Smith's Bible Dictionary

Pethuel — Potiphar

Pethuel

Pethu’el (vision of God), the father of the prophet Joel. Joel 1:1. (b.c. before 800.)

Peulthai

Peultha’i (my wages), properly Peullethai, the eighth son of Obed-edom. 1 Chronicles 26:5. (b.c. 1020.)

Phalec

Pha’lec (division). Peleg the son of Eber. Luke 3:35.

Phallu

Phal’lu (distinguished). Pallu the son of Reuben is so called in the Authorized Version of Genesis 46:9. (b.c. about 1706.)

Phal’ti (my deliverance), the son of Laish of Gallim, to whom Saul gave Michal in marriage after his mad jealousy had driven David forth as an outlaw. 1 Samuel 25:44. In 2 Samuel 3:15 he is called PHALTIEL. With the exception of this brief mention of his name, and the touching little episode in 2 Samuel 3:16, nothing more is heard of Phalti. (b.c. 1061.)

Phalti-el

Phal’ti-el. The same as Phalti. 2 Samuel 3:15.

Phanuel

Phanu’el (face of God), the father of Anna, the prophetess of the tribe of Aser. Luke 2:36. (b.c. about 80.)

Pharaoh

Pha’raoh, the common title of the native kings of Egypt in the Bible, corresponding to P-ra or Ph-ra, “the sun,” of the hieroglyphics. Brugsch, Ebers, and other modern Egyptologists define it to mean “the great house,” which would correspond to our “the Sublime Porte.” As several kings are mentioned only by the title “Pharaoh” in the Bible, it is important to endeavor to discriminate them:

1. The Pharaoh of Abraham. Genesis 12:15.—At the time at which the patriarch went into Egypt, it is generally held that the country, or at least lower Egypt, was ruled by the Shepherd kings, of whom the first and most powerful line was the fifteenth dynasty, the undoubted territories of which would be first entered by one coming from the east. The date at which Abraham visited Egypt was about b.c. 2081, which would accord with the time of Salatis, the head of the fifteenth dynasty, according to our reckoning.

2. The Pharaoh of Joseph. Genesis 41.—One of the Shepherd kings, perhaps Apophis, who belonged to the fifteenth dynasty. He appears to have reigned from Joseph’s appointment (or perhaps somewhat earlier) until Jacob’s death, a period of at least twenty-six years, from about b.c. 1876 to 1850, and to have been the fifth or sixth king of the fifteenth dynasty.

3. The Pharaoh of the oppression. Exodus 1:8.—The first persecutor of the Israelites may be distinguished as the Pharaoh of the oppression, from the second, the Pharaoh of the exodus, especially as he commenced and probably long carried on the persecution. The general view is that he was an Egyptian. One class of Egyptologists think that Amosis (Ahmes), the first sovereign of the eighteenth dynasty, is the Pharaoh of the oppression; but Brugsch and others identify him with Rameses II (the Sesostris of the Greeks), of the nineteenth dynasty. (b.c. 1380–1340.)

4. The Pharaoh of the exodus. Exodus 5:1.—Either Thothmes III, as Wilkinson, or Menephthah son of Rameses II, whom Brugsch thinks was probably the Pharaoh of the exodus, who with his army pursued the Israelites and was overwhelmed in the Red Sea. “The events which form the lamentable close of his rule over Egypt are passed over by the monuments (very naturally) with perfect silence. The dumb tumulus covers the misfortune which was suffered, for the record of these events was inseparably connected with the humiliating confession of a divine visitation, to which a patriotic writer at the court of Pharaoh would hardly have brought his mind.”

Portrait of Menephthah I, the Pharaoh of the Exodus.

5. Pharaoh, father-in-law of Mered.—In the genealogies of the tribe of Judah, mention is made of the daughter of a Pharaoh married to an Israelite—“Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, which Mered took.” 1 Chronicles 4:18.

6. Pharaoh, brother-in-law of Hadad the Edomite.—This king gave Hadad, as his wife, the sister of his own wife, Tahpenes. 1 Kings 11:18-20.

7. Pharaoh, father-in-law of Solomon.—The mention that the queen was brought into the city of David while Solomon’s house and the temple and the city wall were building shows that the marriage took place not later than the eleventh year of the king, when the temple was finished, having been commenced in the fourth year. 1 Kings 6:1, 1 Kings 6:37, 1 Kings 6:38. This Pharaoh led an expedition into Palestine. 1 Kings 9:16.

8. Pharaoh, the opponent of Sennacherib.—This Pharaoh, Isaiah 36:6, can only be the Sethos whom Herodotus mentions as the opponent of Sennacherib, and who may reasonably be supposed to be the Zet of Manetho.

9. Pharaoh-necho.—The first mention in the Bible of a proper name with the title Pharaoh is the case of Pharaoh-necho, who is also called Necho simply. This king was of the Saïte twenty-sixth dynasty, of which Manetho makes him either the fifth or the sixth ruler. Herodotus calls him Nekos, and assigns to him a reign of sixteen years, which is confirmed by the monuments. He seems to have been an enterprising king, ,as he is related to have attempted to complete the canal connecting the Red Sea with the Nile, and to have sent an expedition of Phœnicians to circumnavigate Africa, which was successfully accomplished. At the commencement of his reign, b.c. 610, he made war against the king of Assyria, and, being encountered on his way by Josiah, defeated and slew the king of Judah at Megiddo. 2 Kings 23:29, 2 Kings 23:30; 2 Chronicles 35:20-24. Necho seems to have soon returned to Egypt. Perhaps he was on his way thither when he deposed Jehoahaz. The army was probably posted at Carchemish, and was there defeated by Nebuchadnezzar in the fourth year of Necho, b.c. 607, that king not being, as it seems, then at its head. Jeremiah 46:1, Jeremiah 46:2, Jeremiah 46:6, Jeremiah 46:10. This battle led to the loss of all the Asiatic dominions of Egypt. 2 Kings 24:7.

10. Pharaoh-hophra.—The next king of Egypt mentioned in the Bible is Pharaoh-hophra, the second successor of Necho, from whom he was separated by the six-years reign of Psammetichus II. He came to the throne about b.c. 589, and ruled nineteen years. Herodotus, who calls him Apries, makes him son of Psammetichus II, whom he calls Psammis, and great-grandson of Psammetichus I. In the Bible it is related that Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, was aided by a Pharaoh against Nebuchadnezzar, in fulfillment of a treaty, and that an army came out of Egypt, so that the Chaldeans were obliged to raise the siege of Jerusalem. The city was first besieged in the ninth year of Zedekiah, b.c. 590, and was captured in his eleventh year, b.c. 588. It was evidently continuously invested for a length of time before it was taken, so that it is most probable that Pharaoh’s expedition took place during 590 or 589. The Egyptian army returned without effecting its purpose. Jeremiah 27:5-8; Ezekiel 17:11-18; comp. 2 Kings 25:1-4. No subsequent Pharaoh is mentioned in Scripture, but there are predictions doubtless referring to the misfortunes of later princes until the second Persian conquest, when the prophecy, “There shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt,” Ezekiel 30:13, was fulfilled. (In the summer of 1881 a large number of the mummies of the Pharaohs were found in a tomb near Thebes—among them Raskenen, of the seventeenth dynasty, Ahmes I, founder of the eighteenth dynasty, Thothmes I, II, and III, and Rameses I. It was first thought that Rameses II, of the nineteenth dynasty, was there, but this was found to be a mistake. A group of coffins belonging to the twenty-first dynasty has been found, and it is probable that we will learn not a little about the early Pharaohs, especially from the inscriptions on their shrouds.—Ed.)

Pharaoh’s daughter

Pharaoh’s daughter. Three Egyptian princesses, daughters of Pharaohs, are mentioned in the Bible:—

1. The preserver of Moses, daughter of the Pharaoh who first oppressed the Israelites. Exodus 2:5-10. Osborn thinks her name was Thouoris, daughter of Rameses II, others that her name was Merrhis. (b.c. 1531.)

2. Bithiah wife of Mered, an Israelite, daughter of a Pharaoh of an uncertain age, probably of about the time of the exodus. 1 Chronicles 4:18. [PHARAOH, No. 5.]

3. A wife of Solomon. 1 Kings 3:1; 1 Kings 7:8; 1 Kings 9:24. [PHARAOH, 7.] (b.c. 1000.)

Pharaoh’s Daughter.

Pharaoh The wife of

Pharaoh, The wife of. The wife of one Pharaoh, the king who received Hadad the Edomite, is mentioned in Scripture. She is called “queen,” and her name, Tahpenes, is given. [TAHPENES; PHARAOH, 6.]

Phares

Pha’res, Pha’rez or Pe’rez, the son of Judah. Matthew 1:3; Luke 3:33.

Pharez

Pha’rez (Perez, 1 Chronicles 27:3; Phares, Matthew 1:3; Luke 3:33; 1 Esdras 5:5), twin son, with Zarah or Zerah, of Judah and Tamar his daughter-in-law. (b.c. 1730.) The circumstances of his birth are detailed in Genesis 38. Pharez occupied the rank of Judah’s second son, and from two of his sons sprang two new chief houses, those of the Hezronites and Hamulites. From Hezron’s second son Ram, or Aram, sprang David and the kings of Judah, and eventually Jesus Christ. In the reign of David the house of Pharez seems to have been eminently distinguished.

Pharisees

Phar’isees, a religious party or school among the Jews at the time of Christ, so called from perı̂shı̂n, the Aramaic form of the Hebrew word Perûshim, “separated.” The chief sects among the Jews were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes, who may be described respectively as the Formalists, the Freethinkers, and the Puritans. A knowledge of the opinions and practices of the Pharisees at the time of Christ is of great importance for entering deeply into the genius of the Christian religion. A cursory perusal of the Gospels is sufficient to show that Christ’s teaching was in some respects thoroughly antagonistic to theirs. He denounced them in the bitterest language; see Matthew 15:7, Matthew 15:8; Matthew 23:5, Matthew 23:13, Matthew 23:14, Matthew 23:15, Matthew 23:23; Mark 7:6; Luke 11:42-44, and compare Mark 7:1-5; Mark 11:29; Mark 12:19, Mark 12:20; Luke 6:28, Luke 6:37-42. To understand the Pharisees is by contrast an aid toward understanding the spirit of uncorrupted Christianity.

1. The fundamental principle of the Pharisees, common to them with all orthodox modern Jews, is that by the side of the written law regarded as a summary of the principles and general laws of the Hebrew people there was an oral law to complete and to explain the written law, given to Moses on Mount Sinai and transmitted by him by word of mouth. The first portion of the Talmud, called the Mishna or “second law,” contains this oral law. It is a digest of the Jewish traditions and a compendium of the whole ritual law, and it came at length to be esteemed far above the sacred text.

2. While it was the aim of Jesus to call men to the law of God itself as the supreme guide of life, the Pharisees, upon the pretence of maintaining it intact, multiplied minute precepts and distinctions to such an extent that the whole life of the Israelite was hemmed in and burdened on every side by instructions so numerous and trifling that the law was almost if not wholly lost sight of. These “traditions,” as they were called, had long been gradually accumulating. Of the trifling character of these regulations innumerable instances are to be found in the Mishna. Such were their washings before they could eat bread, and the special minuteness with which the forms of this washing were prescribed; their bathing when they returned from the market; their washing of cups, pots, brazen vessels, etc.; their fastings twice in the week, Luke 18:12; such were their tithings, Matthew 23:23; and such, finally, were those minute and vexatious extensions of the law of the Sabbath, which must have converted God’s gracious ordinance of the Sabbath’s rest into a burden and a pain. Matthew 12:1-13; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 13:10-17.

3. It was a leading aim of the Redeemer to teach men that true piety consisted not in forms, but in substance, not in outward observances, but in an inward spirit. The whole system of Pharisaic piety led to exactly opposite conclusions. The lowliness of piety was, according to the teaching of Jesus, an inseparable concomitant of its reality; but the Pharisees sought mainly to attract the attention and to excite the admiration of men. Matthew 6:2, Matthew 6:6, Matthew 6:16; Matthew 23:5, Matthew 23:6; Luke 14:7. Indeed the whole spirit of their religion was summed up, not in confession of sin and in humility, but in a proud self-righteousness at variance with any true conception of man’s relation to either God or his fellow creatures.

4. With all their pretences to piety they were in reality avaricious, sensual, and dissolute. Matthew 23:25; John 8:7. They looked with contempt upon every nation but their own. Luke 10:29. Finally, instead of endeavoring to fulfill the great end of the dispensation whose truths they professed to teach, and thus bringing men to the Hope of Israel, they devoted their energies to making converts to their own narrow views, who with all the zeal of proselytes were more exclusive and more bitterly opposed to the truth than they were themselves. Matthew 22:15.

5. The Pharisees at an early day secured the popular favor, and thereby acquired considerable political influence. This influence was greatly increased by the extension of the Pharisees over the whole land and the majority which they obtained in the Sanhedrin. Their number reached more than six thousand under the Herods. Many of them must have suffered death for political agitation. In the time of Christ they were divided doctrinally into several schools, among which those of Hillel and Shammai were most noted.—McClintock and Strong.

6. One of the fundamental doctrines of the Pharisees was a belief in a future state. They appear to have believed in a resurrection of the dead, very much in the same sense as the early Christians. They also believed in “a divine Providence acting side by side with the free will of man.”—Schaff.

7. It is proper to add that it would be a great mistake to suppose that the Pharisees were wealthy and luxurious, much more that they had degenerated into the vices which were imputed to some of the Roman popes and cardinals during the two hundred years preceding the Reformation. Josephus compared the Pharisees to the sect of the Stoics. He says that they lived frugally, in no respect giving in to luxury. We are not to suppose that there were not many individuals among them who were upright and pure, for there were such men as Nicodemus, Gamaliel, Joseph of Arimathæa, and Paul.

Pharosh

Pha’rosh. Ezra 8:3. [See PAROSH.]

Pharpar

Phar’par (swift), the second of the “two rivers of Damascus”—Abana and Pharpar—alluded to by Naaman. 2 Kings 5:12. The two principal streams in the district of Damascus are the Barada and the Awaj, the former being the Abana and the latter the Pharpar. The Awaj rises on the southeast slopes of Hermon, and flows into the most southerly of the three lakes or swamps of Damascus.

Pharzites The

Phar’zites, The, the descendants of Parez the son of Judah. Numbers 26:20.

Phaseah

Pha’seah. Nehemiah 7:51. [PASEAH, 2.]

Phaselis

Phase’lis, a town on the coast of Asia Minor, on the confines of Lycia and Pamphylia, and consequently ascribed by the ancient writers sometimes to one and sometimes to the other. 1 Maccabees 15:23.

Phebe

Phe’be. [PhŒbe.]

Phenice

Pheni’ce (Acts 27:12, more properly Phœnix, as it is translated in the Revised Version), the name of a haven in Crete on the south coast. The name was no doubt derived from the Greek word for the palm tree, which Theophrastus says was indigenous in the island. It is the modern Lutró. [See Phœnice; Phœnicia.]

Phichol

Phi’chol (strong), chief captain of the army of Abimelech, king of the Philistines of Gerar in the days of both Abraham, Genesis 21:22, Genesis 21:32, and Isaac. Genesis 26:26. (b.c. 1900.)

Philadelphia

Philadel’phia, strictly Philadelphi’a (brotherly love), a town on the confines of Lydia and Phrygia Catacecaumene, 25 miles southeast of Sardis, and built by Attalus II, king of Pergamos, who died b.c. 138. It was situated on the lower slopes of Tmolus, and is still represented by a town called Allah-shehr (city of God). Its elevation is 952 feet above the sea. The original population of Philadelphia seems to have been Macedonian; but there was, as appears from Revelation 3:9, a synagogue of Hellenizing Jews there, as well as a Christian church. (It was the seat of one of “the seven churches of Asia.”) The locality was subject to constant earthquakes, which in the time of Strabo rendered even the town walls of Philadelphia unsafe. The expense of reparation was constant, and hence perhaps the poverty of the members of the church. Revelation 3:8. (The church was highly commended. Revelation 3:7-13. Even Gibbon bears the following well-known testimony to the truth of the prophecy, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee in the hour of temptation”: “At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the (Greek) emperor, encompassed on all sides by the Turks, her valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above fourscore years. Among the Greek colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect, a column in a scene of ruins.” “The modern town (Allah-shehr, city of God), although spacious, containing 3000 houses and 10,000 inhabitants, is badly built; the dwellings are mean and the streets filthy. The inhabitants are mostly Turks. A few ruins are found, including remains of a wall and about twenty-five churches. In one place are four strong marble pillars, which once supported the dome of a church. One of the old mosques is believed by the native Christians to have been the church in which assembled the primitive Christians addressed in the Apocalypse.”—Whitney’s Bible Geography.)

Philadelphia

Philemon

Phile’mon, the name of the Christian to whom Paul addressed his epistle in behalf of Onesimus. He was a native probably of Colosse, or at all events lived in that city when the apostle wrote to him: first, because Onesimus was a Colossian, Colossians 4:9; and secondly, because Archippus was a Colossian, Colossians 4:17, whom Paul associates with Philemon at the beginning of his letter. Philippians 1, Philippians 2. It is related that Philemon became bishop of Colosse, and died as a martyr under Nero. It is evident from the letter to him that Philemon was a man of property and influence, since he is represented as the head of a numerous household, and as exercising an expensive liberality toward his friends and the poor in general. He was indebted to the apostle Paul as the medium of his personal participation in the gospel. It is not certain under what circumstances they became known to each other. It is evident that on becoming a disciple he gave no common proof of the sincerity and power of his faith. His character, as shadowed forth in the epistle to him, is one of the noblest which the sacred record makes known to us.

Philemon The Epistle of Paul to

Philemon, The Epistle of Paul to, is one of the letters which the apostle wrote during his first captivity at Rome, a.d. 63 or early in a.d. 64. Nothing is wanted to confirm the genuineness of the epistle: the external testimony is unimpeachable; nor does the epistle itself offer anything to conflict with this decision. The occasion of the letter was that Onesimus, a slave of Philemon, had run away from him to Rome, either desiring liberty or, as some suppose, having committed theft. Philemon 18. Here he was converted under the instrumentality of Paul. The latter, intimately connected with the master and the servant, was naturally anxious to effect a reconciliation between them. He used his influence with Onesimus, ver. Philemon 12, to induce him to return to Colosse and place himself again at the disposal of his master. On his departure, Paul put into his hand this letter as evidence that Onesimus was a true and approved disciple of Christ, and entitled as such to be received, not as a servant, but above a servant, as a brother in the faith. The Epistle to Philemon has one peculiar feature—its æsthetical character it may be termed—which distinguishes it from all the other epistles. The writer had peculiar difficulties to overcome; but Paul, it is confessed, has shown a degree of self-denial and a tact in dealing with them which in being equal to the occasion could hardly be greater.

Philetus

Phile’tus (beloved) was possibly a disciple of Hymenæus, with whom he is associated in 2 Timothy 2:17, and who is named without him in an earlier epistle. 1 Timothy 1:20 (a.d. 58–64). They appear to have been persons who believed the Scriptures of the Old Testament, but misinterpreted them, allegorizing away the doctrine of the resurrection, and resolving it all into figure and metaphor. The delivering over unto Satan seems to have been a form of excommunication declaring the person reduced to the state of a heathen; and in the apostolic age it was accompanied with supernatural or miraculous effects upon the bodies of the persons so delivered.

Philip

Phil’ip (lover of horses) the apostle was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter, John 1:44, and apparently was among the Galilean peasants of that district who flocked to hear the preaching of the Baptist. The manner in which St. John speaks of him indicates a previous friendship with the sons of Jona and Zebedee, and a consequent participation in their messianic hopes. The close union of the two in John 6 and John 12 suggests that he may have owed to Andrew the first tidings that the hope had been fulfilled. The statement that Jesus found him, John 1:43, implies a previous seeking. In the lists of the twelve apostles, in the Synoptic Gospel, his name is as uniformly at the head of the second group of four as the name of Peter is at that of the first, Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14; and the facts recorded by St. John give the reason of this priority. Philip apparently was among the first company of disciples who were with the Lord at the commencement of his ministry, at the marriage at Cana, on his first appearance as a prophet in Jerusalem. John 2. The first three Gospels tell us nothing more of him individually. St. John, with his characteristic fullness of personal reminiscences, records a few significant utterances. John 6:5-9; John 12:20-22; John 14:8. No other fact connected with the name of Philip is recorded in the Gospels. He is among the company of disciples at Jerusalem after the ascension, Acts 1:13, and on the day of Pentecost. After this all is uncertain and apocryphal. According to tradition, he preached in Phrygia, and died at Hierapolis.

Philip the evangelist

Phil’ip the evangelist is first mentioned in the account of the dispute between the Hebrew and Hellenistic disciples in Acts 6. He is one of the seven appointed to superintend the daily distribution of food and alms, and so to remove all suspicion of partiality. The persecution of which Saul was the leader must have stopped the “daily ministrations” of the Church. The teachers who had been most prominent were compelled to take flight, and Philip was among them. It is noticeable that the city of Samaria is the first scene of his activity. Acts 8. He is the precursor of St. Paul in his work, as Stephen had been in his teaching. The scene which brings Philip and Simon the sorcerer into contact with each other, Acts 8:9-13, in which the magician has to acknowledge a power over nature greater than his own, is interesting. This step is followed by another. On the road from Jerusalem to Gaza he meets the Ethiopian eunuch. Acts 8:26-28. The history that follows is interesting as one of the few records in the New Testament of the process of individual conversion. A brief sentence tells us that Philip continued his work as a preacher at Azotus (Ashdod) and among the other cities that had formerly belonged to the Philistines, and, following the coast-line, came to Cæsarea. Then for a long period—not less than eighteen or nineteen years—we lose sight of him. The last glimpse of him in the New Testament is in the account of St. Paul’s journey to Jerusalem. It is to his house, as to one well known to them, that St. Paul and his companions turn for shelter. He has four daughters, who possess the gift of prophetic utterance, and who apparently give themselves to the work of teaching instead of entering on the life of home. Acts 21:8, Acts 21:9. He is visited by the prophets and elders of Jerusalem. One tradition places the scene of his death at Hierapolis in Phrygia. According to another, he died bishop of Tralles. The house in which he and his daughters had lived was pointed out to travellers in the time of Jerome.

Philip Herod I II

Phil’ip Her’od I, II. [HEROD.]

Philippi

Philip’pi (named from Philip of Macedonia), a city of Macedonia, about nine miles from the sea, to the northwest of the island of Thasos, which is twelve miles distant from its port Neapolis, the modern Kavalla. It is situated in a plain between the ranges of Pangæus and Hæmus. The Philippi which St. Paul visited was a Roman colony founded by Augustus after the famous battle of Philippi, fought here between Antony and Octavius and Brutus and Cassius, b.c. 42. The remains which strew the ground near the modern Turkish village Bereketli are no doubt derived from that city. The original town, built by Philip of Macedonia, was probably not exactly on the same site. Philip, when he acquired possession of the site, found there a town named Datus or Datum, which was probably in its origin a factory of the Phœnicians, who were the first that worked the gold-mines in the mountains here, as in the neighboring Thasos. The proximity of the goldmines was of course the origin of so large a city as Philippi, but the plain in which it lies is of extraordinary fertility. The position, too, was on the main road from Rome to Asia, the Via Egnatia, which from Thessalonica to Constantinople followed the same course as the existing post-road. On St. Paul’s visits to Philippi, see the following article. At Philippi the gospel was first preached in Europe. Lydia was the first convert. Here, too, Paul and Silas were imprisoned. Acts 16:23. The Philippians sent contributions to Paul to relieve his temporal wants.

Ruins in the Market-place of Philippi.

View at Philippi.

Philippians Epistle to the

Philippians, Epistle to the, was written by St. Paul from Rome in a.d. 62 or 63. St. Paul’s connection with Philippi was of a peculiar character, which gave rise to the writing of this epistle. St. Paul entered its walls a.d. 52. Acts 16:12. There, at a greater distance from Jerusalem than any apostle had yet penetrated, the long-restrained energy of St. Paul was again employed in laying the foundation of a Christian church. Philippi was endeared to St. Paul not only by the hospitality of Lydia, the deep sympathy of the converts, and the remarkable miracle which set a seal on his preaching, but also by the successful exercise of his missionary activity after a long suspense, and by the happy consequences of his undaunted endurance of ignominies which remained in his memory, Philippians 1:30, after the long interval of eleven years. Leaving Timothy and Luke to watch over the infant church, Paul and Silas went to Thessalonica, 1 Thessalonians 2:2, whither they were followed by the alms of the Philippians, Philippians 4:16, and thence southward. After the laps of five years, spent chiefly at Corinth and Ephesus, St. Paul passed through Macedonia, a.d. 57, on his way to Greece, and probably visited Philippi for the second time, and was there joined by Timothy. He wrote at Philippi his second Epistle to the Corinthians. On returning from Greece, Acts 20:4, he again found a refuge among his faithful Philippians, where he spent some days at Easter, a.d. 58, with St. Luke, who accompanied him when he sailed from Neapolis. Once more, in his Roman captivity, a.d. 62, their care of him revived again. They sent Epaphroditus, bearing their alms for the apostle’s support, and ready also to tender his personal service. Philippians 2:25. St. Paul’s aim in writing is plainly this: while acknowledging the alms of the Philippians and the personal services of their messenger, to give them some information respecting his own condition, and some advice respecting theirs. Strangely full of joy and thanksgiving amidst adversity, like the apostle’s midnight hymn from the depth of his Philippian dungeon, this epistle went forth from his prison at Rome. In most other epistles he writes with a sustained effort to instruct, or with sorrow, or with indignation; he is striving to supply imperfect or to correct erroneous teaching, to put down scandalous impurity, or to heal schism in the church which he addresses. But in this epistle, though he knew the Philippians intimately and was not blind to the faults and tendencies to fault of some of them, yet he mentions no evil so characteristic of the whole Church as to call for general censure on his part or amendment on theirs. Of all his epistles to churches, none has so little of an official character as this.

Philistia

Philis’tia (Heb. Pelesheth) (land of sojourners). The word thus translated (in Psalm 60:8; Psalm 87:4; Psalm 108:9) is in the original identical with that elsewhere rendered Palestine, which always means land of the Philistines. (Philistia was the plain on the southwest coast of Palestine. It was 40 miles long on the coast of the Mediterranean between Gerar and Joppa, and 10 miles wide at the northern end and 20 at the southern.—Ed.) This plain has been in all ages remarkable for the extreme richness of its soil. It was also adapted to the growth of military power; for while the plain itself permitted the use of war-chariots, which were the chief arm of offence, the occasional elevations which rise out of it offered secure sites for towns and strongholds. It was, moreover, a commercial country: from its position it must have been at all times the great thoroughfare between Phœnicia and Syria in the north and Egypt and Arabia in the south.

Philistines

Philis’tines (immigrants). The origin of the Philistines is nowhere expressly stated in the Bible; but as the prophets describe them as “the Philistines from Caphtor,” Amos 9:7, and “the remnant of the maritime district of Caphtor,” Jeremiah 47:4, it is primaÆ facie probable that they were the “Caphtorim which came out of Caphtor” who expelled the Avim from their territory and occupied it in their place, Deuteronomy 2:23; and that these again were the Caphtorim mentioned in the Mosaic genealogical table among the descendants of Mizraim. Genesis 10:14. It has been generally assumed that Caphtor represents Crete, and that the Philistines migrated from that island, either directly or through Egypt, into Palestine. But the name Caphtor is more probably identified with the Egyptian Coptos. [CAPHTOR.]

History.—The Philistines must have settled in the land of Canaan before the time of Abraham; for they are noticed in his day as a pastoral tribe in the neighborhood of Gerar. Genesis 21:32, Genesis 21:34; Genesis 26:1, Genesis 26:8. Between the times of Abraham and Joshua the Philistines had changed their quarters, and had advanced northward into the plain of Philistia. The Philistines had at an early period attained proficiency in the arts of peace. Their wealth was abundant, Judges 16:5, Judges 16:18, and they appear in all respects to have been a prosperous people. Possessed of such elements of power, they had attained in the time of the judges an important position among eastern nations. About b.c. 1200 we find them engaged in successful war with the Sidonians. Justin xviii. 3. The territory of the Philistines, having been once occupied by the Canaanites, formed a portion of the promised land, and was assigned to the tribe of Judah. Joshua 15:2, Joshua 15:12, Joshua 15:45-47. No portion of it, however, was conquered in the lifetime of Joshua, Joshua 13:2, and even after his death no permanent conquest was effected, Judges 3:3, though we are informed that the three cities of Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron were taken. Judges 1:18. The Philistines soon recovered these, and commenced an aggressive policy against the Israelites, by which they gained a complete ascendency over them. Individual heroes were raised up from time to time, such as Shamgar the son of Anath, Judges 3:31, and still more Samson, Judges 13; but neither of these men succeeded in permanently throwing off the yoke. The Israelites attributed their past weakness to their want of unity, and they desired a king, with the special object of leading them against the foe. 1 Samuel 8:20. Saul threw off the yoke; and the Philistines were defeated with great slaughter at Geba. 1 Samuel 13:3. They made no attempt to regain their supremacy for about twenty-five years, and the scene of the next contest shows the altered strength of the two parties. It was no longer in the central country, but in a ravine leading down to the Philistine plain, the valley of Elah, the position of which is about 14 miles southwest of Jerusalem. On this occasion the prowess of young David secured success to Israel, and the foe was pursued to the gates of Gath and Ekron. 1 Samuel 17. The power of the Philistines was, however, still intact on their own territory. The border warfare was continued. The scene of the next conflict was far to the north, in the valley of Esdraelon. The battle on this occasion proved disastrous to the Israelites; Saul himself perished, and the Philistines penetrated across the Jordan and occupied the forsaken cities. 1 Samuel 31:1-7. On the appointment of David to be king, he twice attacked them, and on each occasion with signal success, in the first case capturing their images, in the second pursuing them “from Geba until thou come to Gazer.” 2 Samuel 5:17-25; 1 Chronicles 14:8-16. Henceforth the Israelites appear as the aggressors. About seven years after the defeat at Rephaim, David, who had now consolidated his power, attacked them on their own soil, and took Gath with its dependencies. The whole of Philistia was included in Solomon’s empire. Later, when the Philistines, joined by the Syrians and Assyrians, made war on the kingdom of Israel, Hezekiah formed an alliance with the Egyptians, as a counterpoise to the Assyrians, and the possession of Philistia became henceforth the turning-point of the struggle between the two great empires of the East. The Assyrians under Tartan, the general of Sargon, made an expedition against Egypt, and took Ashdod, as the key of that country. Isaiah 20:1, Isaiah 20:4, Isaiah 20:5. Under Sennacherib Philistia was again the scene of important operations. The Assyrian supremacy was restored by Esarhaddon, and it seems probable that the Assyrians retained their hold on Ashdod until its capture, after a long siege, by Psammetichus. It was about this time that Philistia was traversed by a vast Scythian horde on their way to Egypt. The Egyptian ascendency was not as yet re-established, for we find the next king, Necho, compelled to besiege Gaza on his return from the battle of Megiddo. After the death of Necho the contest was renewed between the Egyptians and the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar, and the result was specially disastrous to the Philistines. The “old hatred” that the Philistines bore to the Jews was exhibited in acts of hostility at the time of the Babylonish captivity, Ezekiel 25:15-17; but on the return this was somewhat abated, for some of the Jews married Philistian women, to the great scandal of their rulers. Nehemiah 13:23, Nehemiah 13:24. From this time the history of Philistia is absorbed in the struggles of the neighboring kingdoms. The latest notices of the Philistines as a nation occur in 1 Maccabees 3-5.

Institutions, religion, etc.—With regard to the institutions of the Philistines our information is very scanty. The five chief cities had, as early as the days of Joshua, constituted themselves into a confederacy, restricted however, in all probability, to matters of offence and defence. Each was under the government of a prince, Joshua 13:3; Judges 3:3, etc.; 1 Samuel 18:30; 1 Samuel 29:6, and each possessed its own territory. The Philistines appear to have been deeply imbued with superstition: they carried their idols with them on their campaigns, 2 Samuel 5:21, and proclaimed their victories in their presence. 1 Samuel 31:9. The gods whom they chiefly worshipped were Dagon, Judges 16:23; 1 Samuel 5:3-5; 1 Chronicles 10:10; 1 Maccabees 10:83, Ashtaroth, 1 Samuel 31:10; Herod. i. 105, and Baalzebub. 2 Kings 1:2-6.

Philologus

Philol’ogus, a Christian at Rome to whom St. Paul sends his salutation. Romans 16:15.

Philosophy

Philosophy. It is the object of the following article to give some account (I) of that development of thought among the Jews which answered to the philosophy of the West; (II) of the systematic progress of Greek philosophy as forming a complete whole; and (III) of the contact of Christianity with philosophy.

I. The Philosophic Discipline of the Jews.—Philosophy, if we limit the word strictly to describe the free pursuit of knowledge of which truth is the one complete end, is essentially of western growth. In the East the search after wisdom has always been connected with practice. The history of the Jews offers no exception to this remark: there is no Jewish philosophy, properly so called. The method of Greece was to proceed from life to God; the method of Israel (so to speak) was to proceed from God to life. The axioms of one system are the conclusions of the other. The one led to the successive abandonment of the noblest domains of science which man had claimed originally as his own, till it left bare systems of morality; the other, in the fullness of time, prepared many to welcome the Christ—the Truth. The philosophy of the Jews, using the word in a large sense, is to be sought for rather in the progress of the national life than in special books. Step by step the idea of the family was raised into that of the people; and the kingdom furnished the basis of those wider promises which included all nations in one kingdom of heaven. The social, the political, the cosmical relations of man were traced out gradually in relation to God. The philosophy of the Jews is thus essentially a moral philosophy, resting on a definite connection with God. The doctrines of Creation and Providence, of an infinite divine person and of a responsible human will, which elsewhere form the ultimate limits of speculation, are here assumed at the outset. The Psalms, which, among the other infinite lessons which they convey, give a deep insight into the need of a personal apprehension of truth, everywhere declare the absolute sovereignty of God over the material and the moral world. One man among all is distinguished among the Jews as “the wise man.” The description which is given of his writings serves as a commentary on the national view of philosophy. 1 Kings 4:30-33. The lesson of practical duty, the full utterance of “a large heart,” ibid. 29, the careful study of God’s creatures—this is the sum of wisdom. Yet, in fact, the very practical aim of this philosophy leads to the revelation of the most sublime truth. Wisdom was gradually felt to be a person, throned by God and holding converse with men. Proverbs 8. She was seen to stand in open enmity with “the strange woman,” who sought to draw them aside by sensuous attractions; and thus a new step was made toward the central doctrine of Christianity—the incarnation of the Word. Two books of the Bible, Job and Ecclesiastes, of which the latter at any rate belongs to the period of the close of the kingdom, approach more nearly than any others to the type of philosophical discussions. But in both the problem is moral and not metaphysical. The one deals with the evils which afflict “the perfect and upright”; the other with the vanity of all the pursuits and pleasures of earth. The captivity necessarily exercised a profound influence upon Jewish thought. The teaching of Persia seems to have been designed to supply important elements in the education of the chosen people. But it did yet more than this. The contact of the Jews with Persia thus gave rise to a traditional mysticism. Their contact with Greece was marked by the rise of distinct sects. In the third century b.c. the great Doctor Antigonus of Socho bears a Greek name, and popular belief pointed to him as the teacher of Sadoc and Boethus, the supposed founders of Jewish rationalism. At any rate, we may date from this time the twofold division of Jewish speculation. The Sadducees appear as the supporters of human freedom in its widest scope; the Pharisees of a religious Stoicism. At a later time the cycle of doctrine was completed, when by a natural reaction the Essenes established a mystic Asceticism.

II. The Development of Greek Philosophy.—The various attempts which have been made to derive western philosophy from eastern sources have signally failed. It is true that in some degree the character of Greek speculation may have been influenced, at least in its earliest stages, by religious ideas which were originally introduced from the East; but this indirect influence does not affect the real originality of the Greek teachers. The very value of Greek teaching lies in the fact that it was, as far as is possible, a result of simple reason, or, if faith asserts its prerogative, the distinction is sharply marked. Of the various classifications of the Greek schools which have been proposed, the simplest and truest seems to be that which divides the history of philosophy into three great periods, the first reaching to the era of the Sophists, the next to the death of Aristotle, the third to the Christian era. In the first period the world objectively is the great centre of inquiry; in the second, the “ideas” of things, truth, and being; in the third, the chief interest of philosophy falls back upon the practical conduct of life. After the Christian era philosophy ceased to have any true vitality in Greece, but it made fresh efforts to meet the changed conditions of life at Alexandria and Rome.

1. The pre-Socratic schools.—The first Greek philosophy was little more than an attempt to follow out in thought the mythic cosmogonies of earlier poets. What is the one permanent element which underlies the changing forms of things?—this was the primary inquiry, to which the Ionic school endeavored to find an answer. Thales (cir. b.c. 639–543) pointed to moisture (water) as the one source and supporter of life. Anaximenes (cir. b.c. 520–480) substituted air for water. At a much later date (cir. b.c. 450) Diogenes of Apollonia represented this elementary “air” as endowed with intelligence. 2. The Socratic schools.—In the second period of Greek philosophy the scene and subject were both changed. A philosophy of ideas, using the term in its widest sense, succeeded a philosophy of nature. In three generations Greek speculation reached its greatest glory in the teaching of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The famous sentence in which Aristotle characterizes the teachings of Socrates (b.c. 468–399) places his scientific position in the clearest light. There are two things, he says, which we may rightly attribute to Socrates—inductive reasoning and general definition. By the first he endeavored to discover the permanent element which underlies the changing forms of appearances and the varieties of opinion; by the second he fixed the truth which he had thus gained. But, besides this, Socrates rendered another service to truth. Ethics occupied in his investigations the primary place which had hitherto been held by Physics. The great aim of his induction was to establish the sovereignty of Virtue. He affirmed the existence of a universal law of right and wrong. He connected philosophy with action, both in detail and in general. On the one side he upheld the supremacy of Conscience, on the other the working of Providence. 3. The post-Socratic schools.—After Aristotle, philosophy took a new direction. Speculation became mainly personal. Epicurus (b.c. 352–270) defined the object of philosophy to be the attainment of a happy life. The pursuit of truth for its own sake he regarded as superfluous. He rejected dialectics as a useless study, and accepted the senses, in the widest acceptation of the term, as the criterion of truth. But he differed widely from the Cyrenaics in his view of happiness. The happiness at which the wise man aims is to be found, he said, not in momentary gratification, but in life-long pleasure. All things were supposed to come into being by chance, and so pass away. The individual was left master of his own life. While Epicurus asserted in this manner the claims of one part of man’s nature in the conduct of life, Zeno of Citium (cir. b.c. 280), with equal partiality, advocated a purely spiritual (intellectual) morality. The opposition between the two was complete. The infinite, chance-formed worlds of the one stand over against the one harmonious world of the other. On the one side are gods regardless of material things, on the other a Being permeating and vivifying all creation. This difference necessarily found its chief expression in Ethics.

III. Christianity in Contact with Ancient Philosophy.—The one direct trace of the contact of Christianity with western philosophy in the New Testament is in the account of St. Paul’s visit to Athens, Acts 17:18; and there is nothing in the apostolic writings to show that it exercised any important influence upon the early Church. Comp. 1 Corinthians 1:22-24. But it was otherwise with eastern speculation, which penetrated more deeply through the mass of the people. The “philosophy” against which the Colossians were warned, Colossians 2:8, seems undoubtedly to have been of eastern origin, containing elements similar to those which were afterward embodied in various shapes of Gnosticism, as a selfish asceticism, and a superstitious reverence for angels, Colossians 2:16-23; and in the Epistles to Timothy, addressed to Ephesus, in which city St. Paul anticipated the rise of false teaching, Acts 20:30, two distinct forms of error may be traced in addition to Judaism, due more or less to the same influence. The writings of the sub-apostolic age, with the exception of the famous anecdote of Justin Martyr (Dial. 2-4), throw little light upon the relations of Christianity and philosophy. Christian philosophy may be in one sense a contradiction in terms, for Christianity confessedly derives its first principles from revelation, and not from simple reason; but there is no less a true philosophy of Christianity, which aims to show how completely these meet the instincts and aspirations of all ages. The exposition of such a philosophy would be the work of a modern Origen.

Phinehas

Phin’ehas (mouth of brass).

1. Son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron. Exodus 6:25. He is memorable for having while quite a youth, by his zeal and energy at the critical moment of the licentious idolatry of Shittim, appeased the divine wrath, and put a stop to the plague which was destroying the nation. Numbers 25:7. (b.c. 1452.) For this he was rewarded by the special approbation of Jehovah, and by a promise that the priesthood should remain in his family forever. Numbers 25:10-13. He was appointed to accompany as priest the expedition by which the Midianites were destroyed. ch. Numbers 31:6. Many years later he also headed the party which was dispatched from Shiloh to remonstrate against the altar which the transjordanic tribes were reported to have built near Jordan. Joshua 22:13-32. In the partition of the country he received an allotment of his own—a hill on Mount Ephraim which bore his name. After Eleazar’s death he became high priest—the third of the series. In this capacity he is introduced as giving the oracle to the nation during the whole struggle with the Benjamites on the matter of Gibeah. Judges 20:28. The verse which closes the book of Joshua is ascribed to Phinehas, as the description of the death of Moses at the end of Deuteronomy is to Joshua. The tomb of Phinehas, a place of great resort to both Jews and Samaritans, is shown at Awertah, four miles southeast of Nablûs.

2. Second son of Eli. 1 Samuel 1:3; 1 Samuel 2:34; 1 Samuel 4:4, 1 Samuel 4:11, 1 Samuel 4:17, 1 Samuel 4:19; 1 Samuel 14:3. Phinehas was killed with his brother by the Philistines when the ark was captured. (b.c. 1125.) [ELI.]

3. A Levite of Ezra’s time, Ezra 8:33; unless the meaning be that Eleazar was of the family of the great Phinehas.

Phlegon

Phle’gon (burning), a Christian at Rome whom St. Paul salutes. Romans 16:14. (a.d. 55.) Pseudo-Hippolytus makes him one of the seventy disciples and bishop of Marathon.

Phœbe

Phœbe (Phoebe) — (radiant) the first and one of the most important of the Christian persons the detailed mention of whom nearly all the last chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. (A.D.55.) What is said of her, (Romans 16:1; Romans 16:2) is worthy of special notice because of its bearing on the question of the deaconesses of the apostolic Church.

Phœnice

Phœnice (Phoenice, Phoenicia) — (land of palm trees) a tract of country, of which Tyre and Sidon were the principal cities, to the north of Palestine, along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea bounded by that sea on the west, and by the mountain range of Lebanon on the east. The name was not the one by which its native inhabitants called it, but was given to it by the Greeks, from the Greek word for the palm tree. The native name of Phoenicia was Kenaan (Canaan) or Kna, signifying lowland, so named in contrast to the ad joining Aram, i.e. highland, the Hebrew name of Syria. The length of coast to which the name of Phoenicia was applied varied at different times.

What may be termed Phoenicia proper was a narrow undulating plain, extending from the pass of Ras el-Beyad or Abyad , the Promontorium Album of the ancients, about six miles south of Tyre, to the Nahr el-Auly, the ancient Bostrenus, two miles north of Sidon. The plain is only 28 miles in length. Its average breadth is about a mile; but near Sidon the mountains retreat to a distance of two miles, and near Tyre to a distance of five miles.

A longer district, which afterward became entitled to the name of Phoenicia, extended up the coast to a point marked by the island of Aradus, and by Antaradus toward the north; the southern boundary remaining the same as in Phoenicia proper. Phoenicia, thus defined is estimated to have been about 120 miles in length; while its breadth, between Lebanon and the sea, never exceeded 20 miles, and was generally much less. The whole of Phoenicia proper is well watered by various streams from the adjoining hills. The havens of Tyre and Sidon afforded water of sufficient depth for all the requirements of ancient navigation, and the neighboring range of the Lebanon, in its extensive forests, furnished what then seemed a nearly inexhaustible supply of timber for ship-building. Language and race. -- The Phoenicians spoke a branch of the Semitic language so closely allied to Hebrew that Phoenician and Hebrew, though different dialects, may practically be regarded as the same language. Concerning the original race to which the Phoenicians belonged, nothing can be known with certainty, because they are found already established along the Mediterranean Sea at the earliest dawn of authentic history, and for centuries afterward there is no record of their origin. According to Herodotus, vii. 89, they said of themselves in his time that they came in days of old from the shores of the Red Sea and in this there would be nothing in the slightest degree improbable as they spoke a language cognate to that of the Arabians, who inhabited the east coast of that sea. Still neither the truth nor the falsehood of the tradition can now be proved. But there is one point respecting their race which can be proved to be in the highest degree probable, and which has peculiar interest as bearing on the Jews, viz., that the Phoenicians were of the same race as the Canaanites. Commerce, etc. -- In regard to Phoenician trade, connected with the Israelites, it must be recollected that up to the time of David not one of the twelve tribes seems to have possessed a single harbor on the seacoast; it was impossible there fore that they could become a commercial people. But from the time that David had conquered Edom, an opening for trade was afforded to the Israelites. Solomon continued this trade with its king, obtained timber from its territory and employed its sailors and workmen. (2 Samuel 5:11; 1 Kings 5:9; 1 Kings 5:17; 1 Kings 5:18) The religion of the Phoenicians, opposed to Monotheism, was a pantheistical personification of the forces of nature and in its most philosophical shadowing forth of the supreme powers it may be said to have represented the male and female principles of production. In its popular form it was especially a worship of the sun, moon and five planets, or, as it might have been expressed according to ancient notions, of the seven planets --the most beautiful and perhaps the most natural form of idolatry ever presented to the human imagination. Their worship was a constant temptation for the Hebrews to Polytheism and idolatry.

Because undoubtedly the Phoenicians, as a great commercial people, were more generally intelligent, and as we should now say civilized, than the inland agricultural population of Palestine. When the simple-minded Jews, therefore, came in contact with a people more versatile and apparently more enlightened than themselves, but who nevertheless, either in a philosophical or in a popular form admitted a system of Polytheism an influence would be exerted on Jewish minds tending to make them regard their exclusive devotion to their own one God Jehovah, however transcendent his attributes, as unsocial and morose.

The Phoenician religion had in other respects an injurious effect on the people of Palestine, being in some points essentially demoralizing, For example, it mentioned the dreadful superstition of burning children as sacrifices to a Phoenician god. Again, parts of the Phoenician religion, especially the worship of Astarte, fended to encourage dissoluteness in the relations of the sexes, and even to sanctify impurities of the most abominable description. The only other fact respecting the Phoenicians that need be mentioned here is that the invention of letters was universally asserted by the Greeks and Romans to have been communicated by the Phoenicians to the Greeks. For further details respecting the Phoenicians see TYRE and ZIDON. Phoenicia is now a land of ruins.

Phrygia

Phryg’ia (dry, barren). Perhaps there is no geographical term in the New Testament which is less capable of an exact definition. In fact there was no Roman province of Phrygia till considerably after the first establishment of Christianity in the peninsula of Asia Minor. The word was rather ethnological than political, and denoted, in a vague manner, the western part of the central region of that peninsula. Accordingly, in two of the three places where it is used it is mentioned in a manner not intended to be precise. Acts 16:6; Acts 18:23. By Phrygia we must understand an extensive district in Asia Minor, which contributed portions to several Roman provinces, and varying portions at different times. (All over this district the Jews were probably numerous. The Phrygians were a very ancient people, and were supposed to be among the aborigines of Asia Minor. Several bishops from Phrygia were present at the Councils of Nice, a.d. 325, and of Constantinople, a.d. 381, showing the prevalence of Christianity at that time.—Ed.)

Phurah

Phu’rah (bough), Gideon’s servant, probably his armor-bearer, comp. 1 Samuel 14:1, who accompanied him in his midnight visit to the camp of the Midianites. Judges 7:10, Judges 7:11.

Phurim

Phu’rim. Esther 11:1. [PURIM.]

Phut Put

Phut, Put (a bow), the third name in the list of the sons of Ham, Genesis 10:6; 1 Chronicles 1:8, elsewhere applied to an African country or people. The few mentions of Phut in the Bible clearly indicate a country or people of Africa, and, it must be added, probably not far from Egypt. Isaiah 66:19; Jeremiah 46:9; Ezekiel 27:10; Ezekiel 30:5; Ezekiel 38:5; Nahum 3:9. Some identify it with Libya, in the northern part of Africa, near the Mediterranean Sea; others, as Mr. Poole, with Nubia, south of Egypt.

Phuvah

Phu’vah (mouth), one of the sons of Issachar, Genesis 46;Genesis 46:13, and founder of the family of the Punites.

Phygellus

Phygel’lus (fugitive). [HERMOGENES.]

Phygelus

Phyge’lus. Used in the Revised Version in 2 Timothy 1:15 for PHYGELLUS.

Phylactery

Phylactery. [FRONTLETS.]

Pi-beseth

Pi-be’seth, a town of lower Egypt, mentioned in Ezekiel 30:17, the same as Bubastis, so named from the goddess Bubastis. It was situated on the west bank of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, about 40 miles from Memphis. It was probably a city of great importance when Ezekiel foretold its doom.

Picture

Picture. In two of the three passages in which “picture” is used in the Authorized Version it denotes idolatrous representations, either independent images or more usually stones “portrayed,” i.e. sculptured in low relief, or engraved and colored. Ezekiel 23:14; Layard, Nin. and Bab. ii. 306, 308. Movable pictures, in the modern sense, were doubtless unknown to the Jews. The “pictures of silver” of Proverbs 25:11 were probably wall surfaces or cornices with carvings.

Piece of gold

Piece of gold. The rendering “pieces of gold,” as in 2 Kings 5:5, is very doubtful; and “shekels of gold,” as designating the value of the whole quantity, not individual pieces, is preferable. Coined money was unknown in Palestine till the Persian period.

Piece of silver

Piece of silver. I. In the Old Testament the word “pieces” is used in the Authorized Version for a word understood in the Hebrew (if we except Psalm 68:30). The phrase is always “a thousand,” or the like, “of silver.” Genesis 20:16; Genesis 37:28; Genesis 45:22; Judges 9:4; Judges 16:5; 2 Kings 6:25; Hosea 3:2; Zechariah 11:12, Zechariah 11:13. In similar passages the word “shekels” occurs in the Hebrew. There are other passages in which the Authorized Version supplies the word “shekels” instead of “pieces,” Deuteronomy 22:19, Deuteronomy 22:29; Judges 17:2, Judges 17:3, Judges 17:4, Judges 17:10; 2 Samuel 18:11, 2 Samuel 18:12, and of these the first two require this to be done. The shekel, be it remembered, was the common weight for money, and therefore most likely to be understood in an elliptical phrase. The “piece” or shekel of silver weighed 220 grains, or about half an ounce, and was worth a little more than half a dollar (55 cents). II. In the New Testament two words are rendered by the phrase “piece of silver”:

1. Drachma, Luke 15:8, Luke 15:9, which was a Greek silver coin, equivalent, at the time of St. Luke, to the Roman denarius (15 or 16 cents). 2. Silver occurs only in the account of the betrayal of our Lord for “thirty pieces of silver.” Matthew 26:15; Matthew 27:3, Matthew 27:5, Matthew 27:6, Matthew 27:9. It is difficult to ascertain what coins are here intended. If the most common silver pieces be meant, they would be denarii. The parallel passage in Zechariah, ch. Zechariah 11:13, must, however, be taken into consideration, where shekels (worth about 55 cents) must be understood. It is more probable that the thirty pieces of silver were tetradrachms than that they were denarii (60 cents).

Piety

Piety. This word occurs but once in the Authorized Version: “Let them learn first to show piety at home,” better, “toward their own household” or family. 1 Timothy 5:4. The choice of this word here instead of the more usual equivalents of “godliness,” “reverence,” and the like, was probably determined by the special sense of pietas, as “erga parentes,” i.e. toward parents.

Pigeon

Pigeon. [TURTLE-DOVE.]

Pi-hahiroth

Pi-hahi’roth, a place before or at which the Israelites encamped, at the close of the third march from Rameses (the last place before they crossed the Red Sea), when they went out of Egypt. Exodus 14:2, Exodus 14:9; Numbers 33:7, Numbers 33:8. It is an Egyptian word, signifying “the place where sedge grows.”

Pilate

Pi’late (armed with a spear), Pon’tius. Pontius Pilate was the sixth Roman procurator of Judea, and under him our Lord worked, suffered and died, as we learn not only from Scripture, but from Tacitus (Ann. xv. 44). He was appointed a.d. 25–6, in the twelfth year of Tiberius. His arbitrary administration nearly drove the Jews to insurrection on two or three occasions. One of his first acts was to remove the headquarters of the army from Cæsarea to Jerusalem. The soldiers, of course, took with them their standards, bearing the image of the emperor, into the holy city. No previous governor had ventured on such an outrage. The people poured down in crowds to Cæsarea, where the procurator was then residing, and besought him to remove the images. After five days of discussion he gave the signal to some concealed soldiers to surround the petitioners and put them to death unless they ceased to trouble him; but this only strengthened their determination, and they declared themselves ready rather to submit to death than forego their resistance to an idolatrous innovation. Pilate then yielded, and the standards were by his orders brought down to Cæsarea. His slaughter of certain Galileans, Luke 13:1, led to some remarks from our Lord on the connection between sin and calamity. It must have occurred at some feast at Jerusalem, in the outer court of the temple. It was the custom for the procurators to reside at Jerusalem during the great feasts, to preserve order, and accordingly, at the time of our Lord’s last Passover, Pilate was occupying his official residence in Herod’s palace. The history of his condemnation of our Lord is familiar to all. We learn from Josephus that Pilate’s anxiety to avoid giving offence to Cæsar did not save him from political disaster. The Samaritans were unquiet and rebellious; Pilate led his troops against them, and defeated them easily enough. The Samaritans complained to Vitellius, then president of Syria, and he sent Pilate to Rome to answer their accusations before the emperor. When he reached it he found Tiberius dead and Caius (Caligula) on the throne, a.d. 36. Eusebius adds that soon afterward, “wearied with misfortunes,” he killed himself. As to the scene of his death there are various traditions. One is that he was banished to Vienna Allobrogum (Vienne on the Rhone), where a singular monument—a pyramid on the quadrangular base, 52 feet high—is called Pontius Pilate’s tomb. Another is that he sought to hide his sorrows on the mountain by the lake of Lucerne, now called Mount Pilatus; and there, after spending years in its recesses, in remorse and despair rather than penitence, plunged into the dismal lake which occupies its summit.

Pildash

Pil’dash (flame of fire), one of the eight sons of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, by his wife and niece, Milcah. Genesis 22:22. (b.c. 1900.)

Pileha

Pil’eha (worship), the name of one of the chief of the people, probably a family, who signed the covenant with Nehemiah. Nehemiah 10:24. (b.c. 410.)

Pillar

Pillar. The notion of a pillar is of a shaft or isolated pile, either supporting or not supporting a roof. But perhaps the earliest application of the pillar was the votive or monumental. This in early times consisted of nothing but a single stone or pile of stones. Genesis 28:18; Genesis 31:46, etc. The stone Ezel, 1 Samuel 20:19, was probably a terminal stone or a waymark. The “place” set up by Saul, 1 Samuel 15:12, is explained by St. Jerome to be a trophy. So also Jacob set up a pillar over Rachel’s grave. Genesis 35:20. The monolithic tombs and obelisks of Petra are instances of similar usage. Lastly, the figurative use of the term “pillar,” in reference to the cloud and fire accompanying the Israelites on their march, or as in Song of Solomon 3:6 and Revelation 10:1, is plainly derived from the notion of an isolated column not supporting a roof.

Pillar Plain of the

Pillar, Plain of the, or rather “oak of the pillar” (that being the real signification of the Hebrew word elôn), a tree which stood near Shechem, and at which the men of Shechem and the house of Millo assembled to crown Abimelech the son of Gideon. Judges 9:6.

Pilled

Pilled, Genesis 30:37, Genesis 30:38; “peeled,” Isaiah 18:2; Ezekiel 29:18. The verb “to pill” appears in old English as identical in meaning with “to peel, to strip.”

Pilta-i

Pil’ta-i, or Pilta’i (my deliverances), the representative of the priestly house of Moadiah or Maadiah, in the time of Joiakim the son of Jeshua. Nehemiah 12:17. (b.c. 445.)

Pine tree

Pine tree.

1. Heb. tidhâr. Isaiah 41:19; Isaiah 60:13. What tree is intended is not certain; but the rendering “pine” seems least probable of any. 2. Shemen, Nehemiah 8:15, is probably the wild olive.

An Eastern Pine.

Pinnacle

Pinnacle (of the temple), Matthew 4:5; Luke 4:9. The Greek word ought to be rendered not a pinnacle, but the pinnacle. The only part of the temple which answered to the modern sense of pinnacle was the golden spikes erected on the roof to prevent birds from settling there. Perhaps the word means the battlement ordered by law to be added to every roof. (According to Alford it was the roof of Herod’s royal portico of the temple, “which overhung the ravine of Kedron from a dizzy height”—600 or 700 feet.—Ed.)

Pinon

Pi’non (darkness), one of the “dukes” of Edom—that is, head or founder of a tribe of that nation. Genesis 36:41; 1 Chronicles 1:52.

Pipe

Pipe (Heb. châlil). The Hebrew word so rendered is derived from a root signifying “to bore, perforate,” and is represented with sufficient correctness by the English “pipe” or “flute,” as in the margin of 1 Kings 1:40. The pipe was the type of perforated wind instruments, as the harp was of stringed instruments. It was made of reed, bronze, or copper. It is one of the simplest, and therefore probably one of the oldest, of musical instruments. It is associated with the tabret as an instrument of a peaceful and social character. The pipe and tabret were used at the banquets of the Hebrews, Isaiah 5:12, and accompanied the simpler religious services when the young prophets, returning from the high place, caught their inspiration from the harmony, 1 Samuel 10:5; or the pilgrims, on their way to the great festivals of their ritual, beguiled the weariness of the march with psalms sung to the simple music of the pipe. Isaiah 30:29. The sound of the pipe was apparently a soft wailing note, which made it appropriate to be used in mourning and at funerals, Matthew 9:23, and in the lament of the prophet over the destruction of Moab. Jeremiah 48:36. It was even used in the temple choir, as appears from Psalm 87:7. In later times the funeral and death-bed were never without the professional pipers or flute-players, Matthew 9:23, a custom which still exists. In the social and festive life of the Egyptians the pipe played as prominent a part as among the Hebrews.

Piram

Pi’ram (like a wild ass; fleet), the Amorite king of Jarmuth at the time of Joshua’s conquest of Canaan. Joshua 10:3. (b.c. 1450.)

Pirathon

Pir’athon (princely), “in the land of Ephraim in the mount of the Amalekite,” a place in Judges 12:15. Its site, now called Fer’ata, is about one mile and a half south of the road from Jaffa, by Hableh, to Nablûs. Pirathonites are mentioned in Judges 12:13, Judges 12:15 and 1 Chronicles 27:14.

Pirathonite

Pir’athonite, a native of or dweller in Pirathon. Two such are named in the Bible:—

1. Abdon ben-Hillel. Judges 12:13, Judges 12:15. 2. “Benaiah the Pirathonite, of the children of Ephraim.” 1 Chronicles 27:14.

Pisgah

Pis’gah (section, i.e., peak), Numbers 21:20; Numbers 23:14; Deuteronomy 3:27; Deuteronomy 34:1, a mountain range or district, the same as, or a part of, that called the mountains of Abarim. Comp. Deuteronomy 32:49 with Deuteronomy 34:1. It lay on the east of Jordan, contiguous to the field of Moab, and immediately opposite Jericho. Its highest point or summit—its “head”—was Mount Nebo. [See NEBO.]

Pisidia

Pisid’ia (pitchy) was a district in Asia Minor north of Pamphylia, and reached to and was partly included in Phrygia. Thus Antioch in Pisidia was sometimes called a Phrygian town. St. Paul passed through Pisidia twice, with Barnabas, on the first missionary journey, i.e., both in going from Perga to Iconium, Acts 13:13, Acts 13:14, Acts 13:51, and in returning. Acts 14:21, Acts 14:24, Acts 14:25; comp. 2 Timothy 3:11. It is probable also that he traversed the northern part of the district, with Silas and Timotheus, on the second missionary journey, Acts 16:6; but the word Pisidia does not occur except in reference to the former journey.

Antioch in Pisidia.

Pison

Pi’son. [EDON.]

Pit

Pit. [HELL.]

Pitch

Pitch. The three Hebrew words so translated all represent the same object, viz., mineral pitch or asphalt in its different aspects. Asphalt is an opaque, inflammable substance, which bubbles up from subterranean fountains in a liquid state, and hardens by exposure to the air, but readily melts under the influence of heat. In the latter state it is very tenacious, and was used as a cement in lieu of mortar in Babylonia, Genesis 11:3, as well as for coating the outside of vessels, Genesis 6:14, and particularly for making the papyrus boats of the Egyptians water-tight. Exodus 2:3. The Jews and Arabians got their supply in large quantities from the Dead Sea, which hence received its classical name of Lacus Asphaltites.

Pitcher

Pitcher. This word is used in the Authorized Version to denote the earthen water-jars or pitchers with one or two handles, used chiefly by women for carrying water, as in the story of Rebekah. Genesis 24:15-20; but see Mark 14:13; Luke 22:10. This mode of carrying has been and still is customary both in the East and elsewhere. The vessels used for the purpose are generally borne on the head or the shoulder. The Bedouin women commonly use skin bottles. Such was the “bottle” carried by Hagar. Genesis 21:14. The same word is used of the pitchers employed by Gideon’s three hundred men. Judges 7:16.

Pithom

Pi’thom (city of the setting sun), one of the store-cities built by the Israelites for the first oppressor, the Pharaoh “which knew not Joseph.” Exodus 1:11. It is probably the Patumus of Herodotus (ii. 159), a town on the borders of Egypt, near which Necho constructed a canal from the Nile to the Arabian Gulf.

Pithon

Pi’thon (harmless), one of the four sons of Micah, the son of Mephibosheth. 1 Chronicles 8:35; 1 Chronicles 9:41. (b.c. 1050.)

Plague The

Plague, The. The plague is considered to be a severe kind of typlus, accompanied by buboes (tumors). Like the cholera, it is most violent at the first outbrerak, causing almost instant death. Great difference of opinion has obtained as to whether it is contagious or not. It was very prevalent in the East, and still prevails in Egypt. Several Hebrew words are translated “pestilence” or “plague”; but not one of these words can be considered as designating by its signification the disease now called the plague. Whether the disease be mentioned must be judged from the sense of passages, not from the sense of words. Those pestilences which were sent as special judgments, and were either supernaturally rapid in their effects or were in addition directed against particular culprits, are beyond the reach of human inquiry. But we also read of pestilences which, although sent as judgments, have the characteristics of modern epidemics, not being rapid beyond nature nor directed against individuals. Leviticus 26:25; Deuteronomy 28:21. In neither of these passages does it seem certain that the plague is specified. The notices in the prophets present the same difficulty. Hezekiah’s disease has been thought to have been the plague, and its fatal nature, as well as the mention of a boil, makes this not improbable. On the other hand, there is no mention of a pestilence among his people at the time.

Plagues The ten

Plagues, The ten. The occasion on which the plagues were sent is described in Exodus 3-12.

1. The plague of blood.—When Moses and Aaron came before Pharaoh, a miracle was required of them. Then Aaron’s rod became “a serpent” (Authorized Version), or rather “a crocodile.” Its being changed into an animal reverenced by all the Egyptians, or by some of them, would have been an especial warning to Pharaoh. The Egyptian magicians called by the king produced what seemed to be the same wonder, yet Aaron’s rod swallowed up the others. Exodus 7:3-12. This passage, taken alone, would appear to indicate that the magicians succeeded in working wonders, but, if it is compared with the others which relate their opposition on the occasions of the first three plagues, a contrary inference seems more reasonable; for the very first time that Moses wrought his miracle without giving previous notice, the magicians “did so” with their enchantments,” but failed. A comparison with other passages strengthens us in the inference that the magicians succeeded merely by juggling. After this warning to Pharaoh, Aaron, at the word of Moses, waved his rod over the Nile, and the river was turned into blood, with all its canals and reservoirs, and every vessel of water drawn from them; the fish died, and the river stank. The Egyptians could not drink of it, and digged around it for water. This plague was doubly humiliating to the religion of the country, as the Nile was held sacred, as well as some kinds of its fish, not to speak of the crocodiles, which probably were destroyed. Exodus 7:16-25. Those who have endeavored to explain this plague by natural causes have referred to the changes of color to which the Nile is subject, the appearance of the Red Sea, and the so-called rain and dew of blood of the middle ages; the last two occasioned by small fungi of very rapid growth. But such theories do not explain why the wonder happened at a time of year when the Nile is most clear, nor why it killed fish and made the water unfit to be drunk.

2. The plague of frogs.—When seven days had passed after the first plague, the river and all the open waters of Egypt brought forth countless frogs, which not only covered the land, but filled the houses, even in their driest parts and vessels, for the ovens and kneading-troughs are specified. This must have been an especially trying judgment to the Egyptians, as frogs were included among the sacred animals. Exodus 8:1-15.

3. The plague of lice.—The dry land was now smitten by the rod, and its very dust seemed turned into minute noxious insects, so thickly did they swarm on man and beast, or rather “in” them. The scrupulous cleanliness of the Egyptians would add intolerably to the bodily distress of this plague, by which also they again incurred religious defilement. As to the species of the vermin, there seems no reason to disturb the authorized translation of the word. The magicians, who had imitated by their enchantments, the two previous miracles, were now foiled. They struck the ground, as Aaron did, and repeated their own incantations, but it was without effect. Exodus 8:16-19.

4. The plague of flies.—After the river and the land, the air was smitten, being filled with winged insects, which swarmed in the houses and devoured the land, but Goshen was exempted from the plague. The word translated “swarms of flies” most probably denotes the great Egyptian beetle, ScarabŜus sacer, which is constantly represented in their sculptures. Besides the annoying and destructive habits of its tribe, it was an object of worship, and thus the Egyptians were again scourged by their own superstitions. Exodus 8:20-32.

5. The plague of the murrain of beasts.—Still coming closer and closer to the Egyptians, God sent a disease upon the cattle, which were not only their property but their deities. At the precise time of which Moses forewarned Pharaoh, all the cattle of the Egyptians were smitten with a murrain and died, but not one of the cattle of the Israelites suffered. Exodus 9:1-7.

6. The plague of boils.—From the cattle the hand of God was extended to the persons of the Egyptians. Moses and Aaron were commanded to take ashes of the furnace, and to “sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.” It was to become “small dust” throughout Egypt, and “be a boil breaking forth [with] blains upon man and upon beast.” Exodus 9:8-12. This accordingly came to pass. The plague seems to have been the black leprosy, a fearful kind of elephantiasis, which was long remembered as “the botch of Egypt.” Deuteronomy 28:27, Deuteronomy 28:35.

7. The plague of hail.—The account of the seventh plague is preceded by a warning which Moses was commanded to deliver to Pharaoh, respecting the terrible nature of the plagues that were to ensue if he remained obstinate. Man and beast were smitten, and the herbs and every tree broken, save in the land of Goshen. The ruin caused by the hail was evidently far greater than that effected by any of the earlier plagues. Hail is now extremely rare, but not unknown, in Egypt, and it is interesting that the narrative seems to imply that it sometimes falls there. Exodus 9:13-34.

8. The plague of locusts.—The severity of this plague can be well understood by those who have been in Egypt in a part of the country where a flight of locusts has alighted. In this case the plague was greater than an ordinary visitation, since it extended over a far wider space, rather than because it was more intense; for it is impossible to imagine any more complete destruction than that always caused by a swarm of locusts. Exodus 10:1-20.

9. The plague of darkness.—“There was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days”; while “all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.” It has been illustrated by reference to the samoom and the hot wind of the Khamáseen. The former is a sand-storm which occurs in the desert, seldom lasting more than a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, but for the time often causing the darkness of twilight, and affecting man and beast. The hot wind of the Khamáseen usually blows for three days and nights, and carries so much sand with it that it produces the appearance of a yellow fog. It thus resembles the samoom, though far less powerful and less distressing in its effects. It is not known to cause actual darkness. The plague may have been an extremely severe sandstorm, miraculous in its violence and duration, for the length of three days does not make it natural, since the severe storms are always very brief. Exodus 10:21-29.

10. The death of the first-born.—Before the tenth plague Moses went to warn Pharaoh:—“Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt; and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even to the first-born of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the first-born of beasts.” Exodus 11:4, Exodus 11:5. The clearly miraculous nature of this plague, in its severity, its falling upon man and beast, and the singling out of the first-born, puts it wholly beyond comparison with any natural pestilence, even the severest recorded in history, whether of the peculiar Egyptian plague or of other like epidemics. The history of the ten plagues strictly ends with the death of the first-born. The gradual increase in severity of the plagues is perhaps the best key to their meaning. They seem to have been sent as warnings to the oppressor, to afford him a means of seeing God’s will and an opportunity of repenting before Egypt was ruined. The lesson that Pharaoh’s career teaches us seems to be that there are men whom the most signal judgments do not affect so as to cause any lasting repentance.

The following characteristics of the plagues may be specially noticed: (1) Their relation to natural phenomena. Each of the inflictions has a demonstrable connection with Egyptian customs and phenomena; each is directly aimed at some Egyptian superstition; all are marvellous, not for the most part as reversing, but as developing, forces inherent in nature, and directing them to a special end.—Canon Cook. (2) Their order. They are divided first into nine and one; the last one standing clearly apart from all the others. The nine are arranged in threes. In the first of each three the warning is given to Pharaoh in the morning. In the first and second of each three the plague is announced beforehand; in the third, not. At the third the magicians acknowledge the finger of God; at the sixth they cannot stand before Moses; and at the ninth Pharaoh refuses to see the face of Moses any more. The gradation of the severity of these strokes is no less obvious. In the first three no distinction is made among the inhabitants of the land; in the remaining seven a distinction is made between the Israelites, who are shielded from, and the Egyptians, who are exposed to, the stroke.—Kurtz. (3) Their duration. It is probable that the plagues extended through a period of several months. The first plague occurred probably during the annual inundation of the Nile, hence about the middle of June (Edersheim). The second, that of the frogs, in September, the time when Egypt often suffers in this way. The seventh (hail) came when the barley was in ear, and before the wheat was grown, and hence in February; and the tenth came in the following March or April. (4) Their significance. The first plague was directed against the Nile, one of the Egyptian deities, adored as a source of life, not only to the produce of the land, but to its inhabitants. The second plague, that of the frogs, struck also at the idolatry of Egypt; for the frog was an object of worship. The third plague turned the land, which was worshipped, into a source of torment; the dust produced a curse. The fourth plague consisted in the torment of either flies of a ravenous disposition, or bettles. If the former, then the air, which was worshipped, was turned into a source of exquisite annoyance; if the latter, then the beetle, one of the most common of the Egyptian idols, swarmed with voracious appetite, attacking even man, as the Egyptian beetle still does, and inflicting painful wounds. The fifth plague, that of murrain, struck at the cattle-worship for which Egypt was celebrated. The sixth plague, produced by the ashes scattered toward heaven, in conformity with an ancient Egyptian rite, as if in invocation of the sun-god, continued the warfare of Jehovah upon Egyptian idolatry; the religious ceremony which was employed to invoke blessing brought disease. The seventh plague, beginning a new series, seems to have been aimed, like those which followed, to demonstrate the power of Jehovah over all the elements, and even life itself, in contrast with the impotence of the idols. The storm and the hail came at his bidding. The locusts appeared and departed at his word. The sun itself was veiled at his command. Nay, the angel of death was held and loosed by his hand alone. The tenth plague had an immediate relation to idolatry, since it destroyed not only the first-born of man, but the first-born of beast; so that the sacred animals in the temples were touched by a power higher than those they were supposed to represent. The victory was complete; upon all the gods of Egypt, Jehovah had executed judgment.—Rev. Franklin Johnson.

Plains

Plains. This one term does duty in the Authorized Version for no less than seven distinct Hebrew words.

1. Abêl. This word perhaps answers more nearly to our word “meadow” than any other. It occurs in the names of Abel-maim, Abel-meholah, Abel-shittim, and is rendered “plain” in Judges 11:33—“plain of vineyards.” 2. Bı̂k˒âh. Fortunately we are able to identify the most remarkable of the bı̂k˒âhs of the Bible, and thus to ascertain the force of the term. The great plain or valley of Cœle-Syria, the “hollow land” of the Greeks, which separates the two ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, is the most remarkable of them all. Out of Palestine we find denoted by the word bı̂k˒âh the “plain of the land of Shinar,” Genesis 11:2, the “plain of Mesopotamia,” Ezekiel 3:22, Ezekiel 3:23; Ezekiel 8:4; Ezekiel 37:1, Ezekiel 37:2, and the “plain in the province of Dura.” Daniel 3:1. 3. Hashefêlâh, the invariable designation of the depressed, flat or gently-undulating region which intervened between the highlands of Judah and the Mediterranean, and was commonly in possession of the Philistines. 4. Elôn. Our translators have uniformly rendered this word “plain”; but this is not the verdict of the majority or the most trustworthy of the ancient versions. They regard the word as meaning an “oak” or “grove of oaks,” a rendering supported by nearly all the commentators and lexicographers of the present day. The passages in which the word occurs erroneously translated “plain” are as follows: Plain of Morch, Genesis 12:6; Deuteronomy 11:30; plain of Mamre, Genesis 13:18; Genesis 14:13; Genesis 18:1; plain of Zaanaim, Judges 4:11; plain of the pillar, Judges 9:6; plain of Meonenim, Judges 9:37; plain of Tabor, 1 Samuel 10:3.

Pledge

Pledge. [LOAN.]

Pleiades

Ple’iades. The Hebrew word (cı̂mâh) so rendered occurs in Job 9:9; Job 38:31; Amos 5:8. In the last passage our Authorized Version has “the seven stars,” although the Geneva version translates the word “Pleiades” as in the other cases. The Pleiades are a group of stars situated on the shoulder of the constellation Taurus. The rendering “sweet influences” of the Authorized Version, Job 38:31, is a relic of the lingering belief in the power which the stars exerted over human destiny. But Schaff thinks the phrase arose from the fact that the Pleiades appear about the middle of April, and hence are associated with the return of spring, the season of sweet influences.

Plough

Plough. The ploughs of ancient Egypt consisted of a share—often pointed with iron or bronze—two handles, and a pole which was inserted into the base of the two handles. Ploughs in Palestine have usually but one handle, with a pole joined to it near the ground, and drawn by oxen, cows, or camels.

Eastern Plough.

An Arab Ploughing. (Modern.)

Pochereth

Poch’ereth. The children of Pochereth of Zebaim were among the children of Solomon’s servants who returned with Zerubbabel. Ezra 2:57; Nehemiah 7:59.

Poetry Hebrew

Poetry, Hebrew.

1. Lyrical poetry.—Of the three kinds of poetry which are illustrated by the Hebrew literature, the lyric occupies the foremost place. That literature abounds with illustrations of all forms of lyrical poetry, in its most manifold and wide-embracing compass, from such short ejaculations as the songs of the two Lamechs and Psalm 15, Psalm 117 and others, to the longer chants of victory and thanksgiving, like the songs of Deborah and David. Judges 5; Psalm 18. The Shemitic nations have nothing approaching to an epic poem, and in proportion to this defect the lyric element prevailed more greatly, commencing in the pre-Mosaic times, flourishing in rude vigor during the earlier periods of the judges, the heroic age of the Hebrews, growing with the nation’s growth and strengthening with its strength, till it reached its highest excellence in David, the warrior-poet, and from thenceforth began slowly to decline.

2. Gnomic poetry.—The second grand division of Hebrew poetry is occupied by a class of poems which are peculiarly Shemitic, and which represent the nearest approaches made by the people of that race to anything like philosophic thought. Reasoning there is none; we have only results, and those rather the product of observation and reflection than of induction or argumentation. As lyric poetry is the expression of the poet’s own feelings and impulses, so gnomic poetry is the form in which the desire of communicating knowledge to others finds vent. Its germs are the floating proverbs which pass current in the mouths of the people, and embody the experiences of many with the wit of one. The utterer of sententious sayings was to the Hebrews the wise man, the philosopher. Of the earlier isolated proverbs but few examples remain.

3. Dramatic poetry.—It is impossible to assert that no form of the drama existed among the Hebrew people. It is unquestionably true, as Ewald observes, that the Arab reciters of romances will many times in their own persons act out a complete drama in recitation, changing their voice and gestures with the change of person and subject. Something of this kind may possibly have existed among the Hebrews; still there is no evidence that it did exist, nor any grounds for making even a probable conjecture with regard to it. But the mere fact of the existence of these rude exhibitions among the Arabs and Egyptians of the present day is of no weight when the question to be decided is whether the Song of Songs was designed to be so represented, as a simple pastoral drama, or whether the book of Job is a dramatic poem or not. Inasmuch as it represents an action and a progress, it is a drama as truly and really as any poem can be which develops the working of passion and the alternations of faith, hope, distrust, triumphant confidence and black despair, in the struggle which it depicts the human mind as engaged in while attempting to solve one of the most intricate problems it can be called upon to regard. It is a drama as life is a drama, the most powerful of all tragedies; but that it is a dramatic poem, intended to be represented upon a stage, or capable of being so represented, may be confidently denied.

One characteristic of Hebrew poetry, not indeed peculiar to it, but shared by it in common with the literature of other nations, is its intensely national and local coloring. The writers were Hebrews of the Hebrews, drawing their inspiration from the mountains and rivers of Palestine, which they have immortalized in their poetic figures, and even while uttering the sublimest and most universal truths never forgetting their own nationality in its narrowest and intensest form. Examples of this remarkable characteristic of the Hebrew poets stand thick upon every page of these writings, and in striking contrast with the vague generalizations of the Indian philosophic poetry. About one third of the Old Testament is poetry in the Hebrew—a large part of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, besides a great part of the prophets. Fragments of poetry are also found in the historical books. (The form which biblical poetry takes is not of rhyme and metre—the rhythm of quantity in the syllables—as with us, but the thythm of the thought—there usually being two corresponding members to each distich or verse, which is called a parallelism. To some extent there is verbal rhythm. Sometimes there were alliterations, as in the Psalm 119th Psalm, which is divided up into sections, one for each letter of their alphabet, and each of the eight verses in a section begins with the same letter in the Hebrew; and chap. Psalm 119:31, vs. Proverbs 31:10-31, of the book of Proverbs is an alphabetical acrostic in praise of “the virtuous woman.” The poetry of the Hebrews, in its essential poetic nature, stands in the front rank. It abounds in metaphors and images and in high poetic feeling and fervor.—Ed.)

Pollux

Pol’lux. [CASTOR AND POLLUX.]

Polygamy

Polygamy. [MARRIAGE.]

Pomegranate

Pomegranate. The pomegranate tree, Punica granatum, derives its name from the Latin pomum granatum, “grained apple.” The Romans gave it the name of Punica, as the tree was introduced from Carthage. It belongs to the natural order MyrtaceŜ (Myrtle), being, however, rather a tall bush than a tree. The foliage is dark green, the flowers are crimson, the fruit, which is about the size of an orange, is red when ripe, which in Palestine is about the middle of October. It contains a quantity of juice. Mention is made in Song of Solomon 8:2 of spiced wine of the juice of the pomegranate. The rind is used in the manufacture of morocco leather, and together with the bark is sometimes used medicinally. Dr. Royle (Kitto’s Cyc., art “Rimmon”) states that this tree is a native of Asia, and is to be traced from Syria through Persia, even to the mountains of northern India. The pomegranate was early cultivated in Egypt; hence the complaint of the Israelites in the wilderness of Zin, Numbers 20:5, this “is no place of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates.” Carved figures of the pomegranate adorned the tops of the pillars in Solomon’s temple, 1 Kings 7:18, 1 Kings 7:20, etc.; and worked representations of this fruit, in blue, purple, and scarlet, ornamented the hem of the robe of the ephod. Exodus 28:33, Exodus 28:34.

Pomegranate and Flower.

Pommels

Pommels, only in 2 Chronicles 4:12, 2 Chronicles 4:13. In 1 Kings 7:41, “bowls.” The word signifies convex projections belonging to the capitals of pillars.

Pond

Pond. The ponds of Egypt, Exodus 7:19; Exodus 8:5, were doubtless water left by the inundation of the Nile. Ponds for fish are mentioned in Isaiah 19:10.

Pontius Pilate

Pon’tius Pi’late. [PILATE.]

Pontus

Pon’tus, a large district in the north of Asia Minor, extending along the coast of the Pontus Euxinus Sea (Pontus), from which circumstance the name was derived. It corresponds nearly to the modern Trebizond. It is three times mentioned in the New Testament—Acts 2:9; Acts 18:2; 1 Peter 1:1. All these passages agree in showing that there were many Jewish residents in the district. As to the annals of Pontus, the one brilliant passage of its history is the life of the great Mithridates. Under Nero the whole region was made a Roman province, bearing the name of Pontus. It was conquered by the Turks in a.d. 1461, and is still under their dominion.

Pool

Pool. Pools, like the tanks of India, are in many parts of Palestine and Syria the only resource for water during the dry season, and the failure of them involves drought and calamity. Isaiah 42:15. Of the various pools mentioned in Scripture, perhaps the most celebrated are the pools of Solomon near Bethlehem, called by the Arabs el-Burak, from which an aqueduct was carried which still supplies Jerusalem with water. Ecclesiastes 2:6; Sirach 24:30, Sirach 24:31.

Pools of Solomon, with Saracenic Castle.

Poor

Poor. The general kindly spirit of the law toward the poor is sufficiently shown by such passages as Deuteronomy 15:7, for the reason that (ver. Deuteronomy 15:11) “the poor shall never cease out of the land.” Among the special enactments in their favor the following must be mentioned:

1. The right of gleaning. Leviticus 19:9, Leviticus 19:10; Deuteronomy 24:19, Deuteronomy 24:21. 2. From the produce of the land in sabbatical years the poor and the stranger were to have their portion. Exodus 23:11; Leviticus 25:6. 3. Re-entry upon land in the jubilee year, with the limitation as to town homes. Leviticus 25:25-30. 4. Prohibition of usury and of retention of pledges. Exodus 22:25-27; Leviticus 25:35, Leviticus 25:37, etc. 5. Permanent bondage forbidden, and manumission of Hebrew bondmen or bondwomen enjoined in the sabbatical and jubilee years. Leviticus 25:39-42, Leviticus 25:47-54; Deuteronomy 15:12-15. 6. Portions from the tithes to be shared by the poor after the Levites. Deuteronomy 14:28; Deuteronomy 26:12, Deuteronomy 26:13. 7. The poor to partake in entertainments at the feasts of Weeks and Tabernacles. Deuteronomy 16:11, Deuteronomy 16:14; see Nehemiah 8:10. 8. Daily payment of wages. Leviticus 19:13. Principles similar to those laid down by Moses are inculcated in the New Testament, as Luke 3:11; Luke 14:13; Acts 6:1; Galatians 2:10; James 2:15.

Poplar

Poplar. This is the rendering of the Hebrew word libneh, which occurs in Genesis 30:37 and Hosea 4:13. Several authorities are in favor of the rendering of the Authorized Version, and think that “white poplar” (Populus alba) is the tree denoted; others understand the “storax tree” (Styrax officinale, Linn.). Both poplars and storax or styrax trees are common in Palestine, and either would suit the passages where the Hebrew term occurs. Storax is mentioned in Sirach 24:15, together with other aromatic substances. The Syrax officinale is a shrub from nine to twelve feet high, with ovate leaves, which are white underneath; the flowers are in racemes, and are white or cream-colored.

Poratha

Por’atha, one of the ten sons of Haman slain by the Jews in Shushan the palace. Esther 9:8.

Porch

Porch.

1. Ulam, or ulâm. 1 Chronicles 28:11. 2. Misderôn ulam, Judges 3:23, strictly a vestibule, was probably a sort of veranda chamber in the works of Solomon, open in front and at the sides, but capable of being enclosed with awnings or curtains. The porch, Matthew 26:71, may have been the passage from the street into the first court of the house, in which, in eastern houses, is the mastábah or stone bench, for the porter or persons waiting, and where also the master of the house often receives visitors and transacts business.

Porcius Festus

Por’cius Fes’tus. [FESTUS.]

Porter

Porter. This word when used in the Authorized Version does not bear its modern signification of a carrier of burdens, but denotes in every case a gate-keeper, from the Latin portarius, the man who attended to the porta or gate.

Possession

Possession. [DEMONIACS.]

Post

Post.

1. Probably, as Gesenius argues, the door-case of a door, including the lintel and side posts. The posts of the doors of the temple were of olive wood. 1 Kings 6:33. 2. A courier or carrier of messages, used among other places in Job 9:25.

Pot

Pot. The term “pot” is applicable to so many sorts of vessels that it can scarcely be restricted to any one in particular.

1. Asûc, 2 Kings 4:2, an earthen jar, deep and narrow, without handles, probably like the Roman and Egyptian amphora, inserted in a stand of wood or stone. 2. Cheres, an earthen vessel for stewing or seething. Leviticus 6:28; Ezekiel 4:9. 3. Dûd, a vessel for culinary purposes, perhaps of smaller size. 1 Samuel 2:14. The “pots” set before the Rechabites, Jeremiah 35:5, were probably bulging jars or bowls. The water-pots of Cana appear to have been large amphoræ, such as are in use at the present day in Syria. These were of stone or hard earthenware. The water-pot of the Samaritan woman may have been a leathern bucket, such as Bedouin women use.

Stone Water-jars.

Potiphar

Pot’iphar, an Egyptian name, also written Potipherah, signifies belonging to the sun. Potiphar, with whom the history of Joseph is connected, is described as “an officer of Pharaoh, chief of the executioners, an Egyptian.” Genesis 39:1; comp. Genesis 37:36. (b.c. 1728.) He appears to have been a wealthy man. Genesis 39:4-6. The view we have of Potiphar’s household is exactly in accordance with the representations on the monuments. When Joseph was accused, his master contented himself with casting him into prison. Genesis 39:19, Genesis 39:20. After this we hear no more of Potiphar. [JOSEPH.]