty years after his death, and is beyond doubt the king of that name who stood in such a friendly relation toward Ezra, Ezra 7:11-28, and Nehemiah. Nehemiah 2:1-9, etc. He is the last of the Persian kings who had any special connection with the Jews, and the last but one mentioned in Scripture. His successors were Xerxes II, Sogdianus, Darius Nothus, Artaxerxes Mnemon, Artaxerxes Ochus, and Darius Codomannus, who is probably the “Darius the Persian” of Nehemiah 12:22. These monarchs reigned from b.c. 424 to b.c. 330. The collapse of the empire under the attack of Alexander the Great took place b.c. 330.

Persis

Per’sis (a Persian woman), a Christian woman at Rome, Romans 16:12, whom St. Paul salutes. (a.d. 55.)

Peruda

Peru’da. The same as Perida. Ezra 2:55.

Pestilence

Pestilence. [PLAGUE, THE.]

Peter

Pe’ter (a rock or stone). The original name of this disciple was Simon, i.e., “hearer.” He was the son of a man named Jonas, Matthew 16:17; John 1:42; John 21:16, and was brought up in his father’s occupation, that of a fisherman. He and his brother Andrew were partners of John and James, the sons of Zebedee, who had hired servants. Peter did not live, as a mere laboring man, in a hut by the seaside, but first at Bethsaida, and afterward in a house at Capernaum belonging to himself or his mother-in-law, which must have been rather a large one, since he received in it not only our Lord and his fellow disciples, but multitudes who were attracted by the miracles and preaching of Jesus. Peter was probably between thirty and forty years of age at the date of his call. That call was preceded by a special preparation. Peter and his brother Andrew, together with their partners James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were disciples of John the Baptist when he was first called by our Lord. The particulars of this call are related with graphic minuteness by St. John. It was upon this occasion that Jesus gave Peter the name Cephas, a Syriac word answering to the Greek Peter, and signifying a stone or rock. John 1:35-42. This first call led to no immediate change in Peter’s external position. He and his fellow disciples looked henceforth upon our Lord as their teacher, but were not commanded to follow him as regular disciples. They returned to Capernaum, where they pursued their usual business, waiting for a further intimation of his will. The second call is recorded by the other three evangelists; the narrative of Luke being apparently supplementary to the brief and, so to speak, official accounts given by Matthew and Mark. It took place on the Sea of Galilee near Capernaum, where the four disciples, Peter and Andrew, James and John, were fishing. Some time was passed afterward in attendance upon our Lord’s public ministrations in Galilee, Decapolis, Peræa, and Judea. The special designation of Peter and his eleven fellow disciples took place some time afterward, when they were set apart as our Lord’s immediate attendants. See Matthew 10:2-4; Mark 3:13-19 (the most detailed account); Luke 6:13. They appear to have then first received formally the name of apostles, and from that time Simon bore publicly, and as it would seem all but exclusively, the name Peter, which had hitherto been used rather as a characteristic appellation than as a proper name. From this time there can be no doubt that Peter held the first place among the apostles, to whatever cause his precedence is to be attributed. He is named first in every list of the apostles; he is generally addressed by our Lord as their representative; and on the most solemn occasions he speaks in their name. The distinction which he received, and it may be his consciousness of ability, energy, zeal, and absolute devotion to Christ’s person, seem to have developed a natural tendency to rashness and forwardness bordering upon presumption. In his affection and self-confidence Peter ventured to reject as impossible the announcement of the sufferings and humiliation which Jesus predicted, and heard the sharp words, “Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me; for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” It is remarkable that on other occasions when St. Peter signalized his faith and devotion, he displayed at the time, or immediately afterward, a more than usual deficiency in spiritual discernment and consistency. Toward the close of our Lord’s ministry Peter’s characteristics become especially prominent. At the last supper Peter seems to have been particularly earnest in the request that the traitor might be pointed out. After the supper his words drew out the meaning of the significant act of our Lord in washing his disciples’ feet. Then, too, it was that he made those repeated protestations of unalterable fidelity, so soon to be falsified by his miserable fall. On the morning of the resurrection we have proof that Peter, though humbled, was not crushed by his fall. He and John were the first to visit the sepulchre; he was the first who entered it. We are told by Luke and by Paul that Christ appeared to him first among the apostles. It is observable, however, that on that occasion he is called by his original name, Simon, not Peter; the higher designation was not restored until he had been publicly reinstituted, so to speak, by his Master. That reinstitution—an event of the very highest import—took place at the Sea of Galilee. John 21.

The first part of the Acts of the Apostles is occupied by the record of transactions in nearly all of which Peter stands forth as the recognized leader of the apostles. He is the most prominent person in the greatest event after the resurrection, when on the day of Pentecost the Church was first invested with the plenitude of gifts and power. When the gospel was first preached beyond the precincts of Judea, he and John were at once sent by the apostles to confirm the converts at Samaria. Henceforth he remains prominent, but not exclusively prominent, among the propagators of the gospel. We have two accounts of the first meeting of Peter and Paul—Acts 9:26; Galatians 1:17, Galatians 1:18. This interview was followed by another event marking Peter’s position—a general apostolical tour of visitation to the churches hitherto established. Acts 9:32. The most signal transaction after the day of Pentecost was the baptism of Cornelius. That was the crown and consummation of Peter’s ministry. The establishment of a church in great part of Gentile origin at Antioch, and the mission of Barnabas, between whose family and Peter there were the bonds of near intimacy, set the seal upon the work thus inaugurated by Peter. This transaction was soon followed by the imprisonment of our apostle. His miraculous deliverance marks the close of this second great period of his ministry. The special work assigned to him was completed. From that time we have no continuous history of him.

Peter was probably employed for the most part in building up and completing the organization of Christian communities in Palestine and the adjoining districts. There is, however, strong reason to believe that he visited Corinth at an early period. The name of Peter as founder or joint founder is not associated with any local church save the churches of Corinth, Antioch, or Rome, by early ecclesiastical tradition. It may be considered as a settled point that he did not visit Rome before the last year of his life; but there is satisfactory evidence that he and Paul were the founders of the church at Rome, and suffered death in that city. The time and manner of the apostle’s martyrdom are less certain. According to the early writers, he suffered at or about the same time with Paul, and in the Neronian persecution, a.d. 67, 68. All agree that he was crucified. Origen says that Peter felt himself to be unworthy to be put to death in the same manner as his Master, and was therefore, at his own request, crucified with his head downward. The apostle is said to have employed interpreters. Of far more importance is the statement that Mark wrote his Gospel under the teaching of Peter, or that he embodied in that Gospel the substance of our apostle’s oral instructions. [MARK.] The only written documents which Peter has left are the First Epistle—about which no doubt has ever been entertained in the Church—and the Second, which has been a subject of earnest controversy.

Peter First Epistle of

Peter, First Epistle of. The external evidence of authenticity of this epistle is of the strongest kind; and the internal is equally strong. It was addressed to the churches of Asia Minor, which had for the most part been founded by Paul and his companions. Supposing it to have been written at Babylon, 1 Peter 5:13, it is a probable conjecture that Silvanus, by whom it was transmitted to those churches, had joined Peter after a tour of visitation, and that his account of the condition of the Christians in those districts determined the apostle to write the epistle. (On the question of this epistle having been written at Babylon commentators differ. “Some refer it to the famous Babylon in Asia, which after its destruction was still inhabited by a Jewish colony; others refer it to Babylon in Egypt, now called Old Cairo; still others understand it mystically of heathen Rome, in which sense ‘Babylon’ is certainly used in the Apocalypse of John.”—Schaff.) The objects of the epistle were—

1. To comfort and strengthen the Christians in a season of severe trial. 2. To enforce the practical and spiritual duties involved in their calling. 3. To warn them against special temptations attached to their position. 4. To remove all doubt as to the soundness and completeness of the religious system which they had already received. Such an attestation was especially needed by the Hebrew Christians, who were wont to appeal from Paul’s authority to that of the elder apostles, and above all to that of Peter. The last, which is perhaps the very principal object, is kept in view throughout the epistle, and is distinctly stated ch. 1 Peter 5:12. The harmony of such teaching with that of Paul is sufficiently obvious. Peter belongs to the school, or, to speak more correctly, is the leader of the school, which at once vindicates the unity of the law and the gospel, and puts the superiority of the latter on its true basis—that of spiritual development. The date of this epistle is uncertain, but Alford believes it to have been written between a.d. 63 and 67.

Peter Second Epistle of

Peter, Second Epistle of. The following is a brief outline of the contents of this epistle: The customary opening salutation is followed by an enumeration of Christian blessings and exhortation to Christian duties. ch. 2 Peter 1:1-13. Referring then to his approaching death, the apostle assigns as grounds of assurance for believers his own personal testimony as eye-witness of the transfiguration, and the sure word of prophecy—that is, the testimony of the Holy Ghost. vs. 2 Peter 1:14-21. The danger of being misled by false prophets is dwelt upon with great earnestness throughout the second chapter, which is almost identical in language and subject with the Epistle of Jude. The overthrow of all opponents of Christian truth is predicted in connection with prophecies touching the second advent of Christ, the destruction of the world by fire, and the promise of new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. ch. 2 Peter 3. This epistle of Peter presents questions of difficulty. Doubts as to its genuineness were entertained by the early Church; in the time of Eusebius it was reckoned among the disputed books, and was not formally admitted into the canon until the year 393, at the Council of Hippo. These difficulties, however, are insufficient to justify more than hesitation in admitting its genuineness. A majority of names may be quoted in support of the genuineness and authenticity of this epistle. (It is very uncertain as to the time when it was written. It was written near the close of Peter’s life—perhaps about a.d. 68—from Rome or somewhere on the journey thither from the East.—Alford.)

Pethahiah

Pethahi’ah (freed by Jehovah).

1. A priest, over the nineteenth course in the reign of David. 1 Chronicles 24:16. (b.c. 1020.)

2. A Levite in the time of Ezra, who had miarried a foreign wife. Ezra 10:23. He is probably the same who is mentioned in Nehemiah 9:5. (b.c. 458.)

3. The son of Meshezabeel, and descendant of Zerah. Nehemiah 11:24. (b.c. 446.)

Pethor

Pe’thor (soothsayer), a town of Mesopotamia, where Balaam resided, and situated “upon the river,” possibly the Euphrates. Numbers 22:5; Deuteronomy 23:4. Its position is wholly unknown.